JEAN HARLOW (1911–1937)

JEAN HARLOW (1911–1937) Stood 1.56 meters (5'1") tall.

One of the great icons of Hollywood’s Golden Age and among the most popular "platinum blondes" of all time, Harlean Carpenter (her real name) was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911, into a middle-class family (her father, Mont Clair, was a dentist, and her mother, Jean, was a homemaker). At the age of 16, while living in Chicago, she fell deeply in love with Charles McGraw—a local businessman seven years her senior—and ran away from the home she shared with her mother and her mother’s new husband, Marino Bello. She moved to Los Angeles, where she and McGraw were married in 1927. In the late 1920s, amidst the cinematic fervor of the region, Jean sought to become an actress, adopting the stage name "Jean Harlow" (using her mother’s maiden name). Initially, she only managed to secure small roles in short films, most of which were comedies. In 1929—just before the decade that would propel her to stardom—she divorced McGraw. A year later, she caught the attention of film mogul Howard Hughes, who cast her in *Hell's Angels* (1930). She replaced the Nordic actress Greta Nissen, whom Hughes had dismissed due to her strong, unappealing Swedish accent. The fame she gained from *Hell's Angels*, combined with brief appearances in successful films—such as Charles Chaplin’s *City Lights* (1931)—and her leading role alongside James Cagney in *The Public Enemy* (1931), all served to pique the interest of the studio MGM. ...a development that took place in 1932—the same year Jean married Paul Bern, a trusted associate of Irving Thalberg who was twenty-two years her senior. The marriage ended in a notorious tragedy when, months after the wedding, Bern was found dead in his bedroom; he had taken his own life, driven to despair by his impotence and his inability to sexually satisfy his young wife. To compound the tragedy, one day later, Dorothy Millette—Paul Bern’s first wife—also committed suicide by throwing herself into the Sacramento River. Throughout the 1930s, Jean Harlow’s reputation as an actress grew, bolstered by her remarkable comedic flair and her on-screen collaborations with stars such as Clark Gable, with whom she appeared in six films. Harlow married for a third time, this time to cinematographer Harold Rosson; however, this union also proved unstable, as the couple married in 1933 and divorced in 1935. While filming *Saratoga* (1937), Harlow fell ill and was hospitalized with a kidney ailment—a complication stemming from a bout of scarlet fever she had suffered in childhood. As a result of this health crisis, the entertainment world’s first great "platinum blonde" passed away on June 7, 1937. Her final film, *Saratoga*—which had to be completed using a body double—became the highest-grossing movie of 1937. Jean was only 26 years old at the time of her death. She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Los Angeles.