Jayne Mansfield was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on April 19, 1933. Best known for her shocking blonde hair and outerspace-awesome curves, Jayne was Playboy magazine's Playmate Of The Month in February 1955 and starred in such films as The Girl Can't Help It, The Burglar, and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Her best acting (most critics dismissed her skills because of her vapid, "dumb blonde" roles, a la Marilyn Monroe) is generally considered to be in the film The Wayward Bus. Although she was quite a popular Hollywood celebrity, good roles began to disappear after 1959, and even 1957's Kiss Them For Me, in which she starred opposite Carey Grant, was a major box office disappointment.
In 1962, she had a bit of a comeback in popularity when she became the first mainstream American actress to go nude in the film Promises! Promises! Many of the on-set photographs were published in Playboy, and Hugh Hefner got an obscenity charge. Although this movie landed Jayne on the Top Ten Box Office Attractions of 1963, she longed to be seen as a more serious actress and play substantial parts. This of course never came to fruition, the double-edged sword of being so remarkably sexy. It was her blonde bombshell image that made her famous in the first place, and the reason her career was completely limited.
The irony was that Jayne Mansfield was indeed not dumb (or even a real blonde) at all. She was known for having a very high IQ, and was a classically trained pianist and violinist who could speak five languages. The public, Jayne admitted, couldn't care any less about those things, their interest only in her measurements, which according to Playboy were 40D-21-36 and her height was 5'6". Her breasts, too, were the subject of much media attention. She was constantly spilling out of dresses, which accounts for the famous photo of Sophia Loren casting what looks to be a disapproving eye at Jayne at a dinner party, as she smiles sweetly and her boobies look like they're about to fall out of her dress and sit on the table. To that I must say: Jealous much? Jayne allegedly had affairs with men from JFK to Anton LaVey (leader of the Church of Satan), and was married three times and had five children. She died, tragically and instantly, in a car crash en route to New Orleans on June 29, 1967. She was 34 years old.
In 1962, she had a bit of a comeback in popularity when she became the first mainstream American actress to go nude in the film Promises! Promises! Many of the on-set photographs were published in Playboy, and Hugh Hefner got an obscenity charge. Although this movie landed Jayne on the Top Ten Box Office Attractions of 1963, she longed to be seen as a more serious actress and play substantial parts. This of course never came to fruition, the double-edged sword of being so remarkably sexy. It was her blonde bombshell image that made her famous in the first place, and the reason her career was completely limited.
The irony was that Jayne Mansfield was indeed not dumb (or even a real blonde) at all. She was known for having a very high IQ, and was a classically trained pianist and violinist who could speak five languages. The public, Jayne admitted, couldn't care any less about those things, their interest only in her measurements, which according to Playboy were 40D-21-36 and her height was 5'6". Her breasts, too, were the subject of much media attention. She was constantly spilling out of dresses, which accounts for the famous photo of Sophia Loren casting what looks to be a disapproving eye at Jayne at a dinner party, as she smiles sweetly and her boobies look like they're about to fall out of her dress and sit on the table. To that I must say: Jealous much? Jayne allegedly had affairs with men from JFK to Anton LaVey (leader of the Church of Satan), and was married three times and had five children. She died, tragically and instantly, in a car crash en route to New Orleans on June 29, 1967. She was 34 years old.
