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| Birth Name(s) : Joan Lucille Olander |
Date of Birth: February 6, 1931 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
Thomas Dixon |
| Profession:
Actor |
Official Site
Go to the Mamie Van Doren Official Homepage |
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Full Mamie Van Doren Biography
Platinum-blond bombshell often referred to as the poor man's Lana Turner. Van Doren, a former dance-band singer whose first movie was Jet Pilot (filmed in 1950 but unreleased until 1957), is best remembered for a series of showy roles in cheap 1950s melodramas that emphasized her physical endowments rather than her somewhat meager dramatic abilities. Untamed Youth, The Girl in Black Stockings (both 1957), High School Confidential! (1958), The Beat Generation, Guns, Girls and Gangsters, Girls Town, Born Reckless, The Big Operator (all 1959), The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, College Confidential and Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) were just a few of those epics.
Van Doren dropped out of Hollywood altogether in the late 1960s, concentrating on a jet-set life-style in the company of celebrities and athletes, particularly (then) quarterback Joe Namath. She made a brief comeback in the 1980s, appearing in Boarding School (1986) to no discernible advantage. As one of the few surviving sex symbols of that era, she's become something of a pop culture queen in recent years, hosting B-movie festivals, making personal appearances, and the like. (She even turned up, as herself, on an episode of "L.A. Law.") Her autobiography, "Playing the Field," was published in 1987. She was married at one time to bandleader Ray Anthony, who appeared with her in High School Confidential! and Girls Town. |
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Additional Mamie Van Doren Biography
Van Doren was born Joan Lucille Olander in Rowena, South Dakota, the daughter of Warner Carl Olander (March 30, 1908-June 4, 1992) and Lucille Harriet Bennett (January 21, 1912-August 27, 1995). She is of three-quarters Swedish ancestry; the remainder is mixed English and German. Her mother named her after Joan Crawford. In 1939, the family moved to Sioux City, Iowa. In May 1942, they moved to Los Angeles.
In early 1946, Joan began working as an usher at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The following year, she had a bit part on an early television show. She also sang with Ted Fio Rito's band and entered beauty contests. In the summer of 1949, at age 18, she won the titles "Miss Eight Ball" and "Miss Palm Springs".
Van Doren had been married for a brief time at seventeen, when she and first husband, Jack Newman, eloped to Santa Barbara. The marriage dissolved quickly, upon discovery of his abusive nature.
Van Doren did a few more bit parts in movies at RKO, including His Kind of Woman (1951) starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell and Vincent Price. About her appearance in that one, Van Doren has said, "If you blinked you would miss me. I look barely old enough to drive."
Van Doren's first movie for Universal was Forbidden (1953), playing a singer. She then made All-American (1953), playing Susie Ward, a wayward girl who is the man-trap at a campus beer joint. In Yankee Pasha (1954) starring Tony Curtis and Rhonda Fleming, she played a slave girl, Lilith.
Some of Van Doren's more noteworthy movies include Teacher's Pet (1958) at Paramount, Born Reckless (1958) at Warner Bros., High School Confidential (1958), and The Beat Generation (1959), the latter two at MGM. But Van Doren was just as well known for her provocative roles. She was in prison for Girl's Town (1959), which provoked censors with a shower scene where audiences could see Van Doren's naked back. As Eve in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960) she wore only fig leaves, and in other films, like The Beautiful Legs of Sabrina (1959), Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) and Vice Raid (1960) audiences were clued in as to the nature of the films from the titles.
Many of Van Doren's film roles showcased her ample curves, and her on screen wardrobe usually consisted of tight sweaters, low-cut blouses, form-fitting dresses, and daring (for the era) swimsuits. While she and other blonde bombshell contemporaries as Cleo Moore, Sheree North and Diana Dors did not attain the same level of superstar status as Marilyn Monroe, Van Doren did become a very famous star and notable Hollywood sex symbol. Marilyn, Mamie and Jayne Mansfield were known as the "Three M's." But by comparison, where Monroe succeeded in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Mansfield had a big success with Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, (a part that was originally written for Van Doren who turned it down), Universal stuck Van Doren with Francis the Talking Mule in Francis Joins the WACS.
As Van Doren's career progressed, many of the productions she starred in were low-budget B-movies. They are largely unknown to later generations, though some have gained a following for their high camp value.
In 1959, Universal chose not to exercise the option in her contract. Van Doren was now a free agent and had to struggle to find work. Some of her later movies were foreign and independent productions, such as Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), The Blonde from Buenos Aires (1961), The Candidate (1964), The Navy vs the Night Monsters (1966) as well as Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who used the pseudonym 'Derek Thomas' for the film.
In 1963, twice she posed for Playboy to promote her movie Three Nuts In Search of a Bolt (1964), though she was never a Playmate. By this point in her career, her voluptuous figure measured 38DD-26-36 (self-described in 1997). Of her curves she said, "I don't even want to say double-D, because they're even bigger than that."
Van Doren also developed a nightclub act and did a lot of live theatre. She performed in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dames at Sea at the Drury Lane Theatre, Chicago, and appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter and The Tender Trap at the Arlington Park Theatre.
During the Vietnam War, she did tours for U.S. troops in Vietnam, for three months in 1968 and again in 1970. In addition to USO shows, she visited hospitals, including the wards of amputees and burn victims that many other celebrities stayed away from.
Van Doren's autobiography, Playing the Field: My Story (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1987) brought much new attention to the veteran sex symbol and proved to be her biggest media splash in over 25 years. Since the book's publication she has often been interviewed and profiled and has occasionally returned to acting.
At age 60, she underwent cosmetic surgery. In interviews, she has consistently denied ever having breast implants. In 2006, Mamie posed for photographs for Vanity Fair with Pamela Anderson as part of their annual Hollywood issue. |
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Mamie Van Doren Quote(s)
| I don't wear panties anymore - this startles the Hollywood wolves so much they don't know what to pull at, so they leave me alone. |
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