She started in films as an extra, and gained particular notice in a 1929 Laurel and Hardy silent short, Double Whoopee That same year she had a small role in The Saturday Night Kid which starred the woman she more or less supplanted as the screen's most uninhibited sex star, Clara Bow. Her big break came in 1930, when Howard Hughes cast her as the leading lady in the epic WW1 aviation drama Hell's Angels Although her acting skills were dubious at best, she looked smashing (and was even photographed in two-color Technicolor for one extended sequence), and her offhanded question to Ben Lyon, "Would you be shocked if I changed into something more comfortable?" was quoted-and misquoted-for years to come. Hughes sent her on per sonal appearance tours and loaned her out to other studios. In 1931 alone she appeared in The Secret Six, The Iron Man, The Public Enemy (opposite James Cagney), Goldie and Platinum Blonde (playing the title characters in the last two); 1932 began with Beast of the City and Three Wise Girls
Still, there seemed little more to Harlow than her looks. It was MGM producer Paul Bern who took an interest in her, and encouraged his studio to build her up and give her other opportunities. She made the most of Red-Headed Woman (1932), giving one of the sexiest performances ever put on film, but leavening it with humorHarlow's heretofore unseen trump card. The promise she showed in that film came to fruition in Red Dust (1932) in which she played a tramp with a heart, opposite Clark Gable. Overnight, it seemed, Harlow was not only a bona fide star, but a hit with the critics as well, who had dismissed her just one year earlier.
MGM now developed films to fit her personality, like Hold Your Man (1933), and gave her an irresistible opportunity to poke fun at herself (and even her leeching family) in Bombshell (1933), a Hollywood satire about a put-upon movie star. Then in the all-star Dinner at Eight (1933) she held her own with such legendary scenestealers as Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler. The imposition of Hollywood's Production Code forced MGM to tone down Harlow's brassy image (although 1934's The Girl From Missouri just squeaked by). The result was a string of more genteel movies including the illadvised musical Reckless (1935, in which both Harlow's singing and dancing were doubled), China Seas, Riffraff (both 1935), Wife vs. Secretary, Suzy (both 1936), and Personal Property (1937). The standout among her later films was Libeled Lady (1936) in which she battled perennial fiancé Spencer Tracy; it was a delicious comic performance.
During the filming of Saratoga (1937) she fell ill, and was dead ten days later. The world was shocked that someone so young, beautiful, and seemingly healthy could die so suddenly. Various causes were cited, but it wasn't until 1993 that biographer David Stenn revealed, from long-suppressed doctor's records and other evidence, that Harlow had been suffering from kidney disease since her teens. With no known cure at the time, she was doomed. Public demand caused MGM to complete Saratoga with stand-in Mary Dees substituting for Harlow in several shots.
Hers was a shocking, tragic end, though it seemed in character with other personal problems that had dogged her life: a suffocating mother and parasitic stepfather; the mysterious death of her second husband, Paul Bern; another short-lived marriage to cinematographer Harold Rosson; and a long engagement to MGM star William Powell that never quite culminated in marriage. Rumors and mistruths about all of that fueled two screen biographies in 1965, both called Harlow one starred Carroll Baker, the other Carol Lynley. Neither one managed to capture the magic that made Jean Harlow a star.
Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin, used by arrangement with Signet, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.
Interesting Facts About Jean Harlow:
Salary
Saratoga (1937) $4,000/week
Red-Headed Woman (1932) $1,250/week
Hell's Angels (1930) $1,500
Honor Bound (1928) $7/ day
Trivia
Was the godmother of Millicent Siegel, daughter of the notorious mobster Bugsy Siegel.
Dated the notorious mobster Abner "Longy" Zwillman, who secured a two-picture deal for Harlow with Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures by loaning Cohn $500,000 in cash. He also purchased her a jeweled charm bracelet and a red Cadillac.
Refused the lead in King Kong (1933), as well as the lead in the Tod Browning classic Freaks (1932)
Her final film, Saratoga (1937), became the highest grossing film of 1937 and set all-time house records, due almost entirely to her untimely death.
Was the idol of Marilyn Monroe, who backed out of a bio-pic 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."
The premiere of her first feature film, Hell's Angels (1930), on May 27, 1930, drew an estimated crowd of 50,000 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. The film also has an expensive eight-minute two-color Technicolor sequence - the only color footage of Harlow that exists.
Ranked #22 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Legends" list in June 1999.
She was the very first film actress to grace the cover of LIFE magazine in May 1937.
On the day Hollywood canine superstar Rin Tin Tin died at age of 16 (112 in doggie years), Harlow, who lived across the street from his master, Lee Duncan, came over and cradled the dog's head in her lap as the famous pooch made his final exit to Doggie Heaven.
Is portrayed by Gwen Stefani in The Aviator (2004), by Carroll Baker in Harlow (1965/I), by Susan Buckner in The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977) (TV), by Lindsay Bloom in Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell (1978) and by Carol Lynley in Harlow (1965/II)
Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"
Later,
Kenaz
