Adele Jergens

Adele Jergens (November 26, 1917 – November 22, 2002) was an American actress.
Early life and career
Born in Brooklyn, New York, as Adele Louisa Jurgens (some sources say Jurgenson), she rose to prominence in the late 1930s when she was named "Miss World's Fairest" at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In the early 1940s, she briefly worked as a Rockette and was named the number-one showgirl in New York City.
After a few years of working as a model and chorus girl, including being an understudy to Gypsy Rose Lee in the Broadway show Star and Garter in 1942, Jergens landed a movie contract with Columbia Pictures in 1944, with brunette Jergens becoming a blonde.
At the beginning of her career, she had roles in movies in which she was usually cast as a blonde floozy or burlesque dancer, as in Down to Earth starring Rita Hayworth (1947) and The Dark Past starring William Holden (1948).
She played Marilyn Monroe's mother in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) despite being only nine years older than Monroe. She played an exotic dancer in Armored Car Robbery, and a criminal's girl in Try and Get Me (both 1950) and appeared in the movie Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951).
She had a part in The Cobweb (1955), directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Richard Widmark and Lauren Bacall. She worked in the 1950s radio show Stand By for Crime as Glamourpuss Carol Curtis with her real-life husband Glenn Langan as Chuck Morgan.
Personal life and death
In 1949, while filming Treasure of Monte Cristo, a film noir set in San Francisco, she met and married co-star Glenn Langan. Jergens and Langan remained married until his death from lymphoma on January 26, 1991, at age 73.
They had one child, a son named Tracy Langan, who eventually worked in Hollywood behind the scenes as a film technician. Tracy died of a brain tumor in 2001.
Death
Adele Jergens-Langan, who retired from the screen in 1956, died on November 22, 2002, from pneumonia in her Camarillo, California, home. Her death came just four days before her 85th birthday.
She was buried beside her husband and son at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California, under the headstone marked Langan.
Selected filmography
Hello Frisco, Hello (1943) – Chorine (uncredited)
Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943) – Diner at Delmonico's / Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Jane Eyre (1943) – Woman at Party (uncredited)
The Gang's All Here (1943) – Chorus Girl (uncredited)
Pin Up Girl (1944) – Canteen Worker (uncredited)
Black Arrow (1944) – Mary Brent
Dancing in Manhattan (1944) – Darnelle (uncredited)
Together Again (1944) – Gilda LaVerne (uncredited)
Tonight and Every Night (1945) – Showgirl (uncredited)
A Thousand and One Nights (1945) – Princess Armina
State Fair (1945) – Girl on Rollercoaster (uncredited)
Fallen Angel (1945) – Woman at Madley's Show (uncredited)
She Wouldn't Say Yes (1945) – Allura
The Corpse Came C.O.D. (1947) – Mona Harrison
Down to Earth (1947) – Georgia Evans
When a Girl's Beautiful (1947) – Adele Jordan
Blondie's Anniversary (1947) – Gloria Stafford
The Prince of Thieves (1948) – Lady Christabel
I Love Trouble (1948) – Boots Nestor
The Woman from Tangier (1948) – Nylon
The Fuller Brush Man (1948) – Miss Sharmley
The Dark Past (1948) – Laura Stevens
Ladies of the Chorus (1948) – Mae Martin
Slightly French (1949) – Yvonne La Tour
Law of the Barbary Coast (1949) – Lita
The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949) – Inez Gray
Make Believe Ballroom (1949) – Adele Jergens
The Mutineers (1949) – Norma Harrison
Treasure of Monte Cristo (1949) – Jean Turner
The Traveling Saleswoman (1950) – Lilly
Radar Secret Service (1950) – Lila
Blonde Dynamite (1950) – Joan Marshall
Side Street (1950) – Lucille 'Lucky' Colner
Everybody's Dancin' (1950) – Adele Jergens
Beware of Blondie (1950) – Toby Clifton
Armored Car Robbery (1950) – Yvonne LeDoux
Edge of Doom (1950) – Irene
Blues Busters (1950) – Lola Stanton
The Sound of Fury (1950) – Velma
Sugarfoot (1951) – Reva Cairn
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) – Boots Marsden
Show Boat (1951) – Cameo McQueen (uncredited)
Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952) – Gladys
Somebody Loves Me (1952) – Nola Beach
Overland Pacific (1954) – Jessie Loraine
Fireman Save My Child (1954) – Harry's Wife
The Miami Story (1954) – Gwen Abbott
The Big Chase (1954) – Doris Grayson
Strange Lady in Town (1955) – Bella Brown
Outlaw Treasure (1955) – Rita Starr
The Cobweb (1955) – Miss Cobb
The Lonesome Trail (1955) – Mae
Day the World Ended (1955) – Ruby
Girls in Prison (1956) – Jenny
Fighting Trouble (1956) – Mae Randle
Runaway Daughters (1956) – Dixie Jackson
References
External links
Adele Jergens Los Angeles Times Obituaries
American film actresses
Burials at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery
Musicians from Brooklyn
1917 births
2002 deaths
American female dancers
Dancers from New York (state)
Actresses from New York City
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American musicians
American radio actresses
American television actresses
20th-century American dancers
Columbia Pictures contract players
Deaths from pneumonia in California