Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow Facts
| Sign | Pisces |
| Born |
Mar 3, 1911 Kansas City, MO |
| Died |
Jun 7, 1937 Los Angeles, CA |
| Age | Died at 26 |
| Total Facts | 46 |
A new musical called "In Hell With Harlow" about an after-death meeting between her and Protestant WWII martyr Dietrich Boenhoffer never reached the stage. The production, written by best-selling author Paul L. Williams, was to star Dawn Winarski and Greg Korin.
Along with Hedy Lamarr, they were the primary inspirations for Batman creator Bob Kane's Catwoman character.
At the time of her death Jean Harlow was suffering from kidney failure that was causing her limbs to swell up with water, making her considerably heavier. Co-star Clark Gable noticed this when they filmed a scene for her last film, "Saratoga," that required him to lift her into the upper berth in a Pullman car. Gable complained that she weighed more and was therefore harder for him to lift than she'd been in their previous films together.
Attended the 1936 Oscars with her then-lover William Powell, her close friend and co-star Clark Gable, and his new lover Carole Lombard, who was Powell's ex-wife. Harlow was so ill during the evening, Lombard had to help her to the powder room to recover and re-apply her make-up.
Born at 5:40pm-CST
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.
Everyone on the MGM lot called her The Baby with the exception of Clark Gable. A very close friend, he always called her Sis.
Favorite brand of cigarette: Fatima.
Following the end of her third marriage she met actor William Powell. They were engaged for two years (due to minor differences and Jean's belief that MGM wouldn't approve), but Jean became ill and died before they could marry.
For many years, it was a widely-held belief that she died because her mother, a Christian Scientist, refused to let doctors operate on her after she became ill. Christian Scientists prefer prayer to drugs and surgery. This story was even reprinted in David Shipman's famous book, The Great Movie Stars, but it has been repeatedly shown to be completely untrue.
Had two famous superstitions: She always wore a lucky ankle chain on her left leg, which is visible in some films if you look closely, and had a lucky mirror in her dressing room. She wouldn't leave the room without first looking in it.
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.
Height is often listed as 5'2"-5'3 1/2"
Her birth name was Harlean Carpenter - the first name an amalgam of her mother's maiden name, Jean Harlow, which she later took as her stage name. At the height of her career, it came out that this wasn't her real name, and the insatiable public wanted to know what her real name was. The studio released her "real" name as Harlean Carpentier. Harlow had added the extra "i" herself before her career began to make it sound more exotic.
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.
Her funeral wasn't the average funeral. Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, took charge and made it a Hollywood event. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy sang his favorite song Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life in the church chapel, followed by a huge banquet with an orchestra.
In the 1933 Hollywood satire Bombshell (1933) Harlow is known as "the If girl" -- a spoof loosely based on 1920s sex symbol and "It girl" Clara Bow.
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".
Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's song "Vogue"
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)
Known as the "original blonde bombshell", pre-dating Marilyn Monroe as a blonde sex symbol.
Measurements: 34B-25-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Never wore any underwear and always slept in the nude.
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".
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.
On the television series _'Night Court'_(1982) a black and white portrait of her on a bearskin rug in front of a roaring fire was seen displayed in the office of Judge Harry T. Stone (played by 'Harry Anderson') which was see throughout the entire series run (1984-1992).
Once lived in Chateau Marmont, the famous Los Angeles hotel.
One of the last photos taken of Jean showed her carrying a copy of Gone with the Wind. She was determined to read it, but as her illness progressed, couldn't get past more than the first few pages. When she was admitted to hospital, she reminded one of her nurses to pack it. The nurse, realizing how serious Harlow's illness was, remarked "She'll never finish it." Her words came true when Harlow died later that week.
Ranked #22 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Legends" list in June 1999.
Refused the lead in King Kong (1933), as well as the lead in the Tod Browning classic Freaks (1932).
She had to stick to a strict diet to keep thin, eating mostly vegetables and salads.
She spent the night of April 6, 1933 - the day when Prohibition was set to expire at midnight - at the Los Angeles Brewing Co. with fellow movie star Walter Huston. A maker of "near-beer" and denatured alcohol (the alcohol was subtracted from the full-strength beer the company continued to brew during Prohibition, but could not legally market), the company was ready to immediately supply the Los Angeles area's demand for beer. Skipping the denaturing process, they had made a huge consignment of the genuine stuff to be marketed as Eastside Beer in bottles and kegs. The brewery's trucks were loaded and ready to roll out of the brewery the minute when suds could be legally shipped and sold. Two treasury agents and many guards were there that night to ensure things went smoothly, safely and legally. At 12:01 AM on April 7, 1933, when the sale and consumption of intoxicating beverages was once again legal in the United States, Huston gave a short speech and Harlow broke a bottle of beer over the first truck lined up and ready to deliver its now-legal load of liquid refreshment, thus christening the reborn brewery. The trucks rolled out, many staffed with armed guards riding shotgun lest the thirsty multitude get too frisky along the delivery routes. When the night was over, the brewery had done over $250,000 in business (approx
She used to put ice on her nipples right before shooting a scene in order to appear sexier.
She was a devoted Democrat and in the year of her death she visited Franklin D. Roosevelt on his birthday at a dinner party being thrown at the White House. A small clip of the event, with her at the microphone, can be found on YouTube with her only words being, "Good Evening".
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'".
She was the very first film actress to grace the cover of Life magazine in May 1937.
She was voted the 49th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
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.
Was known as "The Original Platinum Blonde".
Was photographed nude at age 17 by Hollywood photographer Edward Bower Hesser in Griffith Park in 1928.
Was the godmother of Millicent Siegel, daughter of the notorious mobster Benjamin Bugsy Siegel.
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).
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.
When entombed at Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery in 1937, she was dressed in the same gown she wore in Libeled Lady (1936).
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.
When she died in 1937, her estate was valued at over $1 million and left entirely to her mother.