American actress whose slender figure and short platinum hair earned her the nickname “The Blonde Bombshell.” In the films “Hell’s Angels,” “Red Dust,” “Dinner at Eight,” “Public Enemy,” “Bombshell” and “Red Dust,” among others, she often played lusty, sex-driven women who manipulated their men.
Harlow was the daughter of a dentist and a domineering housewife mother. Mom divorced the dentist when Harlow was two and remarried a man of uncertain profession who was reputed to be a gangster type. Daughter Jean, whose nickname throughout
her life was “the Baby,” was placed in boarding schools, where she ran away at age 16 to marry 21 year old Charles McGrew, the son of a wealthy investment broker. The newlyweds’ families broke the couple up almost immediately, and the two never saw each other again. The family moved to Hollywood when Harlow was a teenager, where her first movie role was in Howard Hughes’ lavish production of “Hell’s Angels.” Hughes himself coined the term “platinum blonde” for Harlow, and from that point on her almost white hair was to become her trademark.
On 7/02/1932 Harlow made a second marriage to MGM executive Paul Bern who kept a full-time mistress in New York named Dorothy Millette. The Bern-Harlow marriage was catastrophic. Two months later, it became obvious that Bern was unable to perform sexually without a dildo, much to the hysterical laughter of his new bride who, having no part of it, flushed it down the toilet. Bern then proceeded to beat Harlow with a cane until she was unconscious; her injuries included damaged kidneys, yet the full extent of internal damage was never medically diagnosed.
On 9/05/1932 Bern’s body was found with a .38 caliber bullet through his head. The MGM officials who were called to the scene claimed he left a suicide note. Years later, a personal friend of Bern’s related that Dorothy Millette, who considered herself Bern’s
common-law wife, flew to Los Angeles upon hearing that she had been dumped for Jean Harlow and murdered Bern. Two household servants later came forth to corroborate the story. Millette fled to Seattle where she used the pistol on herself three days later.
A distraught Harlow turned to promiscuity, claiming she wanted to experience normal sex and also to have a baby. Her sleazy attempts at fertility failed without exception and she eventually found out she could not have children.
A third marriage, to cameraman Hall Rossen in 1933, lasted eight months. The reasons for divorce were never clear, it was speculated that Harlow’s domineering and insanely jealous mother played a role, along with her questionable husband. Harlow’s health began to deteriorate. In December 1935, she collapsed on the set of “Wife vs. Secretary,” allegedly due to fatigue and overwork. Her mother, now a Christian Scientist, took “the Baby” in for a few days to rest, but Harlow’s physical condition was more serious than anyone knew and any medical help was flatly refused by her fanatical and manipulative mom.
The following year was Harlow’s best. She starred opposite Spencer Tracy in “Libeled Lady” and became engaged to William Powell. In the spring of 1937, Harlow became seriously ill with an inflamed gall bladder and, while filming “Saratoga,” on 5/29/1937 she collapsed in Clark Gable’s arms. Despite pleas for an ambulance, she was driven to her mother’s house again to rest for a few days.
When she wasn’t on the set the following Tuesday, the film’s director, producer, Powell and Gable forced their way into Mom’s home, who triumphantly displayed her pale, semi-conscious daughter as being healed through prayer. Repeated requests to speak to Harlow’s stepfather failed; he had simply disappeared. “She is not sick.” Mom shouted at Powell and the others. “She’s just pretending to make a fool of me. She won’t admit what I’ve done for her.” Within days Harlow’s situation was desperate. Powell took the matter into his own hands and contacted Louis B. Mayer, the one person Mom truly feared and that same day, 6/6/1937, Mayer ordered an ambulance to the house. When Harlow arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, she was too weak to undergo surgery, and died hours later.
Link to Wikipedia biography