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| Birth Name(s) : Harlean Harlow Carpenter |
Date of Birth: March 31, 1911 |
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| Profession:
Actor |
Official Site
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Full Jean Harlow Biography
She was a star for less than a decade. She headlined fewer than 20 films. Yet she had an impact that transcends statistics. With her brilliant platinum blond hair, ravishing figure, easy sensuality, and ready sense of humor, Jean Harlow was the most dynamic sex symbol of her era and one of the 1930s' brightest stars.
She started in films as an extra, and gained particular notice in a 1929 Laurel and Hardy silent short, Double Whoopee That same year she had a small role in The Saturday Night Kid which starred the woman she more or less supplanted as the screen's most uninhibited sex star, Clara Bow. Her big break came in 1930, when Howard Hughes cast her as the leading lady in the epic WW1 aviation drama Hell's Angels Although her acting skills were dubious at best, she looked smashing (and was even photographed in two-color Technicolor for one extended sequence), and her offhanded question to Ben Lyon, "Would you be shocked if I changed into something more comfortable?" was quoted-and misquoted-for years to come. Hughes sent her on per sonal appearance tours and loaned her out to other studios. In 1931 alone she appeared in The Secret Six, The Iron Man, The Public Enemy (opposite James Cagney), Goldie and Platinum Blonde (playing the title characters in the last two); 1932 began with Beast of the City and Three Wise Girls
Still, there seemed little more to Harlow than her looks. It was MGM producer Paul Bern who took an interest in her, and encouraged his studio to build her up and give her other opportunities. She made the most of Red-Headed Woman (1932), giving one of the sexiest performances ever put on film, but leavening it with humorHarlow's heretofore unseen trump card. The promise she showed in that film came to fruition in Red Dust (1932) in which she played a tramp with a heart, opposite Clark Gable. Overnight, it seemed, Harlow was not only a bona fide star, but a hit with the critics as well, who had dismissed her just one year earlier.
During the filming of Saratoga (1937) she fell ill, and was dead ten days later. The world was shocked that someone so young, beautiful, and seemingly healthy could die so suddenly. Various causes were cited, but it wasn't until 1993 that biographer David Stenn revealed, from long-suppressed doctor's records and other evidence, that Harlow had been suffering from kidney disease since her teens. With no known cure at the time, she was doomed. Public demand caused MGM to complete Saratoga with stand-in Mary Dees substituting for Harlow in several shots.
Hers was a shocking, tragic end, though it seemed in character with other personal problems that had dogged her life: a suffocating mother and parasitic stepfather; the mysterious death of her second husband, Paul Bern; another short-lived marriage to cinematographer Harold Rosson; and a long engagement to MGM star William Powell that never quite culminated in marriage. Rumors and mistruths about all of that fueled two screen biographies in 1965, both called Harlow one starred Carroll Baker, the other Carol Lynley. Neither one managed to capture the magic that made Jean Harlow a star. |
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Additional Jean Harlow Biography
Harlow was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Mont Clair Carpenter, a dentist, and his wife, Jean Poe Carpenter (née Harlow). Young Harlean's father came from a working-class background while her mother was the daughter of a wealthy real estate broker, Skip Harlow and his wife Ella Harlow (née Williams). The marriage was arranged by Jean Carpenter's father, Skip. Carpenter, an intelligent and strong-willed woman, resented it, and would become very unhappy in the marriage.
Unlike many Hollywood stars, little Harlean's childhood was not marked by poverty and unhappiness. Harlean lived with her parents in a very large house in Kansas City that was her grandfather's second home. The only grandchild in the family, Harlean was nicknamed "The Baby", a moniker that would stick with her for the rest of her life. Without any siblings, Harlean became extremely close to her mother, and Jean Carpenter, unhappy in her marriage, turned all her focus onto her daughter. She was extremely protective and coddling to young Harlean, instilling in her a sense that Harlean owed everything she had to her mother, which in turn, inspired a deep devotion from daughter to mother, another aspect which would carry through to adulthood. So coddled was young Harlean that she did not learn until the age of five, when she began to attend school at Miss Barstow's Finishing School for Girls in Kansas City, that her name was actually Harlean and not "Baby".
With her daughter at school, Mother Jean become increasingly frustrated and filed for divorce (no small matter at the time) which was finalized, uncontested, September 29, 1922 and was granted, among other things, sole custody of her daughter. Harlean would only see her father again once more in her lifetime.
Concerned of Harlow's status, Hughes sent her on a personal appearance tour of the East Coast in late 1931. To the surprise of many, especially Harlow herself, she packed every theatre she appeared in, often appearing multiple nights in one venue. Despite critical assailment and poor roles, Harlow's popularity and following was large and growing, to the extent that the tour was extended through early 1932. Many of Harlow's female fans were dying their hair platinum to match hers. To capitalize on this craze, Hughes's team organized a series of "Platinum Blonde" clubs across the nation, with a prize of $10,000 to any beautician that could match Harlow's shade.
MGM was where Harlow would become a superstar. Jean was given superior movie roles to show off not only her beauty, but what turned out to be an authentic talent for comedy. In 1932, she had the starring roles in Red-Headed Woman, for which she received a salary of $1,250/week, and Red Dust, her second film with Clark Gable. These films showed her to be much more at ease in front of the camera and highlighted her skill as a comedienne. Harlow and Gable worked well together and co-starred in a total of six films.
It was during the making of Red Dust that Harlow's second husband, MGM producer Paul Bern, was found dead at their home, creating a scandal that reverberates to this day. Initially, the Hollywood community whispered that Harlow had killed Bern herself, though this was just rumor, and MGM officials quickly stepped in to spread the fabricated story of "Suicide Because of Impotence". Harlow kept silent and survived the ordeal, coming through unscathed and more popular with audiences than ever.
Because of Harlow's indiscreet affair with boxer Max Baer (Heavyweight Champion of the World and key figure in the recent film Cinderella Man), Dorothy Dunbar, Baer's wife, threatened divorce proceedings, naming Harlow as a co-defendant for "alienation of affection," then the common term for adultery.
MGM defused the situation by arranging a marriage between Harlow and cinematographer Harold Rosson. Still feeling the aftershocks of the mysterious Bern death, the studio didn't want another Harlow scandal on its hands. Rosson and Harlow were prior friends, and Rosson went along with the plan. They divorced quietly seven months later.
Following the end of her third marriage, Harlow met MGM star William Powell and quickly fell in love. Reportedly, the couple was engaged for two years, but differences kept them from marrying swiftly (she wanted children; he did not). Harlow also said that studio head Louis B. Mayer would never allow them to wed.
In the early part of 1937, Harlow fell ill with influenza. Although she recovered, the attack weakened her body against the onslaught of a more serious illness that was just beginning to take hold: kidney disease. In retrospective analysis, Harlow's kidneys may have been slowly failing during the ten years since she contracted scarlet fever while in her early teens. In the days before kidney dialysis and transplants, this condition was fatal.
Harlow is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California in a private room in the Great Mausoleum; her crypt bears the simple inscription "Our Baby". Her funeral took place in the Wee Kirk O' The Heather Chapel at Forest Lawn Cemetery. |
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Jean Harlow Quote(s)
| Men like me because I don't wear a brassiere. Women like me because I don't look like a girl who would steal a husband. At least not for long. |
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