The dentist's daughter eloped at age 16 with a young businessman and wound up in Los Angeles where she found work as an extra and bit player (e.g., Moran of the Marines and Liberty) and somewhat more prominently in Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy shorts (Double Whoopee, Bacon Grabbers). Her first big break came in 1930 when Howard Hughes remade his 1927 "Hell's Angels" in a sound version, replacing the heavy accented Swede Greta Nissen with the girl who, with her divorce in 1929, had adopted her mother's maiden name, Jean Harlow. Hughes loaned her out for a number of movies which, like Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde, featured her platinum hair and more than obvious sexuality (she claimed she never wore underwear). In 1932 Hughes sold her contract to MGM, and her Red-Headed Woman for that studio led the Hays Office to forbid the depiction of unpunished adultery. She married Irving Thalberg's right-hand man, Paul Bern. The marriage ended after a few weeks: just after his former common-law wife met Harlow, Bern shot himself, and a few days later the other woman also committed suicide. Harlow had another brief marriage, to cinematographer Harold Rosson, followed by an affair with William Powell. She made three films with Spencer Tracy and six with Clark Gable, receiving much improved critical acclaim for her acting, allure and comedic talent. During the filming of Saratoga she was hospitalized for uremic poisoning, dying June 7 of cerebral edema, aged 26.



Saratoga (1937): $4,000/week
The Girl from Missouri (1934): $3,000/week
Red-Headed Woman (1932): $1,250/week
Hell's Angels (1930): $1,500
Honor Bound (1928): $7/ day

Was the godmother of Millicent Siegel, daughter of the notorious mobster Benjamin Bugsy Siegel. Height is often listed as 5'2"-5'3 1/2" Was photographed nude at age 17 by Hollywood photographer Edward Bower Hesser in Griffith Park in 1928. Went on a salary strike from MGM in 1934, during which she wrote a novel, "Today is Tonight." The book was not published until 1965. Was the idol of Marilyn Monroe, who backed out of a biographical picture on her life. After reading the script, Monroe reportedly told her agent, "I hope they don't do that to me after I'm gone." Both Harlow and Monroe co-starred in their last films with Clark Gable, Harlow in Saratoga (1937) and Monroe in The Misfits (1961). Ranked #22 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Legends" list in June 1999. Born at 5:40pm-CST She was at a dinner party and continuously addressed Margot Asquith (wife of British prime minister Herbert Asquith) as "Margot", pronouncing the "T". Margot finally had enough and said to her, "No, Jean, the 'T' is silent, like in 'Harlow'". Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Benediction, at the end of the corridor, on the left side, in the second to the last private room, marked "Harlow". Never wore any underwear and always slept in the nude. She used to put ice on her nipples right before shooting a scene in order to appear sexier. Measurements: 34B-25-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) She was voted the 49th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Known as the "original blonde bombshell", pre-dating Marilyn Monroe as a blonde sex symbol. On the day Hollywood canine superstar Rin Tin Tin died at age of 16 (112 in dog years), Harlow, who lived across the street from his master, Lee Duncan, went over to cradle the dog's head in her lap as the famous canine died. Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue" Once lived in Chateau Marmont, the famous Los Angeles hotel. Everyone on the MGM lot called her The Baby with the exception of Clark Gable. A very close friend, he always called her Sis. Of her final performance in Saratoga (1937), critic Graham Greene wrote "Her technique was the gangster's technique - she toted a breast like a man totes a gun". Harlow is interred at Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery in a private crypt purchased by William Powell for $25,000. The crypt and sanctuary room contained marble from France, Italy and Spain, and was a tribute to the woman he then loved and planned to marry. Along with Hedy Lamarr, they were the primary inspirations for Batman creator Bob Kane's Catwoman character. When Jean Harlow died with about one week's worth of shooting left to go on "Saratoga," her stand-in, Mary Dees, replaced her in the remaining footage.