Jayne Mansfield

**Jayne Mansfield** (born **Vera Jayne Palmer**; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American film, theater, and television actress. She was also a nightclub entertainer and a singer, and one of the early *Playboy Playmates*. She was a major Hollywood sex symbol during the 1950s and early 1960s while under contract at *20th Century Fox*. She was also known for her well-publicized personal life and publicity stunts, such as "wardrobe malfunctions".

## Career

Jayne's film career was short-lived, but she had several box-office successes and won a Theatre World Award and a Golden Globe Award. She enjoyed success in the role of fictional actress Rita Marlowe, both in the 1955–1956 Broadway version and the 1957 film version of *Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?* Her other major movie performances were in *The Girl Can't Help It* (1956), *The Wayward Bus* (1957), and *Too Hot to Handle* (1960). She became the first major American actress in a Hollywood film to have a nude scene in *Promises! Promises!* (1963).

### Comparisons to Marilyn Monroe

*"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."*
Another difficulty to retaining her position as America's bombshell, especially after the death of Marilyn Monroe, was that, according to The New York Times, Mansfield "suffers from too much publicity and too few roles. She has become rather a caricature—like Mae West—and alienates the segment [of movie-goers] which takes sex seriously."

By 1962, if the studios held her in low regard as an actress, Mansfield still commanded high prices as a live performer, though she openly yearned to establish a more sophisticated image. She announced that she wanted to study acting in New York, in apparent emulation of Marilyn Monroe's stint with the Actors' Studio. But her reliance on the racy publicity that had set her path to fame would also prove to be her downfall. Fox didn't renew its contract with her in 1962.

Even with her film roles drying up she was widely considered to be Marilyn Monroe's primary rival in a crowded field of contenders that included Mamie Van Doren (whom Mansfield considered her professional nemesis), Cleo Moore, Diana Dors and Sheree North.

## Personal life

Mansfield took her professional name from her first husband, public-relations professional Paul Mansfield. She was married and divorced three times and had five children. She was romantically linked, and allegedly was intimately involved with numerous men, including brothers Robert, John F. Kennedy, Brazilian billionaire Jorge Guinle, and U.S. President John F. Kennedy, her attorney Samuel S. Brody, and Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli.

### Husbands/Children

* **Paul Mansfield**, whom Mansfield secretly married on 28 January 1950. The couple had a public wedding on 10 May 1950 and was divorced from on 8 January 1958. During this marriage she had one child, Jayne Marie Mansfield (born November 8, 1950—), who was a *Playboy* centerfold in the magazine's July 1976 issue. Two weeks before her mother's death, Jayne Marie, then 16, accused her mother's boyfriend, Sam Brody, of beating her on June 16, 1967, at Mansfield's home on Sunset Boulevard. 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.

* **Miklós Hargitay**, an actor and bodybuilder who was Mr. Universe 1955. They were married on January 13, 1958 in Portuguese Bend, California and divorced in Juarez, Mexico in May 1963. The Mexican divorce initially was declared invalid in California but in August 1964 Mansfield successfully sued to have it declared legal. She had previously filed for divorce on 4 May 1962 but told reporters "I'm sure we will make it up." Their acrimonious divorce had the actress accusing Hargitay of kidnapping one of her children to force a more favorable financial settlement. During this marriage she had three children:

Miklós Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay (born December 21, 1958—)
Zoltan Anthony Hargitay (born August 1, 1960—)
Mariska Hargitay (born Mariska Magdolina Hargitay) (called Maria, January 24, 1964—), a 2005 Best Drama Actress Golden Globe award winner and a 2006 Outstanding Lead Drama Actress Emmy Award-winner; portrays Olivia Benson on the television show *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*.
* **Matt Cimber** (*alias* Matteo Ottaviano, né Thomas Vitale Ottaviano): an Italian-born film director. They married on September 24, 1964, got separated on July 11, 1965), and filed for divorce on July 20, 1966. 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, October 17, 1965—).
## Death/Legacy

In 1967, Mansfield was in Biloxi, Misssissippi, for an engagement at the Gus Stevens Supper Club. After two appearances on the evening of June 28, Mansfield, Sam Brody (her attorney and companion), their driver Ronnie Harrison (age 20), and three of her children— Miklós, Zoltán, and Mariska—left Biloxi after midnight in a 1966 Buick Electra 225. Their destination was New Orleans, where Mansfield was to appear on WDSU's *Midday Show* the next day. At about 2:25 a.m., on U.S. Highway 90 west of the Rigolets Bridge, the Buick crashed at high speed into the rear of a tractor-trailer that had slowed behind a truck spraying mosquito fogger shrouded in an insecticide fog. The three adults in the front seat died instantly. The children, asleep in the rear seat, survived with minor injuries.

Mansfield left behind her five children, a crumbling estate including the Pink Palace, a large number of followers, and a lasting impact on popular culture. The US top 40 single "Kiss Them For Me" by the group Siouxsie and the Banshees and the L.A. Guns song "The Ballad Of Jayne", are about Mansfield and her untimely death.

Her daughter, Mariska Hargitay, became an actress and star of the long-running NBC-TV crime/drama series *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*. According to IMDb, Mariska Hargitay was for several seasons the highest-paid actress on television.

## References

1. ↑ *Strait* (1992), pp.153–157, 177–190.
2. ↑ Kroth, Jerome A. (2003). *Conspiracy in Camelot*. Algora. ISBN 978-0-87586-246-0.
3. ↑ *Strait* (1992), p.156.
4. ↑ Hagood, Wesley O. (1998). *Presidential Sex: From the Founding Fathers to Bill Clinton*. Citadel Press. ISBN 978-0-806-52007-0.
5. ↑ Boertlein, John (2010). *Presidential Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder and Mayhem in the Oval Office*. Clerisy Press. ISBN 978-1-578-60361-9.
6. ↑ The Night Jayne Mansfield Died: June 29, 1967. Archived from the original on February 17, 2007. Retrieved on December 13, 2006.
7. ↑ Claudia Luther, "Jayne Mansfield Estate Depleted of Funds for Heirs", *Saratosa Herald-Tribune*, page 3E, 09-30-1977
8. ↑ UPI, "Jayne Mansfield left a penniless estate", *Lodi News Sentinel*, page 12, 09-30-1977
9. ↑ AP, "Mansfield's Children Find Estate Empty", *The Daily Courier*, page 8A, 09-30-1977
10. ↑ Mariska Hargitay.

## External links

* Jayne Mansfield Biography
* Jayne Mansfield links at FreeOnes
* Jayne Mansfield at Babepedia
* Jayne Mansfield article at *Wikipedia*