JEAN HARLOW

 JEAN HARLOW (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter)

(March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937)

She was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the pre-Code era of American cinema. Often nicknamed the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde", Harlow was popular for her "Laughing Vamp" screen persona. Harlow was in the film industry for only nine years, but she became one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, whose image in the public eye has endured. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Harlow number 22 on its greatest female screen legends list. She appeared in thirty-four (34) feature films during her career, between 1928 and 1937. Her last film was playing the character Carol Clayton in 1938's Saratoga.

Her death, at the age of 26, was rather tragic. It was the result of both misdiagnosis and lack of urgency to get her proper medical care.

She wrote a novel titled Today Is Tonight. In Arthur Landau's introduction to the 1965 paperback edition, Harlow stated around 1933–1934 her intention to write the book, but it was not published during her lifetime. During her life, Harlow's stepfather Marino Bello shopped the unpublished manuscript to a few studios. Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, prevented the book from being sold by putting an injunction on it using a clause in Harlow's contract: her services as an artist couldn't be used without MGM's permission. After her death, Landau wrote, her mother sold the film rights to MGM, though no film was made. The publication rights were passed from Harlow's mother to a family friend, and the book was finally published in 1965.