Gene Tierney

I just missed this pretty photo of a young Gene Tierney -- and when I say 'missed' I don't mean time wise (there are a few hours left) but rather that I am $95 shy.

(In a world where collectibles are worth what folks will pay for them, I'm betting this sells -- the seller sold another for $95 and that wasn't anywhere as pretty or sexy.)

Tierney is most famous for her role as Laura Hunt in the 1944 film noir classic Laura (at least to me). Others might remember her most for her role as the femme fatale Ellen Berent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven. (And why not? This performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 1945.)

Tierney had two husbands, costume and fashion designer Oleg Cassini (they divorced) and Texas oilman W. Howard Lee (former husband of Hedy Lamarr), but was romantically linked with Prince Aly Khan (former husband of Rita Hayworth) and Tyrone Power.

During the filming of Dragonwyck, she met John F. Kennedy, who was visiting the set. They began an affair that ended the following year when Kennedy told her he could never marry her because of his political ambitions. It is said that after the election in 1960, Tierney sent him a note of congratulations on his victory — although she later admitted that she had actually voted for Richard Nixon because she thought that he would make a better president.