While not everyone may immediately recall actress Tuesday Weld simply by her name, they
will likely recognize her from one of her many roles.
Despite working consistently from an incredibly early age at the insistence of her tragically
widowed mother, Tuesday has never achieved the fame she likely deserves.
Because of this, she eventually decided to leave Hollywood for good.
Join Facts Verse as we explore Tuesday Weld’s regretful departure from Hollywood.
Tuesday Weld was born in New York City on August 27, 1943.
She had two elder siblings, who were born in 1935 and 1937.
When Tuesday was only four years old, her father passed away.
Her mother was left alone to raise her and her two siblings, without any help from their
late father’s family.
Tuesday’s father’s family had offered to care for Tuesday and her siblings in exchange
for their mother abandoning them and breaking contact.
According to them, Tuesday’s mother wasn’t good enough to have married their son.
Understandably, Tuesday’s mother turned down the offer, despite the fact that it may
have provided her kids a better life.
Stuck in a desperate situation, Tuesday became an unlikely savior when her mother put her
to work as a model.
After being forced into modeling by her desperate mother, Tuesday was able to use the experience
to secure herself a Hollywood agent.
From there, the young star made her debut at the age of 12, playing a small role in
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 thriller The Wrong Man.
While it may have seemed like things were going good for young Tuesday, the pressures
of both her mother and the career that she had been forced into began taking their toll
on the girl even before her debut.
Tuesday was said to have suffered from a nervous breakdown at the age of nine due to the pressures
of her modeling career and was said to have turned to alcoholism the same year that she
debuted in The Wrong Man.
In 1958, Tuesday was cast alongside Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in their comedy vehicle
Rally Round the Flag, Boys! 20th Century Fox produced the film, and the studio was incredibly
impressed by Tuesday’s performance.
Subsequently, they offered the young star a contract.
With the studio, Tuesday was cast in numerous films and television programs over the next
several years, including The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis on the CBS network, in which
she appeared alongside a young Warren Beatty.
In 1962, Tuesday appeared alongside Elvis Presley in the film Wild in the Country.
This led to the two becoming entangled in a love affair, with Tuesday being one of many
Hollywood starlets that the late rock musician supposedly hooked up with.
Likewise, Elvis proved to be just another notch on Tuesday’s belt, as she has been
married three times in her life and has had numerous affairs of her own.
Tuesday had become known for having affairs when she was just a young rising star, and
this news came much to the chagrin of the actress’s mother.
However, her mother’s concerns fell on deaf ears due to the fact that it had been Tuesday’s
mother that had pushed her into her career in the first place.
Tuesday expressed that if her mother had any issues with her Hollywood lifestyle, then
she could simply say goodbye to her Hollywood starlet daughter who was paying all of her
bills.
Understandably, this shut Tuesday’s mother up, and Tuesday left the house at the age
of only 16.
By the time that she was 16, Tuesday had been through a lot.
Infamously, Stanley Kubrick attempted to cast Tuesday as the titular character in his adaptation
of the Russian novel Lolita.
Tuesday turned the role down, claiming that she was living the role in real life and didn’t
need to relive it on the screen.
The actress had a habit of turning down roles in films that would go on to be iconic, including
turning down the Mia Farrow role in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby.
Tuesday has claimed that she turned down these roles on purpose, saying that the films seemed
too likely to be successful and that she didn’t want the recognition they were going to provide.
Many have wondered if Tuesday has simply come to believe this is a defense mechanism for
her poor career choices, while others have taken her at her word.
Even during the height of her fame, Tuesday seemed to have plenty of mixed feelings about
her Hollywood career.
Many have come to believe that Tuesday herself is to blame for the fact that she never became
as big of a star as she likely could have, and the actress’s own claims support this.
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After working in the industry for several years, Tuesday Weld finally got her big break
with a role starring alongside Steve McQueen in the hit 1965 Norman Jewison film The Cincinnati
Kid.
Though there was an incident during the film’s publicity in which Tuesday jumped out of a
moving vehicle just so she wouldn’t have to make a public appearance, the film proved
to be a major commercial and critical success.
Still, Tuesday wasn’t quite satisfied.
In 1970, Tuesday made a notable appearance alongside actor Gregory Peck in the film I
Walk the Line.
Following this, she had an even more acclaimed role that came in the form of the 1971 film
A Safe Place, which also featured Jack Nicholson and Orson Welles.
Tuesday memorably appeared on The Dick Cavett Show to do publicity for the film, where she
made some candid comparisons between Orson Welle’s infamous hesitancy to appear before
the camera and her own.
Although both her and Orson had certainly acted in a number of films up until that point,
neither one seemed to be entirely happy with their careers in front of the camera.
Of course, Tuesday said this was how all actors and actresses were, and that she had never
met a truly happy one.
In the 1977 feature Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Tuesday made a supporting appearance that
brought the actress some of the most universal acclaims of her career.
Although her role in the film wasn’t large, it earned her a nomination that year for the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Despite the acclaim that Tuesday was receiving on the big screen, she seemed to prefer acting
in made-for-television films during this time period because of the fast pace of their production.
According to Tuesday, she didn’t like to spend too much time fixating on a role for
the sake of her own mental sanity.
Some of the many made-for-television feature films that Tuesday made memorable turns in
include 1978’s A Question of Guilt, 1980’s Mother and Daughter: The Loving War, and remakes
of Madame X and The Rainmaker that were aired in 1981 and 1982, respectively.
Despite Tuesday’s preference for appearing in made-for-television features, she still
appeared in a good deal of iconic cinematic roles during the 1980s.
In 1981, she appeared alongside James Caan in Michael Mann’s directorial debut Thief.
The film has since become a cult classic.
In 1982, she appeared alongside Al Pacino, playing his character’s wife in the film
Author!
In 1984, she appeared alongside Robert De Niro in Sergio Leone’s epic crime masterpiece
Once Upon a Time in America.
Tuesday continued to achieve acclaim for her numerous roles throughout the decade, but
ultimate star status kept eluding her.
By the time that Tuesday had made it into the 1990s, she was past the peak of her career.
However, she still continued working into the beginning of the new millennium.
In 1993, she made a memorable appearance playing a minor role in the hit film Falling Down,
which also featured Michael Douglas in the lead and Robert Duvall in a supporting role.
Tuesday’s final role on film came in the 2001 feature Chelsea Walls, which was directed
by Ethan Hawke.
Over the course of her life, Tuesday has been married three separate times.
She was first married in 1965, to a screenwriter by the name of Claude Harz.
Less than a year into their marriage, the couple had a daughter by the name of Natasha.
However, this wasn’t enough to keep the two together.
Tuesday and Claude ended up divorcing in 1971, with Tuesday receiving custody of their only
daughter.
Following her divorce from Claude, Tuesday married British comedian and actor Dudley
Moore in 1975.
The two had a child the following year, a son by the name of Patrick.
Tuesday and Dudley ended up divorcing in 1980.
Tuesday didn’t marry again until 1985.
That year, she married a conductor and concert violinist by the name of Pinchas Zukerman.
Though this marriage lasted twice as long as either of the actress’s previous, it
still wasn’t meant to be.
Tuesday and Pinchas ended up divorcing in 1998, with Tuesday’s increasing disinterest
in Pinchas and his career being cited as reasons for the separation.
According to Pinchas, Tuesday didn’t understand why he wanted her to attend his concerts when
she had already heard the music several times previously.
Understandably, this lack of shared passion resulted in issues down the line.
Tuesday had adopted Pinchas’ two children from a previous marriage, but the two never
had any biological children of their own.
In addition to her three marriages, Tuesday has also been said to have hooked up with
many Hollywood stars during the course of her career.
Some of the many stars that Tuesday has apparently had love affairs with include the aforementioned
Elvis Presley and Al Pacino, as well as Richard Gere and Ryan O’Neal.
Tuesday lived in Montauk, New York, until the late 2000s, at which point she moved to
Carbondale, Colorado, for over a decade before just recently having settled down with a home
in the Hollywood Hills.
Outro: Tuesday Weld is currently 78 years old, and
she hasn’t made an appearance on the screen since 2001.
Comment down below to share what your favorite role from Tuesday’s long career has been,
or if you were surprised to learn about her regretful departure from Hollywood.
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