Now, what you may not know is that a virus also wreaked havoc on the golden age of Hollywood, especially for actress Gene Tierney, one of the most dazzling stars of the moment, who saw her entire life fall apart because of of a quarantine.
Considered 'the most beautiful woman in cinema', her beauty was also what ended her star aura forever. The year was 1943 and her career was at its peak, a rubella epidemic broke out that forced the population to be confined. The actress did the same, only leaving for work reasons. The young actress, 22 years old, was in excellent health at that time and continued with her usual schedule, which included filming, photo shoots, interviews and the occasional meeting with her fans. However, what she didn't count on was that one of her fans was going to skip quarantine to be able to see her. Once she manages to make the meeting happen, she manages to shake his hand. What Tierney did not know at the time was that that fan had contracted the virus and had infected him; She only realized it a few days later, when she discovered a rash on her skin and noticed her fever rising. However, that wasn't the worst: Tierney was four months pregnant. The actress went to the doctor, worried, who confirmed that she had contracted rubella. Now, her doctor told her not to worry, that 'there would be no consequences'. Of course, it was not until many years later that science would confirm that rubella can be fatal for fetuses under 20 weeks.
Therefore, when the actress gave birth to her daughter Daria, she couldn't believe it: rubella had affected the baby. Daria was born with various conditions: the girl was deaf, she had partial blindness and a profound intellectual disability. The actress was devastated and sank into depression. It was the most important moment of her entire career, and her personal life fell apart. Daria had to be admitted to a health center from which she never left, and although they had a second daughter in perfect health, Cristina, the couple ended up divorcing. The actress then had relationships with celebrities such as future president John F. Kennedy and Prince Ali Khan, but both abandoned her. The pressures of Hollywood were also constant, and Gene noticed her mental health worsening. However, the straw that broke the camel's back was precisely discovering what had been the beginning of that end: how she had become infected.
Chance would have it that in 1955, the actress met that fan whom she hugged in 1943. It was she herself who confessed the cruel truth about her: she had skipped her quarantine while she was sick just to be able to hug her.
The actress tried to take her own life in 1957, after she had been admitted to a psychiatric center for two years. She had retired from cinema two years earlier, and she couldn't get her head back on her feet. Seven years later, after intense treatment, she returned to acting. She was 42 years old and she co-starred in Tempest Over Washington (1962) at the insistence of Henry Fonda, one of her dearest friends.
The actress then met her second husband, who remained by her side until the end. Gene Tiernery died in 1991 at the age of 70, a victim of pulmonary emphysema caused by his addiction to tobacco. Her daughter Daria would die in 2010, at the age of 66, in the center where she was hospitalized and without ever having exceeded a mental age of two years. The tragic story of the 'most beautiful woman in the world', whose life fell apart because one of her fans decided to skip quarantine.
