During the 1950s, Jayne Mansfield captured the imaginations of millions with her stunning looks,
gravity-defying figure, and bubbly personality. But her wild ride came
to a terrible end in 1967. This is the tragic real-life story of Jayne Mansfield.
Born Vera Jayne Palmer in 1933 in Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania, to parents Herbert William and
Vera Jeffrey Palmer, Jayne Mansfield always knew she wanted to be famous.
Teenage Jayne plastered her walls with photos of movie idols and dreamed of stardom. In 1936,
a big part of Jayne's world came crashing down when her beloved father died suddenly
of a heart attack. Herbert Palmer's passing left a void in Jayne's life.
As Raymond Strait, author of The Tragic Secret Life of Jayne Mansfield, explained to Biography:
"[Jayne] grew up always looking for a father and looking to men
for a father image [...] and she never found it."
At 16, Vera Jayne Palmer, not yet out of high school, eloped with 20-year-old Paul Mansfield.
Jayne kept the marriage under wraps and continued to attend high school and live with her mother and
stepfather. However, when Jayne became pregnant, the secret came out. In recalling her mother's
reaction to her pregnancy, Janye had this to say to her friend and biographer, May Mann:
"Momma said I had ruined my life and her life [...] Then she relented and
bought me a pretty white wedding dress and we had a wedding of sorts. But I
always remembered her telling me never to expect help from her."
On November 9, 1950, Jayne and Paul Mansfield welcomed daughter Jayne Marie into the world.
However, motherhood would do nothing to diminish Jayne's ambition.
After Jayne's high school graduation, the young couple enrolled at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas. Like many young newlyweds, Jayne
and Paul Mansfield struggled financially. Nevertheless, they juggled parenthood,
classes, and work to make a life for themselves and their baby daughter.
With her husband away for ROTC summer camp, Jayne left their daughter in the care of her
parents while she headed for California to study drama at the University of California,
Los Angeles. At the end of the summer session, the Mansfields briefly returned to Texas,
but the Korean War necessitated Paul's activation in the Army Reserve and a move to
Camp Gordon near Atlanta, Georgia. Jayne's habit of sunbathing and outdoor exercise caused quite
a stir among the soldiers and their wives and drove her husband mad with jealousy.
Paul Mansfield struck a deal with his wife. If she could wait out his two-year tour of duty,
they would move to Hollywood and make a go of Jayne's dreams. Initially on board with
Jayne's aspirations, Paul Mansfield moved his small family to Los Angeles. Soon,
however, Paul would come to hate the idea of Jayne becoming a star as her pursuit of
her career pushed him further and further into the background of his wife's life.
Incredibly intelligent and possessing superhuman ambition, Jayne Mansfield mapped her every career
move like a general planning an assault. By the 1950s, the public's conception of ideal womanhood
was the voluptuous platinum blonde. Marilyn Monroe set the standard for the mid-century
sex symbol, and thousands of would-be starlets followed her lead. With her 40-22-35 figure,
mother nature had given Jayne Mansfield a leg up, while a bottle of peroxide would do the rest.
Jayne says, "Sex appeal is a wonderful, warm, womanly, healthy feeling."
Jayne Mansfield took the concept of the blonde bombshell and turned it up to 11. But even in
an era when bigger was always better, her curves proved a bit too dangerous
to some. As recounted in a 2003 episode of the BBC documentary series Living Famously,
Mansfield's stunning looks had scored her numerous titles, ranging from Miss Photoflash
and Miss Cadillac to Cherry Blossom Queen and Queen of the Palm Springs Desert Rodeo. Yet,
her physical assets were just a bit too hot for commercial advertising.
The official Jayne Mansfield licensing website, JayneMansfield.com, quotes photographer Gary
Lester on one of Mansfield's first professional modeling gigs, which was a photo shoot
for General Electric. Lester recalled, "General Electric notified me that they
had to cut her out of the picture because she looked too sexy for 1954 viewers."
Jayne Mansfield's first marriage would not survive her quest for stardom.
Just four months after arriving in California, Jayne and Paul Mansfield separated. Cracks in
their marriage had begun to show during their time at Camp Gordon. According to biographer
Raymond Strait, Paul Mansfield had hoped that marriage and motherhood would quell
his wife's ambitions. By the time Paul left for Korea, the marriage was effectively over.
The marriage collapsed under the strain of emotional and financial struggles brought
on by the Mansfields' move to California and Jayne's single-minded pursuit of fame.
Alleged infidelities on Jayne's part also took a toll on Paul. Eventually,
he gave Jayne an ultimatum: It was him or her career. Soon, he was on his way back to Dallas.
Jayne Mansfield's ambitions finally began to bear fruit when she landed her first movie role in the
1955 film noir Female Jungle. That year would also find Mansfield making the first of many
appearances in Playboy. Jayne's semi-nude photo spread in the famous men's magazine
gave Paul Mansfield what he hoped would be ammunition to gain custody of their daughter,
citing it as evidence that Jayne was an unfit mother.
Jayne says, "But everyone figures me for a sexpot. No one thinks I'm equipped for motherhood."
Jayne Mansfield instinctively understood the value of publicity. She turned to Jim Byron,
a former club promoter, to help her with her image. As related in Jayne Mansfield:
A Biography, Byron managed to get her a meeting with a producer at Warner Brothers.
Already familiar with Mansfield's story from thousands of other starry-eyed,
aspiring actresses, the producer told her she'd be better off settling down as a wife and mother.
After taking Mansfield on a tour of the studio lot, the producer told her he'd
call her if something came up. Soon after, the studio called Mansfield
for a screen test. Within days, she signed a seven-year contract with the studio. At first,
it seemed that Jayne Mansfield had at last achieved her dreams of stardom.
She relished strolling about the Warner lot in the company of the biggest movie
celebrities of the day, and Warner's publicity machine kept her in the public eye. Yet,
her seven-year contract resulted in little work for Mansfield. Ultimately,
Warner Brothers dropped Jayne Mansfield after four largely unremarkable films.
In July 1955, Mansfield took a starring role in George Axelrod's play Will Success
Spoil Rock Hunter? A Broadway smash, the play finally propelled Mansfield to fame. However,
20th Century Fox was so eager to nab the actress that the studio
bought the rights to the play and signed Mansfield to a new six-year contract with
a promise to groom her as one of the studio's most important stars.
From the beginning of her career to the present day, many critics dismiss Jayne Mansfield as
an overblown parody of Marilyn Monroe. The comparisons began with Mansfield's star-making
turn in George Axelrod's 1955 comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? In the play, Mansfield stars as
Rita Marlowe, a stereotypical blonde starlet with a breathy voice and a questionable IQ.
"Leave? And walk out on all of this publicity? Phew!"
Written as a lampoon of Monroe, Rita Marlowe gave Mansfield the opportunity to stretch out in
a comedic role. Unfortunately, she would forever be branded as a "dumb blonde" by detractors who
mistook her act for reality. Mansfield, who had an IQ in the 140s, spoke five languages, and played
violin, piano, and viola, shrewdly crafted her flighty, sex bomb persona for maximum impact.
Where Monroe came to despise her public image and longed to be considered a serious actress,
Mansfield craved attention. So, when Monroe was suspended by 20th Century Fox, the studio picked
up Jayne Mansfield to fill the shoes of their troubled and increasingly disagreeable star.
Citing Monroe's pretensions to art, Mansfield explained her own
unique appeal to The Washington Post's Lawrence J. Quirk in a 1957 interview:
"I want to strike out on the common trail; I want to be the ordinary man's conception
of what a sexy, obliging, comradely, down-to-earth girlfriend ought to be."
Jayne Mansfield's move from Broadway to 20th Century Fox at last put her on the road to
movie stardom. Her first film at the studio was a technicolor rock 'n' roll comedy titled
The Girl Can't Help It. In the film, Mansfield stars as Jerri Jordan, the tone-deaf girlfriend
of a mobster determined to make her a singing star with the help of a hapless, hard-drinking
press agent. The film was a huge success and further cemented Mansfield's sexpot image.
Mansfield's next film for Fox was a radical departure. Released in 1957, The Wayward Bus,
based on a novel by John Steinbeck, found the actress in a rare dramatic role. A modest box
office success, the film garnered Mansfield a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year.
The same year, Mansfield would star in Kiss Them For Me with Cary Grant and
reprise her role as Rita Marlowe in the film adaption of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
A world-famous movie star at last, Mansfield bought a Hollywood mansion,
a Jaguar, and host of other luxuries all in her signature color, pink. Mansfield's meteoric rise
ended with the 1958 release of The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw. As the 1960s dawned, the era
of the blonde bombshell was over. Relegated to low-budget foreign "B" pictures, Mansfield was
forced to turn down roles due to her repeated pregnancies. In 1962, Fox ended her contract.
Jayne Mansfield pursued romance with nearly the same passion and intensity as she chased fame.
Stardom and fame were a volatile mix for Mansfield. Her first marriage to Paul Mansfield,
father of her daughter Jayne Marie and the man from whom she took her last name,
withered in the light of her rising star. Paul's jealousy and reluctance to live his
life as "Mr. Jayne Mansfield" coupled with his wife's rumored extramarital
dalliances ended their marriage in an acrimonious divorce and custody fight.
If Jayne Mansfield had one true love in life other than fame, it was bodybuilder Mickey
Hargitay , whom she wooed away from an aging Mae West to marry in 1958. With their flashy style
and physical perfection, they perfectly complemented one another. Nevertheless,
Jayne embarked on a series of affairs that eventually ended her second marriage.
Jayne says, "I think it's very, very bad taste."
Guy replies: "What's very bad taste?"
Jayne: "Telling your wife you love her in front of me."
Mansfield's third and final marriage to director Matt
Cimber ended in divorce in just under two years.
Jayne Mansfield's final years were stained with tragedy and a struggle to remain relevant.
Abandoned by the mainstream film industry, the few movie roles she could get were cheaply-made
exploitation fare. In 1964, Mansfield married theater director Matt Cimber,
who assured her that he could reignite her Hollywood career. The two-year union resulted
in another child and Mansfield's final starring role in Cimber's film Single Room Furnished.
If Jayne Mansfield had begun her career as a parody of Marilyn Monroe, it seemed that she
was ending it as a parody of herself. Turning to drugs and alcohol to cope with a life and career
that was rapidly careening out of control, Mansfield engaged in a volatile affair with
her attorney, Sam Brody. Brody and Mansfield's relationship often devolved into drunken brawls,
as recounted by biographer May Mann. Diminished to performing in a gaudy,
traveling nightclub act, Mansfield's career and life were on borrowed time.
On the morning of July 29, 1967, Jayne Mansfield, Sam Brody, driver Ronnie Harrison, and three of
Mansfield's children were en route from Biloxi, Mississippi, to New Orleans. Mansfield was
scheduled for an appearance on local TV. At around 2:00 AM, the party's car collided with the rear of
a tractor-trailer. Shrouded in a fog of pesticide, the looming danger was virtually invisible.
The three adult occupants were killed instantly, though the children survived. One of her children,
Mariska Hargitay, would later go on to star on NBC's long-running crime procedural,
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Jayne Mansfield was just 34 years old.
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