Reply #57: You know her name, so she did something.

[jobycom]

She died at 34, so who knows what she would or could have done. I guess she never discovered ways to make bombs capable of destroying civilization, so in that regard she was an underachiever.

During her life she won a Golden Globe, a Golden Laurel, appeared in a lot of movies, recorded a musical album with Jimi Hendrix, appeared (and was acclaimed) on stage on Broadway and throughout Europe in several languages, recorded a spoken-word album where she recited poetry by Shakespeare and Browning, was a force in Hollywood in the 50s (she had fallen from fame by the 60s), and raised three kids.

She had her first child while in Austin, TX at 17 (she was married already), yet attended UT and then SMU to study dramatics while raising the child. Her husband tried to make her drop acting, yet despite having a child and a non-supportive husband she moved to California to study at UCLA, and finally broke into films.

Pretty damned impressive, it seems to me.

Had she lived, she may have moved beyond her young image as a bombshell, and who knows what else. So, yeah, she did something constructive with her abilities, and could hardly be described as living a "mediocre life." Hollywood had passed her by during the 60s, but she was young, educated, intelligent, and ambitious. Who knows what she could have done? Directing, acting, politics...

People with high IQs often try to accomplish great things in grandiose or even uncharted fields. Those who succeed become great. Those who fail become mediocre, even if their failure is due to the world not being ready for them. And of course, maybe some never try, prefering whatever they do to fulfilling someone else's ideal of what they should do.