Jean Harlow - 100 Today

[Andrew666]

Jean Harlow was born 100 years ago today. The platinum blonde bombshell died of kidney failure at the ridiculously young age of 26 in 1937 at the absolute peak of her worldwide fame - such a blow to humanity.



Born Harlean Harlow Carpentier, she adopted the name Jean from her mother. After finding her way to Hollywood and appearing in a few bit parts, she then broke lucky in the proto-noir gangster movie The Secret Six (1931) with Wallace Beery and followed this with other classics such as Jimmy Cagney's The Public Enemy (1931) - surely one of the most enjoyable movies of all time.


Don't put your hand there, dear......

Whilst Jean then went on to shine in brilliant comedy movies such as Goldie, Platinum Blonde, Dinner at Eight and Blonde Bombshell, she also made some decent noirish movies such as The Beast of the City (1932) with Walter Huston and Riffraff (1936) with Spencer Tracy

Who knows what she might have been able to achieve as a mature femme fatale in forties noir?

[Movie Memories]

A very worthy birthday tribute and one of my favorites. Harlow was adept at playing both the gangster's moll, or the comedienne. Adding to the tragedy of her early death was the fact that, as a result of her Christian Science beliefs, she refused all medical aid following complications to her uremic poisoning.

Her short life seemed like a one-act tragedy with her only marriage ending after only a couple of months with her husband, MGM producer, Paul Bern's "reported suicide". His death was more likely a studio cover up from a murder scandal as explained in the book "Deadly Illusions."

Coincidently, the probable "murderess," as the investigation unfolded, "accidently" fell off a docked cruise ship and drowned.

I believe Jean Harlow's potential as a mature femme fatale would have been enormous.

[MFPhoto]

Some sources claim that the poison that killed Harlow came from her hair dye, but most discount that rumor.

At the time of her death, she was romantically involved with William Powell. Powell is said never to have fully recovered from her death.

I noticed the George Hurrell photo at the top of this thread. Hurrell is one of my favorites.