Jayne Mansfield Biography

Actor

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Name at birth: Vera Jayne Palmer

Actress Jayne Mansfield was a Hollywood bombshell just slightly less explosive than her more famous contemporary, Marilyn Monroe. Mansfield was famous for her bleached-blonde hair and ample bosom, both of which she displayed willingly in publicity photos and in Playboy magazine. She had roles in two dozen films in the 1950s and 1960s, including The Girl Can't Help It (1956), Kiss Them For Me (1957, with Cary Grant) and Promises! Promises! (1963). She was killed in a late-night highway crash in Louisiana in 1967.

Extra credit: Mansfield is the mother of actress Mariska Hargitay, who plays Detective Olivia Benson on TV's Law and Order: Special Victims Unit... Mansfield was married three times: to Paul Mansfield (1950-58), bodybuilder Miklos "Mickey" Hargitay (1958-64) and filmmaker Matt Climber (1964-66). She had one child with Mansfield (Jayne Marie, b. 1950), three with Hargitay (Miklos Jr., b. 1958, Zoltan, b. 1960, and Mariska, b. 1964), and one with Climber (Tony, b. 1965).

Mansfield appears with James Dean, Lisa Lopes and Princess Diana in the loop Death by Car.