Get to Know Hollywood Blonde Bombshell Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jane Palmer in 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Penn., and at age 3, after the death of her father, moved to Dallas, Texas. She was eager to be in Hollywood like her idol Shirley Temple and took lessons in ballroom dancing, violin, piano and viola, as well as Spanish and German. At age 16, she met 20-year-old Paul Mansfield during a high school Christmas Eve party. They married secretly that January despite knowing each other less than a month and, after Jayne got pregnant, had a public ceremony in May. They later moved to Los Angeles to further Jayne’s career.
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The couple fought constantly about Jayne’s ambition and possible infidelities, and both decided to divorce. The process lasted from 1955-58, during which Jayne decided to keep Mansfield as her professional name and began a long tradition of appearing in Playboy magazine. Her 1955 appearance as the Playmate of the Month not only increased subscriptions but also launched her career, as Warner Bros. took notice and offered Mansfield a seven-year contract.
After bit parts in Pete Kelly’s Blues and Illegal, Mansfield accepted a part in the Broadway production of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? as fictional film star Rita Marlowe. Warner Bros. dropped her contract, but a year later she was picked up by Twentieth Century Fox. Her first starring film role was as Jerri Jordan in The Girl Can’t Help It, featuring many rock and R&B artists. She followed it with The Wayward Bus in 1957.
20th Century-Fox Film Corporation/courtesy Everett Collection
Mansfield was promoted as an easier-to-work-with version of Marilyn Monroe, in part because executives wanted to anger Monroe enough to return to the studio. Mansfield won a Golden Globe in 1957 for New Star of the Year, though she was not considered a serious actress.
The film version of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? had Mansfield reprising her role and launched a North American and European tour, continuing to draw publicity for her bleached blonde, big-breasted appearance. She continued acting in films such as Kiss Them for Me with Cary Grant, but there was increasing backlash over her excessive need for attention, including a now famous photo with Mansfield posing at a table during a party, breasts spilling out, as actress Sophia Loren eyes her distastefully.
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Mansfield met bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay in 1956, and over the next eight years of their relationship, they starred in several films together (including Promises! Promises!, where Mansfield was the first American actress to appear nude in a starring role). The couple had three children, including the youngest, actress Mariska Hargitay. After their divorce in 1964, she married and divorced again within two years and began living with her divorce attorney, Sam Brody.
On June 29, 1967, Brody, Mansfield and their driver were involved in a car accident with a tractor-trailer as her children slept in the back seat. Though it was rumored Mansfield was decapitated, that is untrue; she died of head trauma at age 34. All three children survived with minor injuries.
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Mansfield is remembered for her love of the color pink, her blonde bombshell appearance — though she was a natural brunette — and her love of attention, whether it be for her work or for her body. Though she died young, the public continues to remain fascinated with her life and tragic end.
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Hollywood Glamour
May 2020
Celebrate the most glamorous leading ladies from the Golden Age of Hollywood
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