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Jayne Mansfield
American actress and Playmate (1933–1967) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, Playboy Playmate, and sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was known for her numerous publicity stunts and open personal life. Her film career was short-lived, but she had several box-office successes and won a Theatre World Award and Golden Globe Award. She gained the nickname of Hollywood's "smartest dumb blonde".
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Mansfield gained popularity after playing the role of fictional actress Rita Marlowe in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? on Broadway in 1955–56 and reprising it in the 1957 film adaptation. Her other film roles include the musical comedy The Girl Can't Help It (1956), the drama The Wayward Bus (1957), the neo-noir Too Hot to Handle (1960), and the sex comedy Promises! Promises! (1963), the last of which made Mansfield one of the first major American actresses to perform a nude scene in a post-silent era film.
Mansfield's professional name came from her first husband, public relations professional Paul Mansfield. She married three times and divorced twice. A third initiated divorce was not finalized at the time of her death. Between the marriages she had five children. On June 29, 1967, she died in a traffic collision at age 34.[2]
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Early life
Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933, at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania,[3][4] the only child of Herbert William Palmer and Vera Jeffrey (Palmer) Palmer.[4][Notes 1] She inherited more than $90,000 ($980,000 in 2024 dollars) from her maternal grandfather, Thomas H. Palmer,[6] and more than $36,000 ($390,000 in 2024 dollars) from her maternal grandmother, Beatrice Mary Palmer, in 1958.[7][8][Notes 2]
Until age six, Mansfield lived in Phillipsburg, New Jersey,[10] where her father, Herbert, was an attorney practicing with future New Jersey governor Robert B. Meyner. In 1936, her father died of a heart attack while driving. Three-year-old Jayne was in the car.[11][12]
In 1939, Mansfield's widowed mother married sales engineer Harry Lawrence Peers, and the family moved to Dallas, Texas.[13] As a girl, Jayne was known as Vera Jayne Peers.[14] As a child, she wanted to be a Hollywood star like Shirley Temple.[15][16][17] At age 12, she took ballroom dance lessons.[18] She graduated from Highland Park High School in 1950.[19][20][21] While in high school, she took violin, piano, and viola lessons.[22] She also studied Spanish and German.[14][23]
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Marriage and family
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At age 17, she married Paul Mansfield on May 6, 1950.[24] A daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield, was born on November 8, 1950. Jayne and her husband enrolled in Southern Methodist University to study acting.[25][26] He later became a public relations professional. In 1951, Jayne moved to Los Angeles and attended a summer semester at UCLA. She entered the Miss California contest (hiding her marital status) and won the local round but Paul forced her to withdraw.[27][28] She and Paul moved to Austin, Texas, where she studied dramatics at the University of Texas at Austin.[20][21] There, Mansfield worked as a nude art model, sold books door-to-door, and worked as a receptionist at a dance studio.[29][30][28] She also joined the Curtain Club,[30] a campus theatrical society that included lyricist Tom Jones, composer Harvey Schmidt, and actors Rip Torn and Pat Hingle.[30][31][32] Mansfield lived for a year at Camp Gordon, Georgia, where Paul served in the United States Army Reserve during the Korean War.[33]
In 1953, she moved back to Dallas and studied acting for several months under Baruch Lumet, the father of director Sidney Lumet and founder of the Dallas Institute of Performing Arts.[34][35][36] Lumet gave Mansfield private lessons and called Mansfield and Rip Torn his "kids".[20][37][28]
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Move to Los Angeles
Lumet helped Mansfield get her first screen test at Paramount in April 1954. She moved with Paul and daughter Jayne Marie to Los Angeles that year. Mansfield worked various odd jobs, including selling popcorn at the Stanley Warner Theatre, teaching dance,[38] selling candy at a movie theater,[39] modeling part-time at the Blue Book Model Agency,[40] and working as a photographer at Esther Williams's Trails Restaurant.[41]
Career
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Playboy
While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Mansfield won several beauty contests, including Miss Photoflash, Miss Magnesium Lamp, and Miss Fire Prevention Week. By her own account, the only title she refused was Miss Roquefort Cheese, because she believed it "just didn't sound right".[42] Mansfield rejected "Miss Prime Rib" in 1957 as well.
In 1952, while in Dallas, she and Paul Mansfield participated in small local-theater productions of The Slaves of Demon Rum and Ten Nights in a Barroom. They also appeared in Anything Goes in Camp Gordon, Georgia. After he left for military service, she made her first significant stage appearance in a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman on October 22, 1953, with the players of the Knox Street Theater, headed by Lumet.[41]
Early in Mansfield's career, some advertisers considered her prominent breasts undesirable. She lost her first professional assignment, a General Electric commercial featuring young women in bathing suits relaxing around a pool.[43] Emmeline Snively, head of the Blue Book Model Agency, had sent Mansfield to photographer Gene Lester, which led to her short-lived assignment in the commercial.
In 1954, she auditioned at both Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. At Paramount, Mansfield performed a sketch she had worked out with Lumet from Joan of Arc for casting director Milton Lewis. Lewis told her she was wasting her "obvious talents" and had her come back a week later to perform the piano scene from The Seven Year Itch. Mansfield failed to impress but learned she would have to go blonde. She performed the piano scene for Warner Brothers, but, again, failed to impress.[44]
She landed her first acting assignment in the CBS series Lux Video Theatre, in the episode "An Angel Went AWOL", aired on October 21, 1954.[41] In it, she sat at a piano and delivered a few lines of dialogue, and was paid $300 ($4,000 in 2024 dollars).[6][45]
In December 1953, Hugh Hefner began publishing Playboy. The magazine became a success in part because of early appearances by Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page, and Anita Ekberg.[46] In February 1955, Mansfield was the Playboy Playmate of the Month,[47] and appeared in the magazine several times.[48] Publication of photos of Mansfield boosted the magazine's circulation and her own career.[49][50][51] Shortly afterward, she posed for the Playboy calendar, covering her bare breasts with her hands. Playboy featured Mansfield each February from 1955 to 1958, and again in 1960.[51]
In August 1956, after the Mansfields had divorced, Paul Mansfield sought custody of his daughter, alleging that Jayne was an unfit mother because she appeared nude in Playboy;[52] however, his attempt failed.[53] In 1964, the magazine repeated the 1955 pictorial.[51] Playboy later reprinted photos from that pictorial issue, with titles such as December 1965s "The Playboy Portfolio of Sex Stars", and January 2000s "Centerfolds of the Century".[54]
Film
Mansfield's first film part was a supporting role in Female Jungle, a low-budget drama completed in ten days. She was paid $150 ($2,000 in 2024 dollars).[6][55] It was released unofficially in early 1955.
In February 1955, James Byron, her manager and publicist, negotiated a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers, whose decisionmakers were intrigued by her publicity antics.[56] The contract initially paid her $250 a week ($3,000 in 2024 dollars) and landed her two films, one with an insignificant role and one that was unreleased for two years. She filed for separation from Paul Mansfield that January.[54][56] Mansfield was given bit parts in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), starring Jack Webb, and Hell on Frisco Bay (1955), starring Alan Ladd. She acted in one more movie for Warner Brothers—another small but significant role opposite Edward G. Robinson in the courtroom drama Illegal (1955).[56]
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Mansfield at a Zurich premiere in 1957
Mansfield got out of her Warner contract just in time to star on Broadway opposite Walter Matthau.[57] Mansfield's agent, William Shiffrin, signed her to play fictional film star Rita Marlowe in the Broadway play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? with Orson Bean and Walter Matthau. The part was offered to her after Mamie Van Doren rejected it.
Mansfield accepted the part while working in producer Louis W. Kellman's The Burglar (1957). Paul Wendkos directed this film adaptation of David Goodis's novel,[58] made in film noir style. She appeared alongside Dan Duryea and Martha Vickers. The film was released two years later, when Mansfield's fame was at its peak.
She was successful in this straight dramatic role, though most of her subsequent film appearances were comedic or capitalized on her sex appeal.[59] It was Kellman's first major venture, and he claimed to have "discovered" Mansfield.[60]
On May 3, 1956, Twentieth Century Fox signed Mansfield to a six-year contract to mold her as a successor to the increasingly difficult Marilyn Monroe,[61] their resident blonde sex symbol. Monroe had just completed Bus Stop. Mansfield was still under contract to Broadway and continued playing Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? on stage until September 15.
She undertook her first starring film role as Jerri Jordan in Frank Tashlin's The Girl Can't Help It (1956).[62] Originally titled Do-Re-Mi, it featured a high-profile cast of contemporary rock and roll and R&B artists, including Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, The Platters, and Little Richard.[63] Released in December 1956, The Girl Can't Help It became one of the year's biggest successes, both critically and financially, earning more than Gentlemen Prefer Blondes had three years before.[64]
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Soon afterward, Fox started promoting Mansfield as "Marilyn Monroe king-sized", attempting to coerce Monroe to return to the studio and complete her contract.[65]
Mansfield next played a dramatic role in The Wayward Bus (1957), an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel of the same name. With this film, she attempted to move away from her "blonde bombshell" image and establish herself as a serious actress. The film enjoyed moderate box-office success, and Mansfield won a Golden Globe in 1957 for New Star of the Year, beating Carroll Baker and Natalie Wood with her performance as a "wistful derelict". It was "generally conceded to have been her best acting", according to The New York Times, in a fitful career hampered by her flamboyant image, distinctive voice ("a soft-voiced coo punctuated with squeals"), voluptuous figure, and limited acting range.[66]
Tashlin cast Mansfield in the film version of the Broadway show Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, released in 1957,[67] reprising her role of Rita Marlowe alongside costars Tony Randall and Joan Blondell. Fox launched its new blonde bombshell with a North American tour and a 40-day, 16-country tour of Europe. She attended the premiere of the film (released as Oh! For a Man in the UK) in London, and met Queen Elizabeth II.[68][69][70]
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Mansfield's fourth starring role in a Hollywood film was in Kiss Them for Me (also 1957), for which she received prominent billing alongside Cary Grant. In the film, she is little more than comic relief; Grant's character relates to a redhead played by fashion model Suzy Parker. The film, described as "vapid" and "ill-advised", was a critical and box-office flop,[71] and was one of 20th Century Fox's last attempts to promote Mansfield.[72] The continuing publicity related to her physical appeal failed to sustain her career.[73] Fox gave her a leading role opposite Kenneth More in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958), a western comedy filmed on location in Spain. In the film, Mansfield's three songs were dubbed by singer Connie Francis. Fox released the film in the United States in 1959, and it was Mansfield's last mainstream film success. Columbia Pictures offered her a part opposite James Stewart and Jack Lemmon in the romantic comedy Bell, Book and Candle (1958), but she turned it down because she was pregnant.[74][75] Fox attempted to cast Mansfield opposite Paul Newman in Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), his ill-fated first attempt at comedy.[76]
Mansfield had remarried in 1958, to Mickey Hargitay. Three children were conceived when they were together: Mickey, Jr. (b. 1958), Zoltan (b. 1960), and Mariska (b. 1964).[77]
With a decreased demand for big-breasted, blonde bombshells and an increasing backlash against her excessive publicity, Mansfield became a box-office has-been by the early 1960s.[41] She was still a celebrity, able to attract attention and large crowds for her lucrative and successful nightclub acts, including appearances in Las Vegas. She earned "$200,000 for ten weeks of work."[78][79]
Fox stopped viewing her as a major Hollywood star and started loaning her and her likeness out to foreign productions in England and Italy, respectively, until the end of her contract in 1962. Many of her English/Italian films are regarded as obscure and some are considered lost.[80][81]
In 1959, Fox cast her in two independent gangster films shot in the United Kingdom: The Challenge and Too Hot to Handle, both released in 1960. Both films were low-budget, and their American releases were delayed.[82] Too Hot to Handle was not released in the U.S. until 1961, as Playgirl After Dark. The Challenge was released in 1963 as It Takes a Thief. In the U.S., censors objected to a scene in Too Hot to Handle in which Mansfield, wearing silver netting with sequins painted over her nipples, appears nearly nude.[83]
When Mansfield returned to Hollywood in mid-1960, 20th Century Fox cast her in It Happened in Athens (1962) with Trax Colton, a handsome newcomer Fox was trying to mold into a heartthrob. She received first billing above the title but appeared in a supporting role. The Olympic Games-based film was shot in Greece in 1960 but not released until 1962. It was a box-office failure, and 20th Century Fox dropped Mansfield's contract. In 1961, Mansfield took a minor role but above-the-title billing in The George Raft Story, released in 1962. Starring Ray Danton as Raft, the film showcased Mansfield in a small part as a glamorous film star. Soon after its release, she returned to appearing in foreign films such as L'Amore Primitivo (1964, Italy) and Panic Button (1964, Italy).[84][Notes 3]
Tommy Noonan persuaded Mansfield to become the first mainstream American actress to appear nude in a starring role, in the film Promises! Promises! (1963). Playboy published nude photographs of Mansfield on set in its June 1963 issue, resulting in obscenity charges being filed against Hugh Hefner in a Chicago court.[85] Promises! Promises! was banned in Cleveland, Ohio, but enjoyed box-office success elsewhere. As a result of its success, Mansfield landed on the Top 10 list of box-office attractions for that year.[86]
Soon thereafter, she was chosen to replace the recently deceased Marilyn Monroe in Kiss Me, Stupid (released in 1964), a romantic comedy starring Dean Martin. She turned down the role because of her pregnancy (with daughter Mariska). She was replaced by Kim Novak.[87]
But in that same year, 1963, Mansfield appeared in a pinup book, Jayne Mansfield for President: the White House or Bust, which was promoted on billboards. David Attie, a commercial and fine art photographer, took the photographs.[88]
In 1966, Mansfield was cast in Single Room Furnished, directed by her husband Matt Cimber, whom she had married in 1964. She portrayed three different characters in her first starring dramatic role in several years. The film was released briefly in 1966.[89] It did not enjoy a full release until 1968, almost a year after her death. After Single Room Furnished wrapped, Mansfield was cast opposite Mamie Van Doren and Ferlin Husky in The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966), a low-budget comedy from Woolner Brothers.[90][91][92]
This was her first country and western film, and she promoted it on a 29-day tour of major U.S. cities, accompanied by Husky, Don Bowman, and other country musicians. Before filming, Mansfield said she would not "share any screen time with the drive-in's answer to Marilyn Monroe", meaning Van Doren. Their characters did share one scene, but Mansfield and Van Doren filmed their parts at different times; these were edited together later.[93]
Mansfield's wardrobe relied on the shapeless styles of the 1960s to hide her weight gain after the birth of her fifth child.[94] Despite career setbacks, she remained a highly visible celebrity in the early 1960s through her publicity stunts and stage performances. In early 1967, Mansfield filmed her last role, a cameo in A Guide for the Married Man, a comedy starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, and Inger Stevens. The opening credits listed Mansfield as one of the technical advisers, along with other star names.[95]
Television
Mansfield played her first leading role on television in 1956 on NBC's The Bachelor.[96] In her first appearance on British television in 1957, she recited from Shakespeare (including a line from Hamlet)[Notes 4] and played piano and violin.[97][98] Her performances in television dramas included episodes of Burke's Law, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Red Skelton Hour (three episodes), Kraft Mystery Theater, and Follow the Sun. Mansfield's performance in Follow the Sun ("The Dumbest Blonde"; Season 1, Episode 21; February 4, 1962; produced by 20th Century Fox Television) was hailed as the advent of "a new and dramatic Jayne Mansfield".[99] She appeared on a number of game shows, including Down You Go, The Match Game, and What's My Line?.[84]
She performed in a number of variety shows, including The Jack Benny Program (on which she played violin), The Steve Allen Show, and The Jackie Gleason Show (in the mid-1960s, when the show was the second-highest-rated program in the U.S.).[100] In November 1957, on a special episode of NBC's The Perry Como Show ("Holiday in Las Vegas"), one of her nightclub acts was featured, something quite scandalous for the audience according to the broadcaster.[101] She was a headlining guest for three of The Bob Hope Specials. In 1957, she toured United States Pacific Command areas in Hawaii, Okinawa, Guam, Tokyo, and Korea with Bob Hope for the United Service Organizations for 13 days, appearing as a comedian;[102] in 1961, she toured Newfoundland,[103] Labrador, and Baffin Island for a Christmas special.[104] She made many appearances on talk shows, which she appreciated for the publicity.[98] One of her more notable appearances on a variety show was on The Ed Sullivan Show (Season 10, Episode 35; May 26, 1957), right after her success with Rock Hunter; she played violin with a six-person backup band.[105][106] After the show she exclaimed, "Now I am really national. Momma and Dallas see the Ed Sullivan show!" According to Nielsen, the episode was watched in 13,400,000 homes, reaching 34% of the total audience, almost 30 million viewers.[107]
By 1958, she earned $20,000 per episode for television performances ($218,000 in 2024 dollars).[6][108] In 1964, Mansfield turned down the role of Ginger Grant on the sitcom Gilligan's Island. Although her acting roles were becoming marginalized, Mansfield rejected the part as it epitomized the stereotype she wished to leave behind.[109] The part went to Tina Louise. A widespread rumor that Mansfield had a breast-flashing wardrobe malfunction at the 1957 Academy Awards was later found to be baseless by Academy researchers.[110]
In June 1967, ten days before her death in a car accident, she read To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, a poem by Robert Herrick about early death, on The Joey Bishop Show—her last television appearance."[111][Notes 5]
As late as the mid-1980s, Mansfield as a figure drew audiences on television in fictional dramas portraying her and documentary productions with historic footage.[112] In 1980, The Jayne Mansfield Story aired on CBS, starring Loni Anderson as Mansfield and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mickey Hargitay. It was nominated for three Emmy Awards. The A+E Networks TV series Biography featured her in the episode Jayne Mansfield: Blonde Ambition.[113][114] It won an Emmy Award in the outstanding nonfiction TV series category in 2001.[115] A&E also dramatized her life in the TV serial, Dangerous Curves, in 1999.[116] In 1988, her story and archival footage were part of the TV documentary Hollywood Sex Symbols.[117]
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Stage appearances
Between 1951 and 1953 she acted in The Slaves of Demon Rum, Ten Nights in a Barroom, Macbeth, and Anything Goes. Her performance in an October 1953 production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman attracted Paramount Pictures to audition her.[118] Lumet trained her for the audition.[20] In 1955, she went to New York and appeared in the Broadway production of George Axelrod's comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, also featuring Orson Bean and Walter Matthau. It was her first major stage performance, garnering her critical attention which was not always positive.[119] She starred as Rita Marlowe (a wild, blonde Hollywood starlet à la Monroe) in the musical spoofing Hollywood in general and Marilyn Monroe in particular. Her wardrobe, a bath towel, caused a sensation.[120][121][122] She received a Theatre World Award (Promising Personality) for her performance in 1956,[123] as well as a Golden Globe Award (New Star of the year, Actress) in 1957.[124][125] Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times described the "commendable abandon" of her scantily clad rendition of Rita Marlowe in the play as "a platinum-pated movie siren with the wavy contours of Marilyn Monroe". She performed in about 450 shows between 1955 and 1956.[126]
In May 1964, she starred in the stage production of Bus Stop at Yonkers Playhouse, co-starring Mickey Hargitay and Ann B. Davis.[127][128] The play had a three week engagement that ended on June 14.[129]
Mansfield toured U.S. towns alternating between Bus Stop and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.[130] In 1965, she performed in another pair of plays: Rabbit Habit at the Latin Quarter nightclub and Champagne Complex, directed by Matt Cimber, at the Pabst Theater. Both plays received poor reviews.[130][131]
Nightclub
In February 1958, the Tropicana Las Vegas launched Mansfield's striptease revue The Tropicana Holiday (produced by Monte Proser, co-starring Mickey Hargitay) under a four-week contract that was extended to eight.[132][133] The opening night raised $20,000 for March of Dimes ($218,000 in 2024 dollars).[6] She received $25,000 per week for her performance as Trixie Divoon in the show ($272,000 in 2024 dollars),[6] while her contract with 20th Century Fox was paying her $2,500 per week ($27,000 in 2024 dollars).[134][135][136] She had a million-dollar policy with Lloyd's of London in case Hargitay dropped her as he whirled her around for the show.[137][138] In 1959, Jayne returned to the Tropicana with her show being extended from a four-week run to eight when Betty Hutton's engagement there failed to materialize.[139] In December 1960, the Dunes hotel and casino launched Mansfield's revue The House of Love (produced by Jack Cole, co-starring Hargitay). She received a salary of $35,000 a week ($372,000 in 2024 dollars), the highest of her career.[140][141]
Her wardrobe for the shows at Tropicana and Dunes featured a gold mesh dress with sequins to cover her nipples and pubic region.[126][132][142] The controversial dress was called "Jayne Mansfield and a few sequins".[134] In early 1963, she performed in her first club engagement outside Las Vegas, at the Plantation Supper Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, earning $23,000 in a week ($236,000 in 2024 dollars), and then at Iroquois Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky.[143] She returned to Las Vegas in 1966, but her show was staged on Fremont Street, away from the Strip where the Tropicana and Dunes were.[132] Her last nightclub act, French Dressing, was at the Latin Quarter in New York in 1966, also repeated at the Tropicana.[141] It was a modified version of the Tropicana show and ran for six weeks with fair success.[144]
Her nightclub career inspired films, documentaries, and a musical album. 20th Century Fox Records recorded "The House of Love" for the album Jayne Mansfield Busts Up Las Vegas in 1962. She played the roles of burlesque entertainer Midnight Franklin in Too Hot to Handle (1960) and Las Vegas showgirl Tawni Downs in The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966).[82][94][145] In 1967, the independent documentary Spree (alternative title Las Vegas by Night), about the antics of Las Vegas entertainers, was released. The film, narrated as a part of a travelogue of Vic Damone and Juliet Prowse, featured Mansfield, Hargitay, Constance Moore, and Clara Ward as guest stars. Mansfield strips and sings "Promise Her Anything" from the film Promises! Promises![146][147][148] A court order prohibited using any of the guest stars to promote the film.[149][150]
Later in her career, Mansfield was busier on stage, performing and making appearances with her nightclub acts, club engagements, and performance tours. By 1960, she had made personal appearances for everything from supermarket promotions to drugstore openings, at $10,000 per appearance ($106,000 in 2024 dollars).[6][78]
Musical work
Mansfield had classical training in piano and violin. She sang in film soundtracks and on stage for her theatrical and nightclub performances, and released singles and albums. After her death, she became an inspiration for punk-rock musicians.[151]
Soundtracks
Mansfield sang or her singing was dubbed in some of her films including The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw and Promises! Promises!.[152]
Her screen performance of songs in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw was actually dubbed by Connie Francis.[153]
Live performances
In 1958, an orchestra was recorded for the 31st Academy Awards ceremony with Jack Benny on first violin, Mansfield on violin, Dick Powell on trumpet, Robert Mitchum on woodwind, Fred Astaire on drums, and Jerry Lewis as conductor, but the performance was canceled.[154] She sang "Too Marvelous for Words" for The Jack Benny Program ("Jack Takes Boat to Hawaii"; Episode 9, Season 14; November 26, 1963). Her club performances regularly featured songs like Call Me, A Little Brains, A Little Talent ("This Queen has her aces in all the right places"), Plain Jane, Quando-Quando, Bésame Mucho, and the song Marilyn Monroe made famous, Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.[155][156]
Discography
In 1962, 20th Century Fox Records released the album Jayne Mansfield Busts Up Las Vegas, a recording of her Las Vegas revue The House of Love. In 1964 MGM Records released the novelty album Jayne Mansfield: Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me, in which Mansfield recited Shakespeare's sonnets and poems by Marlowe, Browning, Wordsworth, and others against a background of Tchaikovsky's music. The album cover depicted a bouffant-coiffed Mansfield with lips pursed and breasts barely covered by a fur stole, posing between busts of Tchaikovsky and Shakespeare.[157] The New York Times described the album as a reading of "30-odd poems in a husky, urban, baby voice". The reviewer wrote, "Miss Mansfield is a lady with apparent charms, but reading poetry is not one of them."[158]
In 1965, Jimi Hendrix played bass and added lead in his session musician days for Mansfield on two songs, "As The Clouds Drift By" and "Suey", released as a 45-rpm single by London Records in 1966.[159][160] Ed Chalpin, the record producer, claimed that Mansfield played all the instruments on the singles.[161] According to Hendrix historian Steven Roby (Black Gold: The Lost Archives Of Jimi Hendrix, Billboard Books), this collaboration occurred because they shared a manager.[162][163] "Wo ist der Mann", sung in German and released by Polydor Records in Austria, was much in demand immediately after its release in August 1963. The A-side featured Hans Last's "Snicksnack-Snuckelchen".[164] In 1964, the Original Sound label released two original songs from the soundtrack of The Las Vegas Hillbillys, "That Makes It" (an answer to The Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace") on the A-side and "Little Things Mean a Lot" on the B-side.[165]
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Personal life
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Mansfield was allegedly intimately involved with many men, including Claude Terrail (owner of the Paris restaurant Tour d'Argent),[166] Robert F. Kennedy,[167] John F. Kennedy,[168] Brazilian billionaire Jorge Guinle,[169] producer Enrico Bomba, and her attorney Samuel S. Brody. She met John F. Kennedy through his brother-in-law Peter Lawford in Palm Springs, California, in 1960, but their alleged affair did not last.[170][171][172] In 1967, film critic Whitney Williams wrote of Mansfield in Variety: "her personal life out-rivaled any of the roles she played".[173]
Marriages, children, and affairs
Jayne Palmer met Paul Mansfield at a party on Christmas Eve in 1949; she was a popular student at Highland Park High School, and he at Sunset High School in Dallas.[174] On May 6, 1950, they married in Fort Worth, Texas. At the time of their marriage, Jayne was 17 and three months’ pregnant, and Paul was 20.[175][176][177] (Some sources say the marriage was on May 10).[178][179][180] According to biographer Raymond Strait, she had an earlier "secret" marriage on January 28, after which she conceived her first child.[181] On November 8, 1950, Mansfield gave birth to her daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield.[41] Some sources say Paul Mansfield was her child's father;[175][176] others say the pregnancy was the result of date rape.[178][182][183]
In 1952, she juggled motherhood and classes at the University of Texas. Early in 1952, Paul was called to the United States Army Reserve for the Korean War.[184] While he served in the army, she spent a year at Camp Gordon, Georgia. Her life became easier with Paul's army allotment.[185] Paul Mansfield hoped their child's birth would discourage Jayne's interest in acting. When it did not, he agreed to move to Los Angeles in 1954 after returning from the Korean War to further her career.[186] Once in California, he took a job with a small newspaper in East Los Angeles and lived in a small apartment in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, with Jayne and her pets—a Great Dane, three cats named Sabina, Romulus, and Ophelia, two chihuahuas, a poodle dyed pink, and a rabbit.[38][187][188][189] She left Jayne Marie with her maternal grandparents[28] and spent the summer semester at UCLA.[20][21]
After a series of arguments about Jayne's ambitions, infidelity, and animals, Paul and Jayne decided to dissolve the marriage.[187][188] It was a long process. In February 1955, Jayne filed for separate maintenance, and in August 1956 Paul filed for custody of their daughter.[190] Jayne filed for divorce in California in 1956; Paul filed for divorce in 1957 in Texas, citing mental cruelty, and they received their divorce papers on January 8, 1958.[191] After the divorce, she kept "Mansfield" as her professional name.[192] Paul Mansfield remarried, settled into the public relations business, and moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, but failed to win custody of Jayne Marie or restrain her from traveling abroad with her mother.[53][193] After turning 18, Jayne Marie complained that she had not received her inheritance from the Mansfield estate or heard from her father since her mother's death.[194][195]
Mansfield met her second husband, Mickey Hargitay, at the Latin Quarter nightclub in New York City on May 13, 1956, where he was performing as a member of the chorus line in Mae West's show.[68] Hargitay was an actor and bodybuilder who won the Mr. Universe competition in 1955.[196] Mansfield fell for him immediately, which resulted in a squabble with West.[26][197] In the ensuing row, Mr. California, Chuck Krauser, beat Hargitay up and was arrested and released on a $300 bond ($3,000 in 2024 dollars[6]).[198]
After Mansfield returned from her 40-day European tour, Hargitay proposed to her on November 6, 1957, with a $5,000 10-carat diamond ring ($56,000 in 2024 dollars).[6][199][200] On January 13, 1958 (days after her divorce from Paul Mansfield was finalized), Mansfield married Hargitay at the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The unique glass chapel made public and press viewing of the wedding easy. Mansfield wore a pink, skin-tight wedding gown made of sequins with a 30 yd (27 m) flounce of pink tulle (designed by a 20th Century-Fox costume designer),[201] and at the reception she had Hargitay drink pink champagne.[202][203][204]
Hargitay made his first film appearance with Mansfield in a bit part in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?[205] The couple became a performing team touring in stage shows, where Mansfield's leopard-spot bikini became a topic of discussion and newspaper coverage.[81][206][207] As a highlight, Hargitay tossed her around his waist and spun her in wide circles as her shows made more headlines.[208][209] On screen, he was Mansfield's male lead in her Italian ventures The Loves of Hercules and L'Amore Primitivo and also appeared in Promises! Promises! On stage, he was the male lead in her various nightclub acts including The Tropicana Holiday.[210]
Mansfield and Hargitay had two sons: Miklós "Mickey" Hargitay, Jr. (b. 1958) and Zoltán Hargitay (b. 1960).[211]
Mansfield and Hargitay made personal appearances on television shows such as the Bob Hope Specials.[81] They had a number of business holdings, including the Hargitay Exercise Equipment Company, Jayne Mansfield Productions, and Eastland Savings and Loan.[212] She co-wrote the autobiographical book Jayne Mansfield's Wild, Wild World with Hargitay. It contained 32 pages of black-and-white photographs from the film printed on glossy paper.[213]
In 1962, Mansfield had a well-publicized affair with Enrico Bomba, the Italian producer and production manager of her film Panic Button.[214][215][216] Hargitay accused Bomba of sabotaging their marriage.[217][218]
In 1963, she had another well-publicized relationship with the Brazilian-born comedian-singer Nelson Sardelli, whom she said she planned to marry when her divorce from Hargitay was finalized.[219] The couple divorced in Juarez, Mexico, in May 1963. Sardelli accompanied Mansfield in her legal preparations.[86] She had previously filed for divorce on May 4, 1962, but told reporters, "I'm sure we will make it up."[220] During the acrimonious divorce proceedings, she attempted to force a more favorable financial settlement by accusing Hargitay of kidnapping one of her children.[221]
After divorcing Hargitay, Mansfield discovered she was pregnant. Being an unwed mother would have endangered her career, so she and Hargitay announced that they were still married. A daughter, Mariska Hargitay, was born on January 23, 1964, after the divorce was finalized but before California ruled it valid.[222] Mariska later revealed that Sardelli is her biological father.[223][224] Mansfield sued to get the Juarez divorce declared legal after Mariska was born, and the divorce was recognized on August 26, 1964.[225]
A court decree in June 1967 made Hargitay the guardian of Mickey, Zoltan, and Mariska, though they continued to live with Mansfield.[226] He married airline stewardess Ellen Siano in 1968,[227] and she accompanied him to New Orleans when he picked up his children after Mansfield's death.[228] Shortly after her funeral, Hargitay sued his ex-wife's estate for more than $275,000 ($2.60 million in 2024 dollars)[6] to support the children, as he and Ellen would raise them,[225] but he lost the suit.[229] Mansfield once told Hargitay on a television talk show that she was sorry for all the trouble she had caused him.[230]
Mansfield became involved with Matt Cimber (a.k.a. Matteo Ottaviano, né Thomas Vitale Ottaviano), an Italian-born film director, when he directed her in a stage production of Bus Stop in Yonkers, New York, costarring Hargitay.[231][232] She married him on September 24, 1964, in Mulegé, Baja California Sur, Mexico. They separated on July 11, 1965, and filed for divorce on July 20, 1966.[233] Cimber managed her career during their marriage, and guided her through a series of increasingly tawdry projects like Promises! Promises! and The Las Vegas Hillbillys. Their marriage began to collapse in the wake of Cimber’s alleged physical abuse, Mansfield's alcohol abuse, open infidelities, and disclosure to Cimber that she had been happy only with Sardelli. Work on Mansfield's film Single Room Furnished (1966), directed by Cimber, was suspended.[234] The couple had a son, Antonio Raphael Ottaviano (a.k.a. Tony Cimber, born October 18, 1965). Cimber and his second wife, dress designer Christy Hilliard Hanak, who married on December 2, 1967, raised Tony, Mansfield's youngest child.[28][235][236] At the time, Mansfield had degenerated into alcoholism, drunken brawls, and performing at cheap burlesque shows.[237][238] Cimber later worked as a producer for Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.[239]
In July 1966, Mansfield started living with her attorney, Sam Brody, who had frequent drunken brawls with her and mistreated her daughter Jayne Marie. In the 2025 documentary My Mom Jayne, Jayne Marie, Mansfield's son Zoltán Hargitay, and Mickey Hargitay's third wife Ellen also recalled instances where Mansfield showed signs of physical abuse from Brody. Sam Brody's wife Beverly filed for divorce, calling Mansfield the "41st other woman" in Sam's life.[28][235][236]
Mansfield's son Zoltán made news when a lion attacked him and bit his neck while he and his mother visited the theme park Jungleland USA in Thousand Oaks, California, on November 23, 1966. He suffered severe head trauma, underwent three surgeries at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, including a six-hour brain surgery, and contracted meningitis. He recovered, and Brody sued the theme park on the family's behalf for $1.6 million ($15.1 million in 2024 dollars).[6][68][240][241] The publicity led to the theme park's closure.[242]
In June 1967, two weeks before her mother's death, 16-year-old Jayne Marie accused Brody of beating her.[66] Her statement to the Los Angeles Police Department implicated her mother in encouraging the abuse, and days later a juvenile court judge awarded temporary custody of Jayne Marie to Paul Mansfield's uncle William W. Pigue and his wife Mary.[175][243][244]
Religion
In August 1963, Mansfield decided to convert to Catholicism.[131][245] Although she never converted, she attended Catholic services when in Europe,[246] and followed Catholic practices when involved with Catholic partners (including Hargitay, Sardelli, and Cimber).[247][248] In May 1967, her performance at the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee, Ireland, was canceled because Catholic clergy condemned it.[249] She wanted to marry Cimber in a Catholic ceremony, but was unable to find a priest to officiate.[250] While involved with Brody, she also showed interest in Judaism.[131]
In San Francisco for the city's 1966 Film Festival, Mansfield and Brody visited the Church of Satan to meet Anton LaVey, the church's founder. He awarded Mansfield a medallion and the title "High Priestess of San Francisco's Church of Satan." The media enthusiastically covered the meeting and the events surrounding it, identifying her as a Satanist, and speculating that she was somehow romantically involved with LaVey.[251][252][253] That meeting remained a much-publicized and oft-quoted event of both her life and the history of the Church of Satan.[254][255] LaVey's daughter Karla LaVey said in a 1992 interview that Mansfield was a practicing LaVeyan Satanist and had a romantic relationship with Anton LaVey.[256]
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Public image
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Influence
Mansfield was a major Hollywood sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s and 20th Century Fox's alternative to Marilyn Monroe. She came to be known as the "Working Man's Monroe".[257][237] She was one of Hollywood's original blonde bombshells,[258] and remains one of the most recognizable icons of 1950s celebrity culture.[259]
According to Hollywood historian and biographer James Parish, Mansfield's hourglass figure (she claimed dimensions of 40–21–35), unique sashaying walk, breathy baby talk, and cleavage-revealing costumes made an enduring impact.[28] Hollywood historian Andrew Nelson said that she was seen as Hollywood's gaudiest, boldest, D-cupped, B-grade actress from 1955 until the early 1960s.[237]
Frequent references have been made to Mansfield's very high IQ, which she claimed was 163.[260] In addition to English, she spoke four other languages. She learned French, Spanish, and German in high school, and in 1963 she studied Italian.[261] Reputed to be Hollywood's "smartest dumb blonde", she later complained that the public did not care about her brain, saying: "They're more interested in 40–21–35", a reference to her body measurements.[237][26]
Trademarks
Blonde
A natural brunette, Mansfield had her hair bleached and colored platinum blonde when she moved to Los Angeles,[262] and became one of the early "blonde bombshells", along with Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Mamie Van Doren.[263][264][265][266] In 1958, she also had her eyebrows dyed platinum.[267] Following Jean Harlow (who started the trend with her film Bombshell),[268][269] Monroe, Mansfield, and Van Doren helped establish the stereotype typified by a combination of curvaceous physique, very light-colored hair, and a perceived lack of intelligence.[270] A review of English-language tabloids shows it to be one of the most persistent blonde stereotypes along with busty blonde, and blonde babe.[271]
Mansfield and Monroe have been described as representations of a historical juncture of sexuality in comedy and popular culture.[272] Academics have also named Anita Ekberg and Bettie Page as catalysts of the trend of exaggerated female sexuality.[273][274] M. Thomas Inge describes Mansfield, Monroe, and Jane Russell as personifications of the bad girl in popular culture.[275] Judy Holliday and Goldie Hawn have also been said to have established the "dumb blonde" stereotype,[276] typified by overt sexuality and apparent inability to understand everyday life.[277] Instead of the asexualized and virginal "nice girls" of earlier films, the pneumatic blonde bombshells took over the screen in the 1950s and have been consistently emulated since.[278][279] Social historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg called the 1950s as "an era distinguished by its worship of full-breasted women" and attributes the paradigm shift to Mansfield and Monroe.[280] Patricia Vettel-Becker specifically attributed the phenomenon to Playboy magazine and Mansfield's and Monroe's appearances in it.[281]
Figure
Newspapers in the 1950s routinely published Mansfield's body measurements, which once led evangelist Billy Graham to exclaim, "This country knows more about Jayne Mansfield's statistics than the Second Commandment."[282] Mansfield proclaimed a 41-inch bust line and a 22-inch waist when she made her Broadway debut in 1955, though some scholars dispute those figures.[283] She was known as "the Cleavage Queen" and "the Queen of Sex and Bosom".[284]
It was said that her breasts fluctuated[285][286] in size from her pregnancies and nursing her five children. Her smallest bust measurement was 40-D (102 cm), which was constant throughout the 1950s, and her largest was 46-DD (117 cm), measured by the press in 1967.[287] According to Playboy, her vital statistics were 40D-21-36 (102–53–91 cm) on her 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) frame.[288]
It has been claimed that her bosom was a major force behind the development of 1950s brassieres, including the whirlpool bra, cuties, the shutter bra, the action bra, latex pads, cleavage-revealing designs, and uplifted outlines.[289][290] R. L. Rutsky[291] and Bill Osgerby[292] have said that Mansfield, Monroe, and Brigitte Bardot popularized the bikini. Drawing on the Freudian concept of fetishism, British science-fiction writer and socio-cultural commentator J. G. Ballard said that Mae West's, Mansfield's, and Monroe's breasts "loomed across the horizon of popular consciousness".[293] According to Dave Kehr, as the 1960s approached, the anatomy that had made her a star turned her into a joke.[283] In that decade, the female body ideal shifted to the slim waif-like features of supermodel Twiggy, actress Audrey Hepburn, and others.[279][294][295]
Publicity
Mansfield's drive for publicity was one of the strongest in Hollywood. She gave up all privacy, her doors always open to photographers.[78][296] On Christmas Eve 1954, she walked into publicist James Byron's office with a gift and asked him to oversee her publicity,[78] which he did, for the most part, until the end of 1961.[140] Byron appointed most of the people on her team—William Shiffrin (press agent), Greg Bautzer (attorney), and Charles Goldring (business manager)[297]—and constantly planted publicity material in the media.[296] She appeared in about 2,500 newspaper photographs, and had about 122,000 lines of newspaper copy written about her between September 1956 and May 1957.[259]
Because of this media blitz, she achieved international renown. On October 10, 1959, she visited White Hart Lane, England, and watched the Tottenham Hotspur versus Wolverhampton Wanderers FC football match. By 1960, Mansfield had topped press polls for most words in print, made more personal appearances than any political candidate,[78] and was regarded as the world's most-photographed Hollywood celebrity.[126] She made news on a regular basis, for malfunctioning dresses, clothing that burst strategically at the seams, and low-cut dresses without a bra.[296][298] Things worsened when she took charge of her own publicity without advice. According to Shiffrin, "She became a freak."[299] James Bacon wrote in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner in 1973: "Here was a girl with real comedy talent, spectacular figure and looks and yet ridiculed herself out of business by outlandish publicity."[300]
Mansfield received her first truly negative publicity after she and Hargitay pleaded poverty when his first wife, Mary Hargitay, whom he divorced on September 6, 1956, requested additional child support for their first child, Tina, in September 1958. Mansfield said she slept on the floor of her mansion, was unable to buy furniture, and spent only $71 on her daughter Jayne Marie ($1,000 in 2024 dollars)[6].[301][302][303] During this marriage she had three children, Miklós Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay (born December 21, 1958), Zoltán Anthony Hargitay (born August 1, 1960), and Mariska (born January 23, 1964), the biological daughter of Nelson Sardelli.[304]
Publicity stunts
In January 1955, Mansfield appeared at a Silver Springs, Florida, press junket promoting the film Underwater!, starring Jane Russell. She purposely wore a too-small red bikini lent to her by photographer friend Peter Gowland. When she dived into the pool for photographers, her top came off, creating a burst of media attention. The ensuing publicity led Warner Bros. and Playboy to approach her with offers.[175][259][305][306] On June 8 of that year, her dress fell down to her waist twice in a single evening, once at a movie party and later at a nightclub.[307] In February 1958, she was topless at a Carnival party in Rio de Janeiro.[26][308][309] She shimmied out of her polka-dot dress in a Rome nightclub in June 1962.[310][311] In the three years since making her Broadway debut in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Mansfield had become the most controversial star of the decade.[298]
In April 1957, her breasts were the focus of a publicity stunt intended to deflect media attention from Sophia Loren during a dinner party in Loren's honor. Photographs of them were published around the world. The best-known showed Loren gazing at Mansfield's cleavage (she was seated between Loren and her dinner companion, Clifton Webb) when Mansfield leaned over the table, allowing her breasts to spill over her low neckline, exposing one of her nipples.[312] The photo was a UPI sensation, appearing in newspapers and magazines with the word "censored" hiding Mansfield's nipple.[313]
At the same time, the media were quick to condemn Mansfield's stunts. One editorial columnist wrote: "We are amused when Miss Mansfield strains to pull in her stomach to fill out her bikini better; but we get angry when career-seeking women, shady ladies, and certain starlets and actresses ... use every opportunity to display their anatomy unasked."[43] By the late 1950s, Mansfield began to generate a great deal of negative publicity because of repeated exposure of her breasts in carefully staged public "wardrobe accidents".[314][315] Richard Blackwell, her wardrobe designer (who also designed for Jane Russell, Dorothy Lamour, Peggy Lee and Nancy Reagan), dropped her from his client list because of this.[316] In April 1967, the Los Angeles Times wrote: "She confuses publicity and notoriety with stardom and celebrity and the result is very distasteful to the public."[317]
Signature color
Mansfield adopted pink as her color in 1954, and was associated with it for the rest of her career.[41][318] Her original choice was purple, but she thought it too close to lavender, Kim Novak's signature color.[41] "It must have been the right decision," she said, "because I got more column space from pink than Kim Novak ever did from lavender."[318] In November 1957, shortly before their marriage, using money from an inheritance, Mansfield bought the 40-room Mediterranean-style mansion (formerly owned by Rudy Vallée) at 10100 Sunset Boulevard in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles.[81] Mansfield had the house painted pink, with cupids surrounded by pink fluorescent lights, pink fur in the bathrooms, a pink heart-shaped bathtub, and a fountain spurting pink champagne; she then dubbed it the "Pink Palace". Hargitay (a plumber and carpenter before taking up bodybuilding) built the pink heart-shaped swimming pool. The year after reconstructing the "Pink Palace" as a "pink landmark", she began riding in a pink Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible with tailfins, then the only pink Cadillac in Hollywood.[319][320][321]
Rivalry
Throughout her career, Mansfield was compared by the media to the reigning sex symbol of the period, Marilyn Monroe.[29] 20th Century Fox groomed her and Sheree North to substitute for Monroe, their resident blonde bombshell, while Universal Pictures launched Van Doren as its substitute.[322] The studio launched Mansfield with a grand 40-day tour of England and Europe from September 25 to November 6, 1957.[323] She adopted Monroe's vocal mannerisms instead of her original husky voice and Texas accent,[283] performed in two plays that were based on Monroe vehicles, Bus Stop and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,[324] and her role in The Wayward Bus was strongly influenced by Monroe's character in Bus Stop.[130]
Other studios also tried to find their own versions of Monroe. Columbia Pictures tried Cleo Moore, Warner Bros. Carroll Baker, Paramount Pictures Anita Ekberg, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Barbara Lang,[325] while Diana Dors was dubbed England's answer to Mansfield.[326] Jacqueline Susann wrote, "When one studio has a Marilyn Monroe, every other studio is hiring Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren."[327] The contenders also included Sheree North, Kim Novak, Joi Lansing, Beverly Michaels, Barbara Nichols and Greta Thyssen, and even two brunettes— Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Russell.[328][329][330] Van Doren, Dors, and Novak also acted in productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.[331] Even when Mansfield's film roles were drying up, she was still considered Monroe's primary rival. Mansfield considered Van Doren her professional nemesis.[332][page needed] At one point, Monroe, Mansfield, and Mamie were known as The Three M's.[333][334]
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Death
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Gravestone at Fairview Cemetery (Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania)
Mansfield's cenotaph (with incorrect birth year) at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood
On June 28, 1967, Mansfield was in Biloxi, Mississippi, for an engagement at the Gus Stevens Supper Club. After midnight, Mansfield; her attorney and partner Sam Brody; Ronald B. Harrison, a 19-year-old driver for the Gus Stevens Supper Club, who was driving; three of her children; and her four Chihuahuas left Biloxi for New Orleans, where Mansfield was to appear on WDSU's Midday Show. At about 2:25 a.m. on June 29, on U.S. Highway 90, 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the Rigolets Bridge, their car crashed while traveling between 60 and 80 miles per hour (97 and 129 km/h) into the rear of a tractor-trailer that had slowed down from 50 to 35 miles per hour (80 to 56 km/h) due to an approaching mosquito insecticide fog-spraying truck that was flashing a red light. The three adults in the front seat and two of the dogs died instantly. The children, asleep in the rear seat, survived with minor injuries.[335][336][337][Notes 6] They were rushed to Ochsner Foundation Hospital, where Mickey Hargitay arrived that same day after learning what had happened.[338]
Reports that Mansfield was decapitated are untrue, although she suffered severe head trauma.[339] This urban legend started with the appearance in police photographs of the crashed car with its top virtually sheared off and what resembled a blonde-haired head tangled in the car's smashed windshield. Mansfield's death certificate gives her immediate cause of death as "crushed skull with avulsion of cranium and brain".[340] The identity of the head-like shape has not been definitively determined, but it is speculated to have been either a wig Mansfield was wearing or carrying, the top of her real hair and scalp, or something else.[341] After her death, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommended requiring an underride guard (a strong bar made of steel tubing) on all tractor-trailers; the trucking industry was slow to adopt this change. In America, the underride guard is sometimes known as a "Mansfield bar."[342][343][344]
Mansfield's body was flown from New Orleans to New York and a private funeral took place on July 3 at the chapel of the Pullis Funeral Home in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, officiated by a pastor of the Zion Methodist Church who had known Mansfield since her childhood. Mansfield was buried in Fairview Cemetery next to her father. Mickey Hargitay was the only ex-husband of Mansfield present at the funeral.[345][346][131][347]
In 1968, two wrongful-death lawsuits were filed on behalf of Mansfield and ex-husband Matt Cimber.[348] After a 16-day trial in 1971, the jury found that Harrison, the driver of the car, was negligent, that Richard Rambo, the driver of the truck into which Mansfield crashed, was not negligent, and that James McLelland, the driver of the fog-spraying truck, was negligent but his negligence was not a proximate cause of the accident; a rehearing was denied.[337]
The crashed car was saved by a private collector in Florida, where it became a roadside attraction in the 1970s, then was on display by the Dearly Departed Tours & Artifact Museum until the COVID-19 pandemic, when it went into storage.[349][350]
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Achievements and legacy
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Awards and nominations
- Mansfield received a Theatre World Award (Promising Personality) for Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? in 1956.[123]
- She received a Golden Globe Award (New Star of the year, Actress) for The Girl Can't Help It in 1957.[124][353]
- She received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960, for her contribution to motion pictures.[351]
- On Mother's Day of 1960, the Mildred Strauss Child Care Chapter of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City declared her family as the "Family of the Year".[354]
- Italian film, radio and television journalists awarded her the Silver Mask award in 1962.[355]
- Mansfield received the Oscar of the Two World award in Italy.[356][357]
- In 1963, Mansfield was voted one of the top-10 box-office attractions by an organization of American theater owners for her performance in Promises! Promises! (a film banned in parts of the U.S.).[80][86]
- In 1968, the Hollywood Publicists Guild declared a "Jayne Mansfield Award" would be given to the actress who received the most exposure and publicity in a year.[267] Raquel Welch was the first winner of the award in 1969.[358]
Legacy
Mansfield left behind five children and a crumbling estate,[359][360][361] including the Pink Palace.
Mansfield is known for helping shape the "dumb blonde" stereotype.[362][363] Contrary to her public persona, Mansfield was quite intelligent, and at one point could speak up to five different languages.[364]
Her daughter Mariska became an actress and star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She has won several awards for her work on the show, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2005 and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2006.[365] Hargitay released My Mom Jayne, a documentary about Mansfield, in June 2025.[366]
Estate
After Mansfield's death, Hargitay, Cimber, Vera Peers (Mansfield's mother), William Pigue (Jayne Marie's legal guardian), and Charles Goldring (Mansfield's business manager), as well as Bernard B. Cohen and Jerome Webber (both administrators of the estate) filed unsuccessful suits to gain control of her estate.[367][368][369] Mansfield's estate was appraised initially at $600,000 ($4.7 million in 2024 dollars),[6] including the Pink Palace, estimated at $100,000 ($780,000 in 2024 dollars), a sports car sold for $7,000 ($54,000 in 2024 dollars), her jewelry, and Sam Brody's $185,000 estate left to her in his last will ($1,440,000 in 2024 dollars).[370][371] In 1971, Beverly Brody sued the Mansfield estate for $325,000 ($2,520,000 in 2024 dollars) worth of presents and jewelry given to Mansfield by Sam Brody; the suit was settled out of court.[372][373][374] However, her four eldest children (Jayne Marie, Mickey, Zoltan, and Mariska) went to court in 1977 to find that approximately $500,000 in debt that Mansfield had incurred ($3.9 million in 2024 dollars), including $11,000 for lingerie ($85,000 in 2024 dollars), $11,600 for plumbing of the heart-shaped swimming pool ($90,000 in 2024 dollars), and litigation had left the estate insolvent.[375]
The Pink Palace was sold. Its subsequent owners included Ringo Starr and Engelbert Humperdinck.[376] Cass Elliot is often falsely claimed to have owned the home. In 2002, Humperdinck sold it to developers, and the house was demolished in November of that year.[377] What remained of her estate was subsequently managed by CMG Worldwide, an intellectual property-management company.[378]
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See also
Notes
- Mansfield's mother's full name before marriage was Vera Jeffrey Palmer. Jeffrey is not her "maiden name", it is a family name Vera inherited from her mother (Jayne Mansfield's grandmother), Beatrice (Jeffrey) Palmer. So, Jayne's mother's full name, including her "born as" last name, was Vera Jeffrey Palmer Palmer.[5]
- Vera Jeffrey Palmer's father, Thomas H. Palmer, was from the largely Cornish area of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania,[9] where he was involved with the slate industry.[7]
- During the early 1960s Mansfield also appeared in the German films Heimweh nach St. Pauli (1963) aka Homesick for St. Pauli in English and Einer frisst den anderen (1964).
- Original text of To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick:
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying." - In My Mom Jayne, Zoltán Hargitay recalled his mother and Sam Brody were fighting in the front seat, and that she had moved to the back seat next to him at one point. He also recalled that she had screamed at the time of the crash.
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