|
|
|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Vera Jane Palmer |
Date of Birth: April 19, 1933 |
| Status:
Married
|
Partner:
Matt Cimber |
| Profession:
Actor/Model |
Official Site
Go to the Jayne Mansfield Official Homepage |
| << Add Jayne Mansfield To Your Favorites |
|
Full Jayne Mansfield Biography
She was often called "the poor man's Marilyn Monroe." Yet Jayne Mansfield was a larger-than-life figure who, even today, continues to hold a Monroe-like fascination for people (though obviously in far smaller numbers). Mansfield studied acting in college and reportedly took her chosen profession very seriously, but her squeaky voice, eyepopping figure, and limited range made her tough to cast. In fact, it was a Monroe parody that first brought her fame, in the Broadway comedy "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"
By the early 1960s she was pretty much washed up, and finished her movie career in low-budget stinkers-some of them made in Europe-including Promises, Promises (1963), Panic Button, Dog Eat Dog (both 1964), The Fat Spy (1965), Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966), and Single Room Furnished (directed by then-husband Matt Cimber and released posthumously in 1968). She did at least have a funny guest shot in A Guide for the Married Man (1967). During this bleak period she kept her flame burning with a series of layouts in "Playboy" magazine and appearances in numerous TV shows.
Her untimely, tragic death-in a gruesome auto accident-completed the Monroe parallel, and today she's remembered largely as an emblem of America before the Sexual Revolution-in which she played a small but ingratiating role. Her daughter Mariska Hargitay is an actress who has appeared on television and in such films as Ghoulies (1985) and Bank Robber (1993). |
|
|
Additional Jayne Mansfield Biography
Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933—29 June 1967) was an American actress working both on Broadway and in Hollywood.
In 1950, at the age of 16, Jayne married Paul Mansfield. Her acting aspirations were temporarily put on hold with the birth of her first child, Jayne Marie Mansfield, on November 8, 1950. She juggled motherhood and classes at the University of Texas at Austin, then spent a year at Camp Gordon, Georgia during her husband's service in the United States Army. She attended UCLA during the summer of 1953 then went back to Texas for fall quarter at Southern Methodist University. In Dallas she became a student of actor Baruch Lumet, father of director Sidney Lumet and founder of the Dallas Institute of the Performing Arts. On October 22, 1953, she first appeared on stage in a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Jayne won several beauty contests while living in Texas; these included Miss Photoflash, Miss Magnesium Lamp, and Miss Fire Prevention. Frequent references have been made to her very high intelligence quotient. For the record, Mansfield advertised her I.Q. as 163 (as well as speaking five languages and was a classically trained pianist and violinist), but such intellectual abilities were inconsequential. Mansfield admitted her public didn't care about her brains. "They're more interested in 40-21-35," she said.
Returning to Hollywood from a successful run with Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter, the 1955 Broadway production in New York, she starred in Frank Tashlin's camp comic film The Girl Can't Help It (1956). Mansfield's first starring role featured her as an outrageously voluptuous but tone-deaf girlfriend of a retired racketeer. He hires a talent agent to try to transform her into a movie star and in the process the pair fall in love. The film is a high energy romp and features some early rock-and-roll performances from Fats Domino, the Platters and Little Richard.
On May 3, 1956, Mansfield signed a long-term contract with 20th-Century Fox. She then played a straight dramatic role (albeit as a stripper) in The Wayward Bus in 1957. With her role in this film she attempted to move away from her "dumb blonde" image and establish herself as a serious actress. This film was adapted from John Steinbeck's novel, and the cast included Dan Dailey and Joan Collins. The film enjoyed reasonable success at the box office.
Despite her monumental publicity and public popularity, good roles dried up for Mansfield after 1959. The actress nevertheless kept busy in a series of low-budget films, mostly in Europe. These showed off as much of her anatomy as possible, but used little of her acting or comedic talents.
Mansfield's most celebrated physical attributes would alternate in size due to her pregnancies and breast-feeding five children, and indeed many photos show the actress's bosom appearing smaller than its reputed 40D measurement. The director and producer Russ Meyer said that Mansfield's reputation for being large-breasted was based on a misconception and due mainly to her visibly large ribcage and the adoption of daring decolletages.Jayne Mansfield and Sophia Loren at Romanoff's in Beverly Hills
Even with her film roles drying up she was widely considered to be Monroe's primary rival in a crowded field of contenders that included Mamie Van Doren (whom Mansfield considered her professional nemesis), Diana Dors, Cleo Moore, Joi Lansing, and Sheree North.
She also appeared in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Bus Stop, which were well reviewed and co-starred Mickey Hargitay. Dissatisfied with her film roles, Mansfield and Hargitay headlined at the Dunes in Las Vegas in an act called The House of Love, for which the actress earned $35,000 a week. It proved to be such a hit that she extended her stay, and 20th-Century Fox Records subsequently recorded the show for an album called Jayne Mansfield Busts Up Las Vegas, in 1962.
Mansfield married Matt Cimber (alias Matteo Ottaviano, né Thomas Vitale Ottaviano) an Italian-born film director on September 24, 1964. The couple separated on July 11, 1965, and filed for divorce on July 20, 1966. Cimber was a director with whom the actress had become involved when he directed her in a widely praised stage production of Bus Stop in Yonkers, New York, which costarred Hargitay. Cimber took over managing her career during their marriage. With him she had one son, Antonio Raphael Ottaviano (a.k.a. Tony Cimber, born October 17, 1965).
Shortly after Mansfield's funeral, Mickey Hargitay sued his former wife's estate for more than $275,000 to support the children, whom he and his third and last wife, Ellen Siano, would raise. Mansfield's youngest child, Tony, was raised by his father, Matt Cimber, whose divorce from the actress was pending when she was killed. In 1968, wrongful-death lawsuits were filed on behalf of Jayne Marie Mansfield and Matt Cimber, the former for $4.8 million and the latter for $2.7 million. The Pink Palace was sold and its subsequent owners have included Ringo Starr, Mamma Cass Elliot and Engelbert Humperdinck. In 2002, Humperdinck sold it to developers, and the house was demolished in November of that year. |
|
| Add Jayne Mansfield Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
Jayne Mansfield Quote(s)
| We eat a lot of lean meat and fresh vegetables…. You are what you eat, you know. When I'm 100 I'll still be doing pin-ups. |
|
| Add Jayne Mansfield Review/Comment
|
HQ Jayne Mansfield Pictures (3) | Random Jayne Mansfield Picture
|
| << Back to the Jayne Mansfield Homepage |
|
