Tisa Farrow

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Tisa Farrow
Other names Theresa Magdalena Farrow
Born 1951-07-22
Died 2024-01-12
Occupation actor
Known for baby sister of Mia Farrow

Tisa Farrow (1951-07-22 - 2024-01-12) was the youngest of the seven children born to filmmaker John Farrow and actor Maureen O'Sullivan.[1]

It was Tisa who discovered her father's body after he had a heart attack while taking a phone call, when she was 12 years old.[1]

When she was a teenager, trying to break into film, she said that getting roles was complicated because she looked like older sister Mia Farrow, who was already disliked by industry insiders.[2]

It was while filming he first film Homer, in Canada, that 18 year old Tisa met her first husband, Canadian film producer Terry Dene, 11 years her senior.[1] The pair married on July 25, 1970.

In 1973 she appeared semi-nude in a 1973 issue of Playboy magazine, and appeared in a film called Some call it Loving.[1] Farrow played a sleeping beauty character in a film the The New York Times called a "diffuse fantasy".[3]

In 1977 she appeared in Strange Shadows in an Empty Room.[4]

According to The Farrows of Hollywood: Their Dark Side of Paradise, Tisa had spent the early 1970s working as a waitress and cab driver while continuing to pursue acting jobs, while raising her son, Jason F. Dene.[1]

In 1978 she appeared in The Initiation of Sarah, and Fingers.[1] In 1979 she appeared Manhattan, Winter Kills, The Ordeal of Patty Hearst and Zombie. In 1980, she appeared in her final two films, The Last Hunter and Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper.

After her last acting gig in 1980 she became a nurse, a job she held for 27 years.[5] In addition to her son, Jason, she had a daughter Bridget.

Her son, a Sergeant, serving on his second hitch in Iraq, died in 2008.[1] Accounts differ over the cause of his non-combat death. According to the Denver Post Dene was still recovering from surgery when he was sent back to his barracks, and died in his bunk.[6] The Farrows of Hollywood said he died in a traffic accident. Both accounts say an autopsy attributed his death to an accidental overdose of an anti-depressant the Army had prescribed for him.

Farrow died in her sleep on January 12, 2024.[5]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Marilyn Ann Moss (2023). The Farrows of Hollywood: Their Dark Side of Paradise. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781510768840. Retrieved on 2023-10-30. 
  2. Judy Klemesrud. Being Mia's Sister Was Tisa's Burden, New York Times, 1970-01-08, p. 36. Retrieved on 2024-02-05. ““I spent a long time going around town trying out for commercials, and I didn't get one. I would always run into some career woman who disliked me right away because she didn't like my sister Mia.””
  3. A. H. WEILER. The Screen:'Some Call It Loving' Is Diffuse Fantasy, New York Times, 1973-11-17, p. O. Retrieved on 2024-02-05. “Since this odd affair was inspired by John Collier's short story "Sleeping Beauty," it should be noted that the setting has been changed from Britain to a baronial mansion on the West Coast owned by Carol White, who not only goes for Zalman King, a jazz saxophonist, but also for Tisa Farrow, the resuscitated "beauty" he brings to that strange household.”
  4. 'Strange Shadows in Empty Room' Sheds Little Light, New York Times, 1977-02-12, p. O. Retrieved on 2024-02-05. “Since this odd affair was inspired by John Collier's short story "Sleeping Beauty," it should be noted that the setting has been changed from Britain to a baronial mansion on the West Coast owned by Carol White, who not only goes for Zalman King, a jazz saxophonist, but also for Tisa Farrow, the resuscitated "beauty" he brings to that strange household.”
  5. 5.0 5.1 Valerie Wu. Tisa Farrow, Actor and Mia Farrow’s Sister, Dies at 72, Variety magazine, 2024-01-12. Retrieved on 2024-02-05. “She was a nurse for 27 years, a wonderful sister to Steffi, Prudence and me, a devoted mother to Jason, who died in Iraq, Bridget and little grandson Kylor – the lights of her life.””
  6. David Olinger, Erin Emery. The battle within, Denver Post, 2008-08-24. Retrieved on 2024-02-05.