Gene Eliza Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American stage and film actress. Acclaimed for her great beauty, Tierney was a prominent leading lady during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She starred as Laura Hunt in Otto Preminger's Laura (1944), a film noir classic, and as Ellen Berent in John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven (1945), which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Darryl F. Zanuck, co-founder of 20th Century Fox, said Tierney was "unquestionably, the most beautiful woman in movie history."
Tierney was a 20th Century Fox contract player who did much of her work for the studio. She starred in many commercially successful Fox films, including The Return of Frank James (1940; her film debut), Tobacco Road (1941), Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942), Heaven Can Wait (1943), A Bell for Adano (1945), The Razor's Edge (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Iron Curtain (1948), Whirlpool and Night and the City (both 1950), The Mating Season (1951), On the Riviera (1951), The Egyptian (1954), The Left Hand of God (1955), and The Pleasure Seekers (1964; her last film role).