Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Jayne Mansfield (April 19, 1933 in film|1933
– June 29, 1967 in film|1967) was an United
States|American actor|actress and sex symbol.

She was born Vera Jane Palmer in Bryn Mawr,
Pennsylvania|Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the only
child of Herbert William Palmer (1904-1936) and
Vera Jeffrey Palmer (1903-2000).

It is not clear if her parents, both Palmers, were
distant cousins. The maiden name of Jayne's
maternal grandmother was Jeffrey. When Jayne was
three years old, her father, a lawyer, suddenly
died of a Myocardial infarction|heart attack.
After his death, her mother worked as a school
teacher to support them. In 1939, Vera married
Harry Lawrence "Tex" Peers (1916-1997), and the
family moved to Dallas, Texas. Jayne could play
the violin by the time she was seven, and would
stand in the driveway of her home playing for
passersby. She also enjoyed singing, and would
give enthusiastic performances. After discovering
fan magazines, she would cut out the glamorous
photographs of movie stars and hang them in her
bedroom.

Jayne attended Highland Park High School in
Dallas. Then, at seventeen, she married her first
husband, Paul Mansfield, and moved to Austin,
Texas|Austin. She studied dramatics at Southern
Methodist University and the University of Texas.
While attending the University of Texas, she won
several beauty contests, with titles that included
"Miss Photoflash," "Miss Magnesium Lamp" and "Miss
Fire Prevention Week." In 1954, they moved to Los
Angeles, California|Los Angeles and she studied
dramatics at University of California, Los
Angeles|UCLA.

With tunnel vision, Mansfield wanted to be a movie
star. She won several more beauty contests. The
only title she ever turned down was "Miss
Roquefort Cheese," because she believed that it
"just didn't sound right." For her efforts, she
was rewarded with walk-ons on television
program|television. She was always willing to make
appearances and do practically anything for
publicity. She was rumored to have gotten her
first TV job by slipping a note to the producer
that read "36, 22, 35."

Her film|movie career began with bit parts. She
had a small role in The Female Jungle (1954 in
film|1954). She then went to Warner Bros. and did
a small role in Pete Kelly's Blues (movie)|Pete
Kelly's Blues starring Jack Webb, which brought
her favorable attention. In January 1955, she was
part of a publicity drive for Howard Hughes|Howard
Hughes' RKO movie Underwater! starring Jane
Russell. In February 1955, Mansfield was "Playmate
of the Month" in Playboy, a men's magazine she
would pose for several times over the ensuing
years.

After two more movies at Warners, she went to New
York City|New York and played screen siren Rita
Marlowe in the Broadway theatre|Broadway
production of George Axelrod's comedy Will Success
Spoil Rock Hunter (1955). Wearing only a towel,
she would rise to answer the phone, flaunting as
much of her big-breast|breasted, voluptuous
physique as she could. She received the Theatre
World Award of 1956 for her performance.

Back on the West Coast of the United States|West
Coast, she appeared on TV Game show|game shows and
starred in The Girl Can't Help It (1956 in
film|1956). On May 3, 1956, she signed a long-term
contract with 20th Century Fox. After a couple
more movies, she reprised her role of Rita Marlowe
in the 1957 in film|1957 movie version of Rock
Hunter co-starring Tony Randall.

Mansfield won a Golden Globe in 1957 for Most
Promising Newcomer - Female, along with Carroll
Baker and Natalie Wood. And she won a Golden
Laurel in 1959 for Top Female Musical Performance
for the comedy Western movie|Western The Sheriff
of Fractured Jaw (1958 in film|1958), but her
squeaky voice, eyepopping figure, and limited
range made her tough to cast. Bette Davis's
assesment - "Dramatic art, in her opinion is,
knowing how to fill a sweater" - was shared by the
industry at large. Worse, she was invariably
compared to Marilyn Monroe, and found lacking.

Her marriage to Paul faltered when she began a
romance with muscleman and NABBA Mr. Universe of
1955, Mickey Hargitay, who was then in a nightclub
act starring Mae West and himself married. West
angrily held a News conference|press conference on
June 6, 1956, to announce Hargitay's dismissal.
Hargitay, however, showed up early, to quit prior
to being fired, and got into a fight with another
strong man in the act, who gave Hargitay a black
eye. Mansfield and Hargitay were married the same
day her divorce became final.

Mansfield had three husbands, Paul Mansfield
(married May 10, 1950-divorced 1958); actor and
bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay (married January 13,
1958-divorced 1964); and director Matt Cimber
(married September 24, 1964-divorced 1966).

She and Paul had one child, Jayne-Marie Mansfield
(born November 8, 1950); she and Mickey had three
children, Miklós Jeffrey Hargitay (born December
21, 1958), Zoltan Anthony Hargitay (born August 1,
1960) and Mariska Hargitay|Mariska Magdolina
Hargitay (born January 24, 1964); and she and Matt
had one child, Antonio Raphael Ottaviano Cimber
(or Anthony Richard) (born October 18, 1965).

One biographer quotes Jayne as saying that Paul
was not Jayne-Marie's father, but that she married
him rather than getting an abortion as she was
personally opposed to it. Actor Nelson Sardelli
claims to have fathered Mariska. But Hargitay
apparently never questioned the girl's paternity
and raised her as his own.

Jayne-Marie was a Playboy centerfold in July 1976;
and Mariska Hargitay|Mariska has become an actress
with a list of movie and TV credits that would
undoubtedly make her mother proud.

In October 1957, Mansfield went on a sixteen
country tour of Europe for 20th Century Fox. She
was presented to Elizabeth II of the United
Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth on November 4. "You are so
beautiful," she said to the Queen, who replied,
"So are you."

After they married, she and Hargitay bought a
40-room Mediterranean-style mansion formerly owned
by Rudy Vallee at 10100 Sunset Boulevard in
Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills for
$75,000, which they called the "Pink Palace." As
its name implies, the mansion was painted pink,
had pink decorations, a bed with heart-shaped
canopy and marble cupid|cupids above the bedstead
that was surrounded by pink Fluorescent
lamp|fluorescent lights, pink fur on the floors of
the bathrooms, a pink heart-shaped bathtub, a
fountain spurting pink champagne. Hargitay, who
was a plumber and carpenter before he got into
bodybuilding, built its famouse pink heart-shaped
swimming pool. Singer Engelbert Humperdinck
(singer)|Engelbert Humperdinck bought the Pink
Palace in the 1970s. In 2002, he sold it for about
$4,000,000 to developers and it was torn down in
November of that year.

Mansfield headlined in Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas
with her own nightclub act, toured military bases
with Bob Hope for the United Service
Organizations|USO and released a live album titled
Jayne Mansfield Busts Up Las Vegas. She did a
number of guest spots on television: The Alfred
Hitchcock Hour, The Jack Benny Show, The Steve
Allen Show and Burke's Law, Down You Go and The
Match Game.

Despite her monumental publicity, by the mid-1960s
her movie career was all but over. She appeared in
low-budget productions, mostly in Europe. She
turned down the role of Ginger Grant in the TV
Situation comedy|sitcom Gilligan's Island because
"I am a movie star." In 1963 she posed nude for
Playboy magazine on the set of the movie comedy
Promises, Promises.  It was the first time a
big-name actress
had been so exposed for the camera, as Mansfield
cavorted totally bare in front of the film crew,
her co-star (Tommy Noonan), and members of her
personal staff.  In one notorious series of
photographs, Jayne stands naked, staring intently
at her breast, as does her male secretary and a
hair stylist, then grasps it in her hand and lifts
it high. Some critics said it was the most erotic
series of photographs ever published in the
magazine. That issue sold out and resulted in
publisher Hugh Hefner being faced with an
obscenity charge, later dropped. 
 
When her marriage to Hargitay (who protested her
appearance in Playboy) broke up, she married Matt
Cimber, who had directed her in a stage production
of Bus Stop (play)|Bus Stop in Yonkers, New York.
Cimber took over the management of her career
during their brief marriage.

Some allege that she became involved with the
International Church Of Satan, founded in 1966 by
Anton LaVey, and that she had an affair with
LaVey. The truth apparently is that a meeting
between Mansfield and LaVey was arranged as a
publicity stunt. According to Jayne's press agent,
Ray Strait, "The biggest backfire of a press stunt
that she ever pulled." LaVey was apparently
smitten with the actress, who was not interested.
Mansfield, who made no secret of her many affairs,
denied being intimate with LaVey and no associate
of hers ever confirmed any such romance. In an
interview, Mansfield said, "He had fallen in love
with me and wanted to join my life with his. It
was a laugh." So, it appears that her involvement
with the Church of Satan was no more than another
photo-shoot. And LaVey's public claims of an
affair with her apparently began only after her
death.

In 1967, her life was moving at full speed. Her
time was split between a U.S. Southern
states|Southern nightclub tour and the production
of Single Room, Furnished, a drama directed by
Cimber. She died before the movie was completed.
After an engagement at the Gus Stevens Supper Club
in Biloxi, Mississippi, Mansfield, her boyfriend,
lawyer Sam Brody, and her driver, Ronnie Harrison,
along with Mickey Jr., age eight, Zoltan, age six,
and Mariska, age three, headed to New Orleans,
Louisiana|New Orleans, where she was to appear on
a TV interview later that day.

On June 29 at approximately 4:07 a.m., Mansfield
died in a car accident on U.S. Highway 90 near
Slidell, Louisiana. She was riding in the front
seat of the 1966 Buick Electra with Harrison and
Brody, and her children were sleeping in back, as
the roadway became obscured by a white haze from a
distant mosquito fogger, which prevented Harrison
from discerning the presence of a slow-moving
tractor-trailer ahead. They crashed into the truck
and slid under it as the top of her car was
sheared back. Though all three children survived
with minor injuries, as they were cushioned from
serious harm, the adults were instantly killed, as
was Mansfield's pet Chihuahua (dog)|Chihuahua.

Erroneously, it was said that Mansfield was
decapitation|decapitated in the accident. This is
not true, though she did suffer severe head
trauma. This urban legend was possibly spawned by
the fact that her blonde wig flew off her head and
was seen in police photographs.

Her private funeral service, attended by her
family and Hargitay, was held on July 3, 1967 at
Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, officiated by a
Methodism|Methodist minister. She is interred in
Fairview Cemetery, just southeast of Pen Argyl.
Though her remains are in Fairview Cemetery, and
the graves of her mother and stepfather are beside
hers, a memorial cenotaph is in the Hollywood
Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California, in her
honor. Shortly after the funeral, Hargitay sued
her estate for over $275,000 to support the
children. He married his current wife that
September.

Jayne Mansfield has a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame at 6328 Hollywood Boulevard.

In an A&E Network Biography program about Jayne
Mansfield, the late Tony Randall, who had worked
with her in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? had
talked about how friendly and down-to-earth Jayne
was. He said that when tourists would drive by her
mansion, she might just pop on out, waving her
arms and greeting them. As Randall put it, "She
was a hoot!"

==Filmography==
*The Female Jungle (1955 in film|1955) (American
Releasing) ... Candy Price
*Hell on Frisco Bay (1955 in film|1955) (Warner
Bros.) ... Blonde Woman
*Pete Kelly's Blues (movie)|Pete Kelly's Blues
(1955 in film|1955) (Warner Bros.) ... Cigarette
Girl
*Illegal (1955 movie)|Illegal (1955 in film|1955)
(Warner Bros.) ... Angel O'Hara
*The Girl Can't Help It (1956 in film|1956) (20th
Century Fox) ... Jerri Jordan
*The Wayward Bus (1957 in film|1957) (20th Century
Fox) ... Camille Oaks
*The Burglar (1957 in film|1957) (Columbia) ...
Gladden
*Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957 in
film|1957) (20th Century Fox) ... Rita Marlowe
*Kiss Them for Me (1957 in film|1957) (20th
Century Fox) ... Alice Kratzner
*The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958 in film|1958)
(20th Century Fox) ... Kate
*The Challenge (1960 in film|1960) (Valiant Films)
... Billy
*The Loves of Hercules (1960 in film|1960) French
production ... Queen Dianira/Hippolyta
*Too Hot to Handle (1960 movie)|Too Hot to Handle
(1960 in film|1960) (Topaz) ... Midnight Franklin
*The George Raft Story (1961 in film|1961) (Allied
Artists) ... Lisa Lang
*It Happened in Athens (1962 in film|1962) (20th
Century Fox) ... Eleni Costa
*Homesick for St. Pauli (1963 in film|1963) German
production ... Evelyne
*Promises! Promises! (1963 in film|1963)
(Noonan-Taylor Production) ... Sandy Brooks
*Panic Button (1964 in film|1964) (Gorton
Associates) ... Angela
*Dog Eat Dog (1964 movie)|Dog Eat Dog (1964 in
film|1964) (Ajay Film Company) ... Darlene
*Primitive Love (1964 in film|1964) Italian
production ... as herself
*The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966 in film|1966)
(Woolner Brosthers Pictures) ... Tawny
*The Fat Spy (1966 in film|1966) (Magna Pictures
Distribution) ... Junior
*A Guide for the Married Man (1967 in film|1967)
(20th Century Fox) ... Girl with Harold, Technical
Adviser
*Single Room Furnished (1968 in film|1968) (Crown
International Pictures) ... Johnnie/Mae/Eileen

==Documentaries==
*Spree (1967 documentary)|Spree (1967 in
film|1967)
*Mondo Hollywood (1967 in film|1967)
*The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield (1968 in
film|1968)

==Trivia==
* The Japanese people|Japanese female rock band
The 5,6,7,8's wrote a song titled "I Walk Like
Jayne Mansfield," which is featured in the
film|movie Kill Bill|Kill Bill Vol. 1, directed by
Quentin Tarantino.

* Her death is the subject of the Siouxsie and the
Banshees song "Superstition (album)|Kiss Them for
Me", the title of her Kiss Them for Me|1957 film.

* She was the first mainstream actress to appear
nude in a mainstream American film (Promises!
Promises!)

* During the late 1950s, the front bumpers of some
American cars came with extensions that resembled
a pair of the conical brassieres of the period.
Soon after their introduction, these extensions
were nicknamed "Jayne Mansfields."

==External links==
* http://www.classicactresses.com/jayne.html Jayne
Mansfield at Classic Actresses
*imdb name|id=0543790|name=Jayne Mansfield
*http://search.movies.go.com/movieSearch?search=ja
yne+mansfield Movies.com entry for Jayne Mansfield
*ibdb name|id=51309|name=Jayne Mansfield
*http://www.angelfire.com/nj/jaynemansfield/ Jayne
Mansfield On-Line Fan Club











start box
succession box |
  title = Playmate|Playboy Playmate |
  years = February 1955 |
  before = Bettie Page |
  after = Marilyn Waltz |

end box