Beauty ICON of the Week: Jayne Mansfield

Born: April 19, 1933
Died: June 29, 1967

Born Vera Jane Palmer, Jayne Mansfield was the daughter of a lawyer who died when Mansfield was six, at which time her mother moved the family from Pennsylvania to Dallas. While attending Southern Methodist University, the 16-year-old Palmer married student Paul James Mansfield. Lacking the funds for day-care service, Jayne attended acting classes in Los Angeles with her infant daughter strapped on her back like a papoose.

After briefly working as a candy vendor in an L.A. theater, Mansfield caught the eye of a  TV producer. It was difficult for Mansfield, whose measurements were 40-21-35, not to gain attention in her subsequent TV and film works. More famous as a cheesecake model than an actress, by 1955 Mansfield first gained critical plaudits for her classic performance as a Monroe-like movie starlet in George_Axelrod's Broadway play +Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter. This role won her a contract at 20th Century Fox, where she fell within the sphere of comedy directorFrank_Tashlin, who regarded Mansfield as a "living cartoon" and directed her accordingly in the film version of Rock Hunter and in 1956's The Girl Can't Help It. Despite good dramatic performances in such films as, Kiss Them for Me (1957),The_Wayward_Bus and The Burglar (1957), Mansfield was forever typed as a parody Marilyn Monroe.

When not acting, the publicity-hungry Mansfield aggressively sought out any press agent or  photo op that was handy, as did her second husband, muscleman Mickey Hargitay, to whom she was married from 1958 through 1963 (their daughter,Mariska_Hargitay, became a busy actress in her own right). Mansfield's third husband, Matt Cimber, became her agent, and guided her through a series of increasingly tawdry projects like Promises,_Promises (1963), wherein Mansfield became the first major actress to appear nude onscreen. Her later career dwindled into cheap European films, slapped-together American quickies likeSingle_Room_Furnished (1965), and plenty of nightclub and summer-theater work. While driving to a club engagement in New Orleans, 34-year-old Jayne Mansfield was killed (but not decapitated, contrary to popular belief) in an automobile accident.


 I love Jayne, as a little boy watching her films i was like whoa! She's an amazon! Much more refered to these days as a GLAMAZON!!!!! I think is she where to hae lived she would have suprised us all.

Here is a selected Filmography in case you would like to see her in her Glamazon glory!

1956 The Girl Can't Help It  (My personal Favorite Jayne Film)

1957 The Wayward Bus

1957 The Burgler

1957 Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?  ( co-starring and hilarious as always Tony Randell)

1957 Kiss Them For Me (also starring Cary Grant)

1958 The Sheriff of Fracturde Jaw ( This is actually a great film, showing Jayne in a less VAVAVOOM role0

please check her out at IMDb.com for more info.