• LIFE

Young Mia Farrow: Rare and Classic Photos of an Actress on the Rise

3 minute read

Mia Farrow was 22 years old when LIFE magazine ran a seven-page cover story on the actress in May 1967. She was married to Frank Sinatra (he was 30 years her senior, and the marriage lasted less than two years) and at the time was best-known for her work on TV: she was a regular on the classic prime-time soap opera, Peyton Place. But LIFE’s decision to feature the young Los Angeles native proved prescient; within a year she was receiving raves for performances in several prominent films — including the Roman Polanski horror classic, Rosemary’s Baby — and would go on to a decades-long career as an award-winning actress and an outspoken, fearless campaigner for human rights.

[Most recently, of course, Ms. Farrow has been in the headlines primarily due to renewed accusations by her adopted daughter, Dylan, that Woody Allen sexually abused her when she was a child, at a time when Allen and Ms. Farrow were in a long-term relationship. Woody Allen has always denied the charges; Ms. Farrow has never wavered in her support of Dylan’s claims.]

As portrayed in that long-ago cover story, meanwhile, at a time when one of the keenest annoyances in her life was that people sometimes confused her with Twiggy, Mia Farrow seemed to have it all — youth, beauty, talent and not a little mystery. As LIFE wrote:

There are these positive statements you can make about Mia Farrow: she is 22; she weighs 99 pounds; she is 5 feet 5 1/2 inches tall; she has less hair than Ringo Starr; she is annoyed that people in London mistake her for Twiggy; she is married to Frank Sinatra.

Beyond such unarguable specifics lies her shapeless world — a place of surmise so fascinatingly complex and maddeningly naive that Sinatra could fathom it only by marrying into it. And ever since the surprising match was made the public has been stuck on the nagging question, “What is Mia Farrow really like?”

The feature goes on to paint a picture of a whip-smart, self-deprecatingly funny daughter of Hollywood (her mother was the famous actress Maureen O’Sullivan, her dad was Oscar-winning writer and director John Farrow) — a woman barely out of her teens yet worldly enough to say of her superstar husband, Sinatra: “He’s an artist. He’s groovy, he’s kinky and — above all — he’s gentle.”

Here, on Ms. Farrow’s 69th birthday (she was born Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow on February 9, 1945), LIFE.com features a series of photographs — most of them unpublished — that feel, in more ways than we can count, as if they were made not only in another time, but in another world.

Which, of course, they were.

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

 

 

Alfred Eisenstaedt—TIme & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow on the set of the film, 'A Dandy in Aspic,' London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow on the set of the film, A Dandy in Aspic, London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, London, 1967.
Caption from LIFE. "On a lark in London Mia 'borrows a construction lantern."Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, London, 1967.
Caption from LIFE. "Mia looks at off-beat antiques to find a gift for Frank. Word had leaked that she was buying him a British taxi; she settled for a $2,240 gazebo."Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow in London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow in London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow in London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow in London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and 'A Dandy in Aspic' co-star Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and A Dandy in Aspic co-star Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and 'A Dandy in Aspic' co-star Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow in London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow in London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow in London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and 'A Dandy in Aspic' co-star Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and A Dandy in Aspic co-star Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, Laurence Harvey and 'A Dandy in Aspic' director Anthony Mann, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, Laurence Harvey and A Dandy in Aspic director Anthony Mann, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.
Caption from LIFE. "She mocks Harvey for his long hair and the length of time he spends with make-up, when all she does is dab her own eyes."Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.
Caption from LIFE. "Between scenes of A Dandy in Aspic, Mia wrestles with co-star Laurence Harvey."Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and director Anthony Mann, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and director Anthony Mann, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Anthony Mann, 1967.
Caption from LIFE. "She (Mia) tells Anthony Mann, 'I don't want to be me on screen.' But, says Mann, 'she's marvelous -- my main problem is not to change her an inch.'"Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow with co-stars on the set of A Dandy in Aspic, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow on the set of 'A Dandy in Aspic,' 1967.
Mia Farrow on the set of A Dandy in Aspic, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow on the set of 'A Dandy in Aspic,' 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow on the set of A Dandy in Aspic, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey (left), 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey (left), 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow in Geneva, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow in Geneva, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
On Swiss estate of her friend Yul Brynner, Mia romps with his five-year-old daughter, Victoria.
Caption from LIFE. "On Swiss estate of her friend Yul Brynner, Mia romps with his five-year-old daughter, Victoria."Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Yul Brynner's daughter, Victoria, Switzerland, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Yul Brynner's daughter, Victoria, Switzerland, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Yul Brynner's daughter, Victoria, Switzerland, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Yul Brynner's daughter, Victoria, Switzerland, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, Switzerland, 1967.
Mia Farrow, Switzerland, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow, Switzerland, 1967.
Caption from LIFE. "Mia stares pensively into Lake Geneva. 'Life is not logical,' she says. 'I'm the living proof.'"Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow and Laurence Harvey, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow at home in London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow at home in London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Mia Farrow at home in London, 1967.
Not published in LIFE. Mia Farrow at home in London, 1967.Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
At the Sinatras' Grosvenor Square residence in London (other addresses: Paris, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Las Vegas), Mia Farrow preens in Cardin original before gala premiere of 'Taming of the Shrew.'
Caption from LIFE. "At the Sinatras' Grosvenor Square residence in London (other addresses: Paris, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Las Vegas), Mia preens in Cardin original before gala premiere of Taming of the Shrew."Bill Eppridge—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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