Jayne Mansfield Biography

Born Vera Jayne Palmer, Jayne’s father was a successful attorney who died of a heart attack when she was three. Her mother remarried and the family moved to Texas.

Jayne won her first beauty contest and decided to become an actress. Her plans had to be put on hold, however, when she became pregnant at sixteen by Paul Mansfield, who she married in May, 1950.

Jayne worked, cared for her daughter, and studied acting at the University of Texas in Austin. She also won several beauty contests, and decided to go to Hollywood to study at UCLA and to act.

After some work in television, her first film was 1955’s 'The Female Jungle'. Although she was a talented actress, her career was much helped by her ample physical attributes and resemblance to Marylin Monroe.

Her breakout role came the next year with a featured part in 'The Burglar'. Her Hollywood career was short lived; her most notable films were 'The Girl Can’t Help It', and 'Single Room Unfurnished'.

In 1955, she appeared on stage in a prominent role in the Broadway production of George Axelrod's comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?. The following year, Mansfield starred in Frank Tashlin's The Girl Can't Help It, which led to a long-term deal 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. Her performance in The Wayward Bus earned her a Golden Globe award in 1957 for Most Promising Newcomer - Female.

She gradually became more famous for her love of life, and talent for self-promoting stunts, Jayne received few real opportunities to demonstrate her capabilities. She was also famous for her lavish Hollywood mansion, known as "the pink palace".

Jayne divorced Mansfield in 1956 and married Mickey Hargitay, a former Mr. Universe, two years later. They had three children but were divorced in 1964. A few months later she married Matt Cimber.

In 1963, Mansfield became the first mainstream American actress to appear in the nude when she starred in Promises! Promises!. Photographs of a naked Mansfield on the set were later published in Playboy magazine.

Tragically, in June 1967, Jayne was killed at the age of 34, when the car in which she was travelling crashed into the back of a truck in Louisiana.