| Jayne Mansfield | |
|---|---|
Mansfield in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) |
|
| Born | Vera Jayne Palmer April 19, 1933 Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | June 29, 1967 (aged 34) Slidell, Louisiana, United States |
| Occupation | Actress, singer, model |
| Years active | 1954–1967 |
| Spouse | Paul Mansfield (m. 1950–1958) Miklós Hargitay (m. 1958–1964) Matt Cimber (m. 1964–1966) |
| Children | Jayne Marie Mansfield (b. 1950) Miklós "Mickey" Hargitay, Jr. (b. 1958) Zolton Hargitay (b. 1960) Mariska Hargitay (b. 1964) Antonio "Tony" Cimber (b. 1965) |
Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre.[1] One of the leading blonde sex symbols of the late-1950s,[2] Mansfield starred in several popular Hollywood films that emphasized her platinum-blonde hair, hourglass figure and cleavage-revealing costumes, and her ability to play the violin.[3]
While Mansfield's film career was short-lived, she had several box office successes and won the Theatre World Award, a Golden Globe and a Golden Laurel.
Mansfield is well remembered for her starring roles in the 20th Century Fox comedy films The Girl Can't Help It (1956) and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). She also tackled a rare straight role in The Wayward Bus (1957), a film noted for being her best on-screen dramatic performance.
As the demand for blonde bombshells declined in the 1960s, Mansfield remained a popular celebrity, continuing to attract large crowds outside the U.S. and in lucrative and successful nightclub tours. Her film career continued in lower budget melodramas and comedies, many filmed in the United Kingdom and Europe, including the independent film, Promises! Promises! (1963), in which she became the first American actress to appear nude, in a starring role, in a Hollywood motion-picture.
Mansfield had been a Playboy Playmate of the Month and appeared in the magazine several additional times. She died in an automobile accident at age 34.
Contents |
| Jayne Mansfield | |
|---|---|
| Playboy centerfold appearance | |
| February 1955 | |
| Preceded by | Bettie Page |
| Succeeded by | Marilyn Waltz |
| Personal details | |
| Measurements | Bust: 40 in (100 cm)[4] Waist: 21 in (53 cm)[4] Hips: 35 in (89 cm)[4] |
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) (5 ft 8 in according to her autopsy) |
Jayne Mansfield was the only child of Herbert William and Vera (née Jeffrey) Palmer (1903–2003). Her birthname was Vera Jayne Palmer. A natural brunette, she was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, but spent her early childhood in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.[5] She was of German and English ancestry.[6] Her parents came from Pen Argyl where an estimated eight out of ten people bear Cornish slate mining descent.[7] When she was three years old, her father, a lawyer who was in practice with future New Jersey governor Robert B. Meyner, died of a heart attack while driving a car with his wife and daughter. After his death, her mother worked as a school teacher. In 1939, when Vera Palmer remarried, the family moved to Dallas, Texas. Mansfield's desire to become an actress developed at an early age. In 1950, Vera Jayne Palmer married Paul Mansfield, thus becoming Jayne Mansfield, and the couple moved to Austin, Texas.
She studied dramatics at the University of Dallas and the University of Texas at Austin, having only attended Highland Park High School until her junior year.[8] Her acting aspirations were temporarily put on hold with the birth of her first child, Jayne Marie Mansfield, on November 8, 1950, when Mansfield was 17. She juggled motherhood and classes at the University of Texas, then spent a year at Camp Gordon, Georgia, while Paul Mansfield served in the United States Army. She entered the Miss California contest, hiding her marital status, and won in the local round before withdrawing.[9] Her husband, Paul Mansfield, hoped the birth of their child would discourage her interest in acting. When it did not, he agreed to move to Los Angeles in late 1954 to help further her career.[10] In 1954, they moved to Los Angeles and she studied dramatics at UCLA. Between a variety of odd jobs, including a stint as a candy vendor at a movie theatre, she attended UCLA during the summer, and then went back to Texas for fall quarter at Southern Methodist University. She posed nude for the February 1955 issue of Playboy, an event that helped to push the magazine's circulation[11] and launch Mansfield's career.[12] In 1964, Playboy reran that pictorial.[13]
In Dallas, she became a student of actor Baruch Lumet, father of director Sidney Lumet and founder of the Dallas Institute of the Performing Arts. On October 22, 1953, she first appeared on stage in a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Frequent references have been made to Mansfield's very high IQ, which she advertised as 163. [14] She spoke five languages, and was a classically trained pianist and violinist.[15] Mansfield admitted her public did not care about her brains. "They're more interested in 40-21-35," she said.[16] While attending the University of Texas, she won several beauty contests, with titles that included "Miss Photoflash," "Miss Magnesium Lamp" and "Miss Fire Prevention Week." The only title she ever turned down was "Miss Roquefort Cheese", because she believed it "just didn't sound right." Early in her career, the prominence of her breasts was considered problematic, leading her to be cut from her first professional assignment, an advertising campaign for General Electric, which depicted several young women in bathing suits relaxing around a pool.[17]
Mansfield's first movie role was as the supporting role of Candy Price in Female Jungle (1955), a low-budget drama filmed in just ten days. Mansfield's part was filmed in a few days and she received $150 for her performance. Female Jungle was released in January 1955 by producer Burt Kaiser.
In 1955, Paul Wendkos offered her the dramatic role of Gladden in The Burglar (1957), his film adaptation of David Goodis' novel. The film was done in film noir style, and Mansfield appeared alongside Dan Duryea and Martha Vickers. The Burglar was released two years later, when Mansfield's fame was at its peak. She was successful in this straight dramatic role, though most of her subsequent film appearances would be either comedic in nature or capitalize on her sex appeal.
In early 1955, Mansfield was signed by Warner Bros. to a six month contract after one of its talent scouts discovered her in a production at the Pasadena Playhouse. Warner wanted Mansfield as their version of Marilyn Monroe who was widely popular and lucrative for 20th Century Fox. Mansfield was given a bit part in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), which starred and was directed by Jack Webb.
She made one more movie with Warner Bros., which gave her another small, but important role as Angel O'Hara, opposite Edward G. Robinson, in Illegal (1955). The film offered another rare serious performance by Mansfield. After leaving Warner Bros., Mansfield made an uncredited cameo appearance in Hell on Frisco Bay (1955), starring Alan Ladd.
In 1955, she enjoyed a successful Broadway run acting in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?. This wild comedy starred Mansfield as Rita Marlowe, a wild blonde Hollywood actress. The play also starred Orson Bean and Walter Matthau. Returning to Hollywood on May 3, 1956, Mansfield signed a six-year contract with 20th Century Fox. Fox had plans to mold Mansfield as another Marilyn Monroe, to threaten Monroe when she got out of line. The studio advertised her as "Marilyn Monroe King Sized". She was then given her first starring role as Jerri Jordan in the film production of Frank Tashlin's The Girl Can't Help It (1956). The film features some early performances from Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, The Platters and Little Richard.
Mansfield then played a dramatic role in The Wayward Bus in 1957. In this film, she attempted to move away from her "dumb blonde" image and establish herself as a serious actress. This film was adapted from John Steinbeck's novel, and the cast included Dan Dailey and Joan Collins. The film enjoyed reasonable success at the box office. She won a Golden Globe in 1957 for New Star Of The Year – Actress, beating Carroll Baker and Natalie Wood, for her performance as a "wistful derelict" in The Wayward Bus. It was "generally conceded to have been her best acting", according to The New York Times, in a fitful career hampered by her flamboyant image, distinctive voice ("a soft-voiced coo punctuated with squeals"),[18] voluptuous figure, and limited acting range. Mansfield reprised her role of Rita Marlowe in the 1957 movie version of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, co-starring Tony Randall and Joan Blondell. The Girl Can't Help It and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? were popular successes in their day and are considered classics. Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is known as Mansfield's "signature film", because she starred in both the play and film version.
Mansfield's fourth starring role in a Hollywood film was in Kiss Them for Me (1957) in which she received prominent billing alongside Cary Grant. However, in the film itself, she is little more than comedy relief while Grant's character shows a preference for a sleek, demure redhead portrayed by fashion model Suzy Parker. Kiss Them for Me was a box office disappointment and would prove to be her final starring role in a mainstream Hollywood studio film. The movie was described as "vapid" and "ill-advised".[19] It also marked one of the last attempts by 20th Century Fox to publicize her.[20] The continuing publicity around her physical presence failed to sustain her career.[21] Mansfield was then offered a part opposite James Stewart and Jack Lemmon in Bell, Book and Candle (1958), but had to turn it down because of her pregnancy. Afterward, Mansfield got word that her rival Kim Novak would replace her in the film.
In 1958, Fox gave Mansfield the lead role as Kate opposite Kenneth More in the western spoof The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw. Despite being filmed in 1958, The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, was not released in the United States until 1959. The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw required Mansfield to sing three songs; she was not a trained singer, so the studio dubbed Mansfield's voice with singer/actress Connie Francis. When released in the United States, The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw was a success; it was her last mainstream successful film.
Despite the publicity and her public popularity, good film roles dried up for Mansfield after 1959. She kept busy in a series of low-budget films, mostly made in Europe. Fox tried to cast Mansfield opposite Paul Newman in his ill-fated first attempt at comedy, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958), but Mansfield's Wayward Bus co-star Joan Collins was selected instead.
In 1959, Fox lent her to appear in two independent gangster thrillers in England: The Challenge, co-starring Anthony Quayle, and Too Hot to Handle, co-starring Christopher Lee. Both films were low-budgeted, and their American releases were delayed; Too Hot to Handle was released in the U.S. in 1961 as Playgirl After Dark, while The Challenge would not be seen by American audiences until 1963, under the title It Takes a Thief.
When she returned to Hollywood in mid-1960, 20th Century-Fox cast her in It Happened in Athens (1962). She received first billing above the title, but only appears in a supporting role. It Happened in Athens starred a handsome newcomer, Trax Colton, a "unknown" whom Fox was trying to mold into a big star. This Olympic Games-based film was shot in Greece, in the fall of 1960, but was not released until June 1962. It was a box-office flop, and Mansfield's 20th Century-Fox contract was dropped.
In 1961, Mansfield signed on to play Lisa Lang in, The George Raft Story, starring Ray Danton as the actor. She accepted the part mainly for the money, and because the film was going to be filmed in Hollywood, rather in Europe. Soon after the release of The George Raft Story, Mansfield returned to European films to find work. Over the next few years, Mansfield mainly appeared in low-budgeted foreign films, such as Panic Button, Heimweh nach St. Pauli, Einer Frisst den anderen, and, L'Amore Primitivo.
In 1963, Tommy Noonan persuaded Mansfield to become the first mainstream American actress to appear nude with a starring role, in the film Promises! Promises!. Photographs of a naked Mansfield on the set were published in the June 1963 issue of Playboy, which resulted in obscenity charges being filed against Hugh Hefner in Chicago municipal court.[23] Promises! Promises! was banned in Cleveland, but enjoyed box office success elsewhere. As a result of the film's success, Mansfield landed on the Top 10 list of Box Office Attractions for that year.[24] The autobiographical book, Jayne Mansfield's Wild, Wild World, which she co-authored with her husband at the time, Mickey Hargitay, was published right after Promises! Promises! and contains 32 pages of black-and-white photographs from the film printed on glossy paper.[25]
In 1966, Mansfield was cast in Single Room Furnished, directed by her then husband Matt Cimber. The film required Mansfield to portray three different characters and was Mansfield's first starring dramatic role in several years. It was briefly released in 1966, but was not officially released until 1968, almost a year after her death.
After the filming of, Single Room Furnished wrapped, Mansfield was cast opposite Mamie Van Doren and Ferlin Husky in The Las Vegas Hillbillys, a low-budget comedy released by Woolner Brothers. Despite her career setbacks, Mansfield remained a highly visible personality through the early 1960s through her publicity antics and stage performances. In early 1967, Mansfield filmed her last film role: playing a cameo role in A Guide for the Married Man a comedy starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, and Inger Stevens. Mansfield received seventh billing[26] as "Girl with Harold".
Mansfield acted on stage as well as in film. In 1955, she went to New York and appeared in a prominent role in the Broadway production of George Axelrod's comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?. The New York Times described the "commendable abandon" of her scantily clad rendition of Rita Marlowe in the play, "a platinum-pated movie siren with the wavy contours of Marilyn Monroe.[27] In October 1957, Mansfield went on a 16-country tour of Europe for 20th Century Fox. She also appeared in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Bus Stop, which were well reviewed and co-starred Hargitay.
Dissatisfied with her film roles, Mansfield and Hargitay headlined at the Dunes in Las Vegas in an act called The House of Love, for which the actress earned $35,000 a week. It proved to be such a hit that she extended her stay, and 20th Century Fox Records subsequently recorded the show for an album called Jayne Mansfield Busts Up Las Vegas, in 1962. With her film career floundering, she still commanded a salary of $8,000–25,000 per week for her nightclub act. She traveled all over the world with it. In 1967, the year she died, Mansfield's time was split between nightclub performances and the production of her last film, A Guide for the Married Man, a high-budget production directed by Gene Kelly.
In addition to singing in English and German in a number of films, in 1964, Mansfield released a novelty album called Jayne Mansfield: Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me, on which she recited Shakespeare's sonnets and poems by Marlowe, Browning, Wordsworth, and others against a background of Tchaikovsky's music. The album cover depicted a bouffant-coiffed Mansfield with lips pursed and breasts barely covered by a fur stole, posing between busts of the Russian composer and the Bard of Avon.[28] The New York Times described the album as the actress reading "30-odd poems in a husky, urban, baby voice". The paper's reviewer went on to state that "Miss Mansfield is a lady with apparent charms, but reading poetry is not one of them."[29]
Jimi Hendrix played bass and lead guitar for Mansfield in 1965 on two songs, "As The Clouds Drift By" and "Suey", released together on two sides. According to Hendrix historian Steven Roby (Black Gold: The Lost Archives Of Jimi Hendrix, Billboard Books) this collaboration happened because they shared the same manager.[30][31]
Mansfield starred in film The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw and her character sang three songs on the film: "In The valley Of Love", "Strolling Down The Lane With Billy", and "If The San Francisco Hills Could Only Talk". These were only lip-synced by Mansfield. The singing voice was provided by Connie Francis. Of these three, only "In The Valley Of love" was released on record, albeit only in the United Kingdom and Japan.
Though her acting roles were becoming marginalized, in 1964 Mansfield turned down the role of Ginger Grant on the up-and-coming television sitcom Gilligan's Island, claiming that the role, which eventually was given to Tina Louise, epitomized the stereotype she wished to rid herself of.[32]
Mansfield toured with Bob Hope for the USO. She appeared in numerous television programs, including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Jack Benny Program (where she played the violin), The Steve Allen Show, Down You Go, The Match Game (one rare episode exists with her as a team captain), and The Jackie Gleason Show (in the mid-1960s when the show was the second highest rated in the U.S.[33]). Mansfield's television roles included appearances in Burke's Law and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
On returning from New York to Hollywood, she made several television appearances, including several spots as a featured guest star on game shows. In 1962, Mansfield appeared with Brian Keith in ABC's Follow the Sun dramatic series in an acclaimed episode entitled "The Dumbest Blonde" in which her character "Scottie" is a beautiful blonde who feels insecure in the high society of her older boyfriend, played by Keith. The plot was based on the film of Born Yesterday.[34]
Mansfield was married three times, divorced twice, and had five children. Reportedly she also had affairs and sexual encounters with numerous individuals, including Claude Terrail (the owner of the Paris restaurant La Tour d'Argent), Robert F. Kennedy,[42] John F Kennedy,[43] the Brazilian billionaire Jorge Guinle, and Anton LaVey.[44] She had a brief affair with Jan Cremer, a young Dutch writer who dedicated his 1965 autobiographical novel, I, Jan Cremer, to her.[45] Jan Cremer wrote a large part of his book I, Jan Cremer – III about their relationship.[46] She also had a well-publicized relationship in 1963 with the singer Nelson Sardelli, whom she said she planned to marry once her divorce from Hargitay was finalized.[47] At the time of her death, Mansfield was accompanied by Sam Brody, her married divorce lawyer and lover at the time.
She secretly married Paul Mansfield on January 28, 1950, when she was 16 and he was 21. The couple had a public wedding on May 10, 1950 when Jayne was three months pregnant and were divorced on January 8, 1958. Their only child together, a daughter named Jayne Marie Mansfield, was born in November 1950. Two weeks before her mother's death, Jayne Marie, then 16, accused her mother's boyfriend, Sam Brody, of beating her.[48] The girl's statement to officers of the West Los Angeles police department the following morning implicated her mother in encouraging the abuse, and days later, a juvenile-court judge awarded temporary custody of Jayne Marie to a great-uncle, W.W. Pigue.[49]
When seeing Hargitay for the first time at The Mae West Show, at New York City's Latin Quarter nightclub, Mansfield told the waiter asking for her order, "I'll have a steak and that tall man on the left".[50] The man turned out to be Mickey Hargitay, an actor and bodybuilder who had won the Mr. Universe competition in 1955. When Mansfield and her husband toured for stage shows, she showed a fair amount of skin in the leopard-spot bikini she wore for her stage shows.[51][52]
Mansfield and Hargitay married on January 13, 1958 at the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The unique glass chapel made public and press viewing of the wedding much easier. Mansfield wore a transparent wedding gown, adding to the occasion's publicity aspect. The couple divorced in Juarez, Mexico in May 1963. After the divorce, Mansfield discovered she was pregnant. Since being an unwed mother would have killed her career, Mansfield and Hargitay announced they were still married.
After the birth of the child, Mansfield sued for the Juarez divorce to be declared legal and won. The divorce was recognized in the United States on August 26, 1964. She had previously filed for divorce on May 4, 1962, but told reporters, "I'm sure we will make it up."[53] Their acrimonious divorce had the actress accusing Hargitay of kidnapping one of her children to force a more favorable financial settlement.[54] During this marriage she had two children, Miklós Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay (born December 21, 1958) and Zoltán Anthony Hargitay (born August 1, 1960). A third child, Mariska Magdolna Hargitay (born January 23, 1964), an actress best known for her role as Olivia Benson in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, was born after the actual divorce but before California ruled it valid.
In November 1957, shortly before her marriage to Hargitay, Mansfield bought a 40-room Mediterranean-style mansion formerly owned by Rudy Vallee at 10100 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Mansfield had the house painted pink, with cupids surrounded by pink fluorescent lights, pink furs in the bathrooms, a pink heart-shaped bathtub, and a fountain spurting pink champagne, and then dubbed it the Pink Palace. Hargitay, a plumber and carpenter before getting into bodybuilding, built a pink heart-shaped swimming pool. Mansfield decorated the Pink Palace by writing to furniture and building suppliers requesting free samples. She received over $150,000 worth of free merchandise while paying only $76,000 for the mansion itself,[55] a large sum nonetheless when the average house cost under $7,500 at the time[56].
Mansfield married Matt Cimber (a.k.a. Matteo Ottaviano, né Thomas Vitale Ottaviano) an Italian-born film director on September 24, 1964. The couple separated on July 11, 1965, and filed for divorce on July 20, 1966.[57] Cimber was a director with whom the actress had become involved when he directed her in a widely praised stage production of Bus Stop in Yonkers, New York, which costarred Hargitay. Cimber took over managing her career during their marriage. With him she had one son, Antonio Raphael Ottaviano (a.k.a. Tony Cimber, born October 18, 1965). Work on Mansfield's film, Single Room Furnished (in 1966), was suspended as her marriage to Cimber began to collapse in the wake of Mansfield's alcohol abuse, open infidelities, and her claim to Cimber that she had only ever been happy with her former lover, Nelson Sardelli.[58]
Mansfield appeared in about 2,500 newspaper photographs between September 1956 and May 1957, and had about 122,000 lines of newspaper copy written about her during this time.[59] Because of the successful media blitz, Mansfield was a household name. Throughout her career, Mansfield was compared by the media to the reigning sex symbol of the period, Marilyn Monroe.[60] Of this comparison, she said, "I don't know why you people [the press] like to compare me to Marilyn or that girl, what's her name, Kim Novak. Cleavage, of course, helped me a lot to get where I am. I don't know how they got there."[61] Even with her film roles drying up she was widely considered to be Monroe's primary rival in a crowded field of contenders that included Mamie Van Doren (whom Mansfield considered her professional nemesis), Diana Dors, Cleo Moore, Barbara Nichols, Beverly Michaels, Greta Thyssen, Joi Lansing, and Sheree North.
In April 1957, her bosom was the feature of a notorious publicity stunt intended to deflect attention from Sophia Loren during a dinner party in the Italian star's honor. Photographs of the encounter were published around the world. The most famous image showed Loren's gaze falling upon the cleavage of the American actress who, sitting between Loren and her dinner companion, Clifton Webb, had leaned over the table, allowing her breasts to spill over her low neckline and exposing one nipple.[63] The image was one of several taken in the same minutes as the image visible left. A similar incident, resulting in the full exposure of both breasts, occurred during a film festival in West Berlin, when Mansfield was wearing a low-cut dress and her second husband, Mickey Hargitay, picked her up so she could bite a bunch of grapes hanging overhead at a party; the movement caused her breasts to erupt out of the dress. The photograph of that episode was a UPI sensation, appearing in newspapers and magazines with the word "censored" hiding the actress's exposed bosom.
The world's media were quick to condemn Mansfield's stunts, and one editorial columnist wrote, "We are amused when Miss Mansfield strains to pull in her stomach to fill out her bikini better. But we get angry when career-seeking women, shady ladies, and certain starlets and actresses ... use every opportunity to display their anatomy unasked."[17] By the late 1950s, Mansfield began to generate a great deal of negative publicity because of her repeated successful attempts to expose her breasts in carefully staged public "accidents".
Mansfield's most celebrated physical attributes would fluctuate in size as a result of her pregnancies and breast feeding five children. Her smallest measurement was 40D (102 cm) (which she was throughout the 1950s), and largest at 46DD (117 cm), when measured by the press in 1967. According to Playboy, her measurement was 40D-21-36 (102-53-91 cm) and her height was 5'6" (1.68 m). According to her autopsy report, she was 5'8" (1.73 m). Her bosom was so much a part of her public persona that talk-show host Jack Paar once welcomed the actress to The Tonight Show by saying, "Here they are, Jayne Mansfield", a line that was written for Paar by Dick Cavett and became the title of her biography by Raymond Strait.[64] Almost half a century after her death a biographer of Nikolaus Pevsner, the German-born writer on British architecture, noted the improbable coincidence that he and Mansfield had once stayed at the same hotel in Bolton, Lancashire and that she had "electrified the dining room with her imposing bosom".[65]
While in Biloxi, Mississippi, for an engagement at the Gus Stevens Supper Club, Mansfield stayed at the Cabana Courtyard Apartments, which were near the supper club. After an evening engagement on June 28, 1967, Mansfield, her lover Sam Brody, and their driver, Ronnie Harrison, along with the actress's children Miklós, Zoltán, and Mariska, set out in Stevens' 1966 Buick Electra 225 for New Orleans, where Mansfield was to appear in an early morning television interview. Before leaving Biloxi, the party made a stop at the home of Rupert and Edna O'Neal, a family that lived nearby. After a late dinner with the O'Neals, during which the last photographs of Mansfield were taken, the party set out for New Orleans. On June 29 at approximately 2:25 a.m., on U.S. Highway 90 east of the Rigolets Bridge, the car crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer that had slowed because of a truck spraying mosquito fogger. The automobile struck the rear of the trailer and went under it. Riding in the front seat, the three adults were killed instantly. The children in the rear survived with minor injuries.[66]
Rumors that Mansfield was decapitated are untrue, though she did suffer severe head trauma. This urban legend was spawned by the appearance in police photographs of a crashed automobile with its top virtually sheared off, and what resembles a blonde-haired head tangled in the car's smashed windshield. It is believed this was either a wig Mansfield was wearing or was her actual hair and scalp.[67] The death certificate stated the immediate cause of Mansfield's death was a "crushed skull with avulsion of cranium and brain."[68] Following her death, the NHTSA began requiring an underride guard, a strong bar made of steel tubing, to be installed on all tractor-trailers. This bar is also known as a Mansfield bar, and on occasions as a DOT bar.[69][70]
Mansfield's funeral was held on July 3, in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. The ceremony was conducted by a Methodist minister, though Mansfield, who long tried to convert to Catholicism, had become interested in Judaism at the end of her life through her relationship with Sam Brody.[71] She is interred in Fairview Cemetery, southeast of Pen Argyl. Her gravestone was shaped as a heart and reads "We Live to Love You More Each Day". A memorial cenotaph, showing an incorrect birth year, was erected in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California. The cenotaph was placed by The Jayne Mansfield Fan Club and has the incorrect birth year because Mansfield herself tended to provide incorrect information about her age.
Shortly after Mansfield's funeral, Mickey Hargitay sued his former wife's estate for more than $275,000 to support the children, whom he and his third and last wife, Ellen Siano, would raise. Mansfield's youngest child, Tony, was raised by his father, Matt Cimber, whose divorce from the actress was pending when she was killed. In 1968, wrongful-death lawsuits were filed on behalf of Jayne Marie Mansfield and Matt Cimber, the former for $4.8 million and the latter for $2.7 million.[72] The Pink Palace was sold and its subsequent owners have included Ringo Starr, Cass Elliot, and Engelbert Humperdinck.[73] In 2002, Humperdinck sold it to developers, and the house was demolished in November of that year. Much of her estate is managed by CMG Worldwide, an intellectual property management company.[74]
In 1980, The Jayne Mansfield Story aired on CBS starring Loni Anderson in the title role and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mickey Hargitay. It was nominated for three Emmy Awards.
In 1991, British band Siouxsie and the Banshees scored a US top 20 hit-single with "Kiss Them For Me", a song which is an ode to Mansfield. Lyrics include the actress' catchword "divoon", referring to her heart-shaped swimming pool and her love of champagne and parties, and to the grisly automobile accident.
| Movie Title | Year | Role | Co-actors | Director | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female Jungle | 1955 | Candy Price | Burt Kaiser, Kathleen Crowley | Bruno VeSota | Burt Kaiser, Kathleen Crowley | Alternative title: The Hangover |
| Pete Kelly's Blues | 1955 | Cigarette Girl | Jack Webb, Janet Leigh, Edmond O'Brien, Peggy Lee | Jack Webb | Warner Bros. | Uncredited |
| Underwater! | 1955 | Girl in Bikini by Pool | Jane Russell, Richard Egan, Lori Nelson | John Sturges | RKO Radio Pictures | Uncredited |
| Illegal | 1955 | Angel O'Hara | Edward G. Robinson, Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe | Lewis Allen | Warner Bros. | |
| Hell on Frisco Bay | 1955 | Mario's dance partner in nightclub | Alan Ladd, Fay Wray | Frank Tuttle | Jaguar Productions | Uncredited |
| The Girl Can't Help It | 1956 | Jerri Jordan | Tom Ewell, Edmond O'Brien, Julie London, Ray Anthony | Frank Tashlin | 20th Century Fox | Mansfield's first starring role; considered a classic. |
| The Burglar | 1957 | Gladden | Dan Duryea, Martha Vickers, Peter Capell, Mickey Shaughnessy | Paul Wendkos | Columbia Pictures | Filmed in 1955 |
| The Wayward Bus | 1957 | Camille Oakes | Joan Collins, Dan Dailey | Victor Vicas | 20th Century Fox | |
| Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? | 1957 | Rita Marlowe | Tony Randall, Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones | Frank Tashlin | 20th Century Fox | Alternative title: Oh! For a Man! (UK); considered a classic. Known as Mansfield's "signature film". |
| Kiss Them for Me | 1957 | Alice Kratzner | Cary Grant, Leif Erickson, Suzy Parker | Stanley Donen | Sol C. Siegel | Mansfield's last starring role in a mainstream Hollywood studio film. |
| The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw | 1958 | Kate | Kenneth More, Henry Hull, Bruce Cabot | Raoul Walsh | 20th Century Fox | Not released in the United States until 1959. |
| The Challenge | 1960 | Billy | Anthony Quayle, Carl Möhner, Peter Reynolds | John Gilling | Alexandra | Alternative title: It Takes a Thief (U.S.); not released in the United States until 1963. |
| Too Hot to Handle | 1960 | Midnight Franklin | Leo Genn, Karlheinz Böhm, Christopher Lee | Terence Young | Wigmore Productions | Alternative title: Playgirl After Dark (U.S.); not released in the United States until 1961. |
| The Loves of Hercules | 1960 | Queen Dianira/ Hippolyta | Mickey Hargitay, Massimo Serato | Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia | Contact Organisation | Alternative titles Gli Amori di Ercole (Italy), Les Amours d'Hercule (France), Hercules vs. the Hydra (TV title); not released to US movie theaters. |
| The George Raft Story | 1961 | Lisa Lang | Ray Danton, Julie London, Barrie Chase | Joseph M. Newman | Allied Artists Pictures | Alternative title: Spin of a Coin (UK) |
| It Happened in Athens | 1962 | Eleni Costa | Trax Colton, Nico Minardos, Bob Mathias | Andrew Marton | 20th Century Fox | Filmed in the fall of 1960; in Greece. |
| Heimweh nach St. Pauli | 1963 | Evelyne | Freddy Quinn, Josef Albrecht, Ullrich Haupt | Werner Jacobs | Rapid Film | Alternative title: Homesick for St. Pauli (U.S.); never released in the United States. |
| Promises! Promises! | 1963 | Sandy Brooks | Marie McDonald, Tommy Noonan, Mickey Hargitay | King Donovan | Tommy Noonan-Donald F. Taylor | Aka: Promise Her Anything (some releases) |
| L'Amore Primitivo | 1964 | Dr. Jane | Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Mickey Hargitay | Luigi Scattini | G.L.M. | Alternative title: Primitive Love (U.S.); not released in the United States until 1966. |
| Panic Button | 1964 | Angela | Maurice Chevalier, Eleanor Parker, Mike Connors | George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo | Gordon Films | Alternative title: Let's Go Bust (U.S.), filmed in 1962; in Italy. |
| Einer Frisst den anderen | 1964 | Darlene/ Mrs. Smithopolis | Cameron Mitchell, Dodie Heath, Ivor Salter | Richard E. Cunha, Gustav Gavrin | Dubrava Film | Alternative title: Dog Eat Dog! (U.S.); not released in the United States until 1966. |
| The Fat Spy | 1966 | Junior Wellington | Phyllis Diller, Jack E. Leonard | Joseph Cates | Woolner Brothers | |
| The Las Vegas Hillbillys | 1966 | Tawny | Phyllis Diller, Jack E. Leonard, Brian Donlevy | Arthur Pierson | Woolner Brothers | Alternative title: Country Music. |
| A Guide for the Married Man | 1967 | Technical Adviser (Girl with Harold) | Walter Matthau, Inger Stevens | Gene Kelly | 20th Century Fox | Cameo appearance. Legally her final film appearance. |
| Single Room Furnished | 1968 | Johnnie/ Mae/ Eileen | Dorothy Keller, Fabian Dean, Billy M. Greene | Matt Cimber | Empire Film Studios | Posthumous release. Filmed in mid-1966. |
As Herself
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