OK, what actress’ photo was retouched by The Times because her neckline was too revealing?

Fred Ahlert has guessed correctly. I’ll post the answer and some more photos later today!

Frances Farmer in "Flowing Gold," 1940.
 

• Tallulah Bankhead? Alas, no.

• Ingrid Bergman? Sorry, no.

• Claudette Colbert? Alas, no.

• Joan Crawford? I’m afraid not.

• Bette Davis? Sorry, no.

• Doris Day? Sorry, no.

• Angie Dickinson? I’m afraid not.

• Greta Garbo? Apologetically, no.

• Katharine Hepburn? Sorry, no.

• Christine Jorgensen? Wow, that’s one I didn’t expect. Nope.

• Grace Kelly? Unfortunately, not.

• Janet Leigh? Alas, no.

• Carole Lombard? Sorry, I’m afraid not.

• Myrna Loy? Regretfully, no.

• Jayne Mansfield? Alas, no.

• Marilyn Monroe? (Two people) Sorry, no.

• Kim Novak? Alas, no.

• Cleo Moore? I’m so sorry. No.

• Donna Reed? Sorry, no.

• A grownup Shirley Temple? Interesting guess! But no.

• Mamie Van Doren? I don’t recall her ever wearing a gown in the movies. But no.

• Yvette Vickers? Wow, I’d never heard of her. No.

• Mae West? Unfortunately, no.

• Barbara Billingsly, Betty Hutton, Jeanne Carmen, Shelly Winters, Grace Kelly, Tippi Hedren, Judy Holliday, Lana Turner, Jean Harlow, Brigitte Bardot, Eva Marie Saint, Rosemary Clooney. I am pretty sure it isn’t Roseanne Barr. (kenodessky). No.

Some folks keep pestering me another clue. Fair enough, here’s our mystery actress sitting on a couch with her mother. Now I’ve given it away.

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times

This is Frances Farmer, and this is how you think of her, when you think of her at all. 

Let’s roll the clock back to the 1930s, when she was a college student in Seattle.

Her early roles were quite glamorous…

Here’s a still from "Come and Get It."

Then she did a couple of cowboy pictures

Above, a still from "Badlands of Dakota."

"Son of Fury," another costume picture, released in 1942.

And in January 1943, disaster.

Here she is in 1944 with her mother, Lillian, who had her committed to Western State Hospital in Washington.

After divorcing actor and band leader Leif Erickson, she married again in 1954.

And again in 1958.

Frances Farmer died in Indianapolis in 1970. She was 56 years old.

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