Renowned director Christopher Nolan’s latest filmic venture, Oppenheimer, is set to become one of the highlights of the cinema calendar this year. Premiering alongside Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, the biographical thriller featuring a constellation of Hollywood’s finest is expected to draw crowds, particularly given its promising allure as a cinematic spectacle best enjoyed in theatres. Notably, this marks Nolan’s maiden voyage into biopic waters, offering a lengthy three-hour saga populated with A-list stars portraying notable historical figures.
Cillian Murphy fronts the cast in the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the acclaimed physicist recognized as the Father of the Atomic Bomb, with Emily Blunt as his wife Kitty Oppenheimer. Also appearing are Matt Damon as Lieutenant General Leslie Groves, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, and Tom Conti as the revered Albert Einstein. Among the remarkable ensemble, Florence Pugh stands out, portraying Jean Tatlock—a psychiatrist, Communist Party affiliate, and a significant figure in Oppenheimer’s life and legacy—who tragically met an untimely end.
Understanding Jean Tatlock
Jean Tatlock, born in 1914 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was the daughter of Marjorie and John, a renowned literary professor at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, and UC-Berkley. Despite inheriting her father’s love for English literature, Tatlock took a different professional path. Graduating from Stanford University’s medical school in 1941, she worked in Mount Zion Hospital’s psychiatric department in California. Tatlock’s left-leaning political beliefs and connections with Bay Area communists would eventually create complications for J. Robert Oppenheimer post-World War II. Tatlock had a personal struggle with clinical depression, even seeking treatment at her own place of employment.
The Intersection of Tatlock and Oppenheimer’s Lives
Oppenheimer and Tatlock first crossed paths in 1936, meeting through mutual acquaintances while she was at Stanford and he was a faculty member at Berkley. Their relationship, comprised of sporadic romantic engagements, spanned several years. Oppenheimer later shared, “We were at least twice close enough to marriage to think of ourselves as engaged.” Tatlock introduced Oppenheimer to her Communist Party connections, unknowingly laying the groundwork for future controversies for the physicist. His association with communists later became a hindrance during the Joseph McCarthy era. Despite the ups and downs, their romantic involvement officially ended only in 1939, yet they reunited one last time in 1943.
Tatlock’s Tragic Demise
After their official split in 1939, Tatlock and Oppenheimer maintained sporadic contact, meeting infrequently until their last encounter in 1943. At this time, Tatlock was deep in her battle with depression, and Oppenheimer, involved with the Manhattan Project, risked his reputation by visiting her. Their meeting and dinner date were closely monitored by government agents suspicious of their relationship given Tatlock’s known communist affiliations.
Tragically, Tatlock committed suicide at the age of 29 in January 1944, months after her last encounter with Oppenheimer. She was found by her father, submerged in a bathtub with a suicide note nearby expressing her disillusionment and despair. Oppenheimer was deeply affected by her death, expressing his grief to Peer De Silva, the head of security at Los Alamos who informed him about the tragedy. Speculation also exists that Oppenheimer named the 1945 Trinity Test in Tatlock’s memory, linking it to poet John Donne, to whom she had introduced Oppenheimer.
Controversy Surrounding Tatlock’s Death
In the biography of Oppenheimer, American Prometheus, authors Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin discuss speculations around Tatlock’s death. The coroner’s investigation cited “asphyxiation by drowning” as the cause of death, with a trace of chloral hydrate found in Tatlock’s system. Some medics proposed the possibility of foul play, suggesting she might have been force-fed chloral hydrate and drowned. However, given the absence of alcohol in her system, this theory appears less likely.
Oppenheimer is set to open in theaters on July 21, 2023. As the anticipated biopic featuring a brilliant ensemble of actors unfolds on the big screen, audiences will get to explore the intense, intertwining lives of historical figures such as Jean Tatlock and J. Robert Oppenheimer, shedding light on an era that shaped the world we know today.
