Jean Bell

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Jean Bell
Playboy centerfold appearance
October 1969
Preceded by Shay Knuth
Succeeded by Claudia Jennings
Born November 23, 1944 (1944-11-23) (age 63)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Measurements Bust: 34"
Waist: 23"
Hips: 36"
Height 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)
Weight 117 lb (53 kg/8.4 st)

Jean Bell (born Annie Lee Morgan on 23 November 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri) was one of the first of Playboy magazine's African American Playmates of the Month (the first was Jennifer Jackson, in March 1965). She appeared in the October 1969 issue of the magazine. Her centerfold was photographed by Don Klumpp.

She grew up in Houston, Texas, attending Phillis Wheatley High School. She has three younger sisters and attended Texas Southern University, majoring in business administration. Jean was the first African American woman to participate in the Miss Texas Pageant, which is part of the Miss Universe competition. Her hobbies include bowling, sewing, raising poodles, and reading.

After her appearance in Playboy, Jean enjoyed a brief acting career, working on such films as Mean Streets and The Klansman. (For some of those roles, she was credited as Jeanne Bell.) She also had a well-publicized romance with actor Richard Burton.

Bell dated Richard Burton and helped him quit drinking and as a result was credited with getting him back together with Elizabeth Taylor afterwards. An Earl Wilson column in September 1975 revealed Bell's three-month friendship with the actor. She visited Burton at his villa in Céligny, Switzerland during her effort to help him "dry out". With his assistance Bell acquired a place of her own in Geneva, Switzerland. [1]

She was divorced from a college professor from Texas with whom she had a son.

Jean posed nude again for Playboy in the December 1979 pictorial "Playmates Forever!"

Contents

[edit] Film and television work

[edit] Films

  • The Choirboys (1977) .... Fanny Forbes
  • Casanova & Co. (1977) .... Fatme
  • The Muthers (1976) .... Kelly
  • Disco 9000 (1976) (as Jeanie Bell) .... Karen
  • T.N.T. Jackson (1975) .... Diana 'T.N.T.' Jackson
  • Policewomen (film)|Policewomen (1974) .... Pam Harris
  • The Klansman (1974) .... Mary Anne
  • Negro es un bello color (1974) .... Joyce
  • Three the Hard Way (1974) .... Polly
  • Mean Streets (1973) .... Diane
  • Black Gunn (1972) .... Lisa
  • Trouble Man (1972) .... Leona
  • Melinda (1972) .... Jean

[edit] Television

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Earl Wilson. "Earl Wilson Says", Syracuse Herald-Journal, 1975-09-01, p. 18. 

[edit] External links