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Jayne Mansfield became a Hollywood sex symbol in the 1950s. She is known for Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? 1957. She died in a car crash on June 29, 1967, at age 34. Her daughter Mariska Hargitay is also an actress.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Jayne Mansfield — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Jayne Mansfield by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Jayne Mansfield — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
When Jayne Mansfield was three years old, her father Herbert Palmer died suddenly of a heart attack. Her mother Vera moved the family to Dallas, Texas, where Mansfield attended Highland Park High School and began playing violin. She married Paul Mansfield at age 16 and gave birth to her daughter Jayne Marie at 17. After high school, she attended Southern Methodist University and later the University of Texas at Austin and UCLA, pursuing acting.
Mansfield’s first film role was a small part as a cigarette girl in Pete Kelly’s Blues 1955. Her breakout role was a featured part in The Burglar 1957. She became widely known as Rita Marlowe in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? 1957, but was often typecast as a dumb blonde. Despite her talent, she struggled for serious roles. 20th Century Fox dropped her in 1962. She later appeared in B-movies and nightclub acts, earning up to $17,000 weekly.
Mansfield was married three times: to Paul Mansfield 1950-1958, Mickey Hargitay 1958-1964, and Matt Cimber 1964-1966. She had five children: Jayne Marie Mansfield with Paul, Mickey Hargitay Jr., Zoltan Hargitay, and Mariska Hargitay with Mickey, and Tony Cimber with Matt. She spoke multiple languages including French, Italian, Hungarian, and English. After her death, her estate faced legal battles over control.
Mansfield’s daughter Mariska Hargitay is known for her role on Law & Order: SVU. In 2008, Mansfield was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame. Her death led to safety improvements: semi-trailers now have Mansfield bars to prevent under-ride crashes. She is referenced in songs by Siouxsie and the Banshees and L.A. Guns. She received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6328 Hollywood Boulevard in 1960.
Browse the complete filmography of Jayne Mansfield — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Jayne Mansfield — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Jayne Mansfield — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
To Establish Yourself as an Actress, You Have to Become Well Known. a Girl Just Starting Out, I Would Tell Her to Concentrate on Acting, but She Doesn’t Have to Go Around Wearing Blankets.
Stars Were Made to Suffer, and I Am a Star.
I Don’t Want to Get Involved in the Racial Situation at the Expense of Losing Fans. I Wouldn’t Say Anything Too Strong, but I Do Know That God Created Us Equal and We’re Not Living up to It.
Carrying a Baby Is the Most Rewarding Experience a Woman Can Enjoy.
I Will Never Be Satisfied. Life Is One Constant Search for Betterment for Me.
I Don’t Particularly Enjoy Publicity, It Seems to Just Follow Me Around.
I Like Being a Pin up Girl, There’s Nothing Wrong with It.
A Lot of Happiness Can Be Brought to the Mentally Distraught by a Little Understanding.
We Eat a Lot of Lean Meat and Fresh Vegetables. You Are What You Eat, You Know. When I’m 100, I’ll Still Be Doing Pin Ups.
War Is a Foolish, Childish, Animalistic, Unthinking, Unintelligent Way of Trying to Accomplish a Purpose.
I Want to Earn My Own Way, I Like Having Nice Things, but I’ve Never Accepted Anything I Haven’t Earned.
I’d Like Ten More Babies and Ten More Chihuahuas and a Few Academy Awards. Meanwhile, I Enjoy Being a Sex Symbol and Making People Happy.
No One Wants to See or Read About a Dull Subject. I Don’t Consider Myself a Dull Subject.
I’ve Got the Strangest Build. It’s Big in the Hips, Small in the Waist and I’ve Got These Enormous… Shoulders.
Looks Don’t Regulate a Girl’s Body Temperature, at Least Not This Girl’s Body Temperature. Intelligence in a Man Is the Keynote and No Girl in Her Right Mind Is Going to Go Shopping for a Man Who’s Handsome and Husky Alone.
To Function as an Actress, I Have to Be in Love. I Have to Have That Incentive to Work.
I Didn’t Come to Hollywood to Be the Girl Next Door. I Came to Be a Movie Star.
My Father Was the Only Man I Ever Knew Who Really Loved Me Unselfishly, Who Never Used Me for Personal Gain.
Once You Were a Starlet. Then You’re a Star. Can You Be a Starlet Again?
If You Want the Best Things in Life, You Have to Earn Them for Yourself.
I Like the California Style of Living.
I Guess a Lot of People Think That a Girl Who Shows Her Bosom and Wears Tight Dresses Can’t Be Close to God. God Has Always Been Close to Me. Only He Knew What Was in My Heart.
I Have Always Considered My Career Self and My Personal Self as Two Different and Separate People. There’s a Jayne Mansfield at Home, a Wife and Devoted Mother, and There’s Jayne the Sex Symbol, Which Is My Career. I Have Always Kept Them Completely Apart and Separate.
Sex Appeal Is a Wonderful, Warm, Womanly, Healthy Feeling. If You’re a Woman It’s Womanly, If You’re Not It’s Manly… It Comes Only from Inside… It’s an Effervescent Desire to Enjoy Life.
You Know Which Title I Like Best? I Like to Be Called Mother.
Men Are Those Creatures with Two Legs and Eight Hands.
If You’re Going to Do Something Wrong, Do It Big, Because the Punishment Is the Same Either Way.
The Real Stars Are Not Good Actors or Actresses. They’re Personalities.
I Love Sex… It Should Be Animalistic, It Should Be Sadistic, It Should at Times Be Masochistic… There Are Few Rules and Moral Conventions.
Nothing Risque, Nothing Gained.
Little-known facts about Jayne Mansfield — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Mariska Hargitay, her daughter, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame adjacent to Mansfield’s own star.
After her death, an extension was added to the rear bumper of semi-trailers to prevent cars from diving under them; these were colloquially called Mansfield bars.
Mariska Hargitay has a zigzag scar on her head from the car accident that killed her mother; Mariska was three years old and has no memory of the crash.
Despite divorcing Paul Mansfield, she kept his surname because she thought it sounded Hollywood and would help her stardom.
In March 2008, Mansfield was posthumously inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in Austin; her daughter Mariska Hargitay accepted the honor.
Mansfield’s daughter Jayne Marie Mansfield, who was Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in February 1955, later appeared in Playboy herself in 1976.
Siouxsie and the Banshees song Kiss Them for Me is about Mansfield’s death; the title comes from her 1957 film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?.
Mansfield was the first American actress to appear nude in a mainstream American film, Promises! Promises! 1963.
Mansfield had five children: Jayne Marie Mansfield, born November 8, 1950; Mickey Hargitay Jr., born December 21, 1958; Zoltán Hargitay, born August 1, 1960; Mariska Hargitay, born January 24, 1964; and Tony Cimber, born October 18, 1965.
Despite popular myth, Mansfield was not decapitated in the crash; her death certificate lists crushed skull with avulsion of cranium and brain. She was interred at Fairview Cemetery in Plainfield, Pennsylvania.
Mansfield’s goal, as quoted in the book Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties, was to feel satisfied with herself and to be a big personality, believing real stars are personalities, not actors or actresses.
At age 17, Mansfield gave birth to her first child, daughter Jayne Marie Mansfield, on November 8, 1950; the father was her first husband Paul Mansfield.
She initially divorced Mickey Hargitay on May 1, 1963, and again in Juarez, Mexico; the California Superior Court recognized the Mexican divorce on August 26, 1964.
Her estate was valued at approximately $2 million at the time of her death in 1967.
Playboy magazine named Mansfield the second top Playboy Playmate of all time out of a list of 100.
In 1963, Mansfield was arrested for indecent exposure during a nightclub act in Burlington, Vermont.
Mansfield received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6328 Hollywood Boulevard on February 8, 1960.
Her nightclub act earned between $8,000 and $17,000 per week.
She turned down the role of Ginger Grant on Gilligan’s Island 1964; the part went to Tina Louise.
At her popularity peak, a Jayne Mansfield Hot Water Bottle was marketed: a 22-inch plastic novelty item molded in her likeness. Thousands were sold, and they now fetch up to $300 as collector’s items.
At age 30, Mansfield gave birth to daughter Mariska Hargitay on January 23, 1964; the father was Mickey Hargitay.
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? 1957, in which she starred, was selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.
Her son Zoltán Hargitay was critically injured by a supposedly tame lion at Jungleland Zoo in Thousand Oaks, California, but fully recovered.
Mansfield made Mr. Blackwell’s Worst-Dressed List in 1961 alongside Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, and Shirley MacLaine, and again in 1964.
L.A. Guns had a top-40 hit in the early 1990s with The Ballad of Jayne, a song based on Mansfield.
The 1966 Buick Electra 225 in which Mansfield died was locked in a garage for decades and displayed at shows as her death car. It was sold at auction in 1999 for $8,000 and reportedly still has blood stains on the seats.
Mansfield was under contract with 20th Century-Fox from 1956 to 1962.
In 1952, she was named Miss Photoflash, the first of many beauty awards.
At age 32, she gave birth to son Tony Cimber on October 18, 1965; the father was her third husband Matt Cimber.
Japanese garage rock band The 5.6.7.8’s perform a song called I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield.
Producer Louis W. Kellman claimed to have discovered Mansfield, giving her her first starring role in The Burglar 1957 after observing the crew’s reaction to her on the set of Pete Kelly’s Blues 1955.
The only child of Vera and Herbert Palmer, Mansfield’s ancestry was seven-eighths English and Cornish and one-eighth German.
At age 27, she gave birth to son Zoltan Hargitay on August 1, 1960; the father was Mickey Hargitay.
Mansfield was an accomplished violinist and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Jayne Mansfield.
Celebrities similar to Jayne Mansfield — same craft, ranked by reach.
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