Jean Harlow

Harlean Carpenter, who later became Jean Harlow, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911. She was the daughter of a successful dentist and his wife.

In 1927, at the age of 16, she ran away from home to marry a young businessman named Charles McGrew, who was 23.

The couple pulled up stakes and moved to Los Angeles, not long after they were married, and it was there Jean found work as an extra in films, landing a bit part in Moran of the Marines (1928). From that point on she would go to casting calls whenever she could.

In 1929 she had bit parts in no less than 11 movies, playing everything from a passing woman on the street to a winged ballerina. Her marriage to McGrew turned out to be a disaster--it lasted barely two years--and they divorced. The divorce enabled her to put more of her efforts into finding roles in the movie business. Although she was having trouble finding roles in feature movies, she had more luck in film shorts.

She had a fairly prominent role in Hal Roach's Double Whoopee (1929).

Her big break came in 1930, when she landed a role in Howard Hughes' World War I epic Hell's Angels (1930), which turned out to be a smash hit. Not long after the film's debut, Hughes sold her contract to MGM for $60,000, and it was there where her career shot to unprecedented heights.

Her appearance in Platinum Blonde (1931) cemented her role as America's new sex symbol.

The next year saw her paired with Clark Gable in John Ford's Red Dust (1932), the second of six films she would make with Gable. It was while filming this picture (which took 44 days to complete at a cost of $408,000) that she received word that her new husband, MGM producer Paul Bern, had committed suicide. His death threatened to halt production of the film, and MGM chief Louis B. Mayer had even contacted Tallulah Bankhead to replace Harlow if she were unable to continue, a step that proved to be unnecessary.

The film was released late in 1932 and was an instant hit. She was becoming a superstar.

It was a Hollywood parody loosely based on Clara Bow's and Harlow's real-life experiences, right down to the latter's greedy stepfather, nine-room Georgian-style home with mostly-white interiors, her numerous pet dogs - right down to having her re-shoot scenes from the Gable and Harlow hit, Red Dust (1932) here! In 1933 Jean married cinematographer Harold Rosson, a union that would only last eight months (although Rosson lived another 53 years, he never remarried).

In MGM's glittering all-star Dinner at Eight (1933) Jean was at her comedic best as the wife of a ruthless tycoon (Wallace Beery) trying to take over another man's (Lionel Barrymore) failing business.

Later that year she played the part of Lola Burns in director Victor Fleming's hit Bombshell (1933).

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.

In 1935 she was again teamed with Gable in another rugged adventure, China Seas (1935) (her remaining two pictures with Gable would be Wife vs.

Secretary (1936) and Saratoga (1937)). It was her films with Gable that created her lasting legacy in the film world.

Unfortunately, during the filming of Saratoga (1937), she was hospitalized with uremic poisoning.

Was considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), which went to Vivien Leigh.

She was voted the 49th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

She was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6910 Hollywood Blvd. on February 8, 1960.

Early in her career, Lee Remick was scheduled to portray her in a film. In 1965 two competing films entitled "Harlow" were released, one starring Carol Lynley and the other with Carroll Baker.

On the situation comedy Night Court (1984), 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 seen through the series' entire run.

Is one of the many movie stars mentioned in Madonna's 1990 song "Vogue".

In June 1999 she was ranked #22 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Legends" list.

Is portrayed by Gwen Stefani in The Aviator (2004), by Carroll Baker in Harlow (1965), by Susan Buckner in The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977), by Lindsay Bloom in Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell (1977) and by Carol Lynley in Harlow (1965)

She was honored as Turner Classic Movie's Star of the Month for March 2011.