Jayne Mansfield, 1933-1967 The girl couldn't help it | Interviews

She was a stereotype, almost a caricature, of the dumb blond: bigger, blonder, dumber, more publicity-conscious than any who had gone before.

The story goes that 20th Century-Fox hired her in the first place to use her as a bargaining point with Monroe, who was causing contract trouble. Her 10 or 12 years of fame were lived in Monroe's shadow. The studio starred her at first in Monroe-type roles, like the sexy but warmhearted blonds in “The Wayward Bus” and “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” – the role she played successfully on Broadway.

But she wasn't really very good as an actress. She didn't have the comic timing and the natural warmth of Monroe, and, truth to tell, she was never as sexy, either. Monroe's appeal was based on a fresh quality, a hint of the girl next door, and Jayne never really understood that. She had the props, but she never found the secret.

By the early 1960s, Jayne Mansfield was at the peak of her fame and the low point of her acting career. Twentieth Century-Fox released her from her contract in 1960, and her roles became more and more built around her simple presence. She didn't have to act. She only had to stand there.

Finally, in “Promises, Promises.” she did what no Hollywood actress ever does except in desperation: she made a nudie. By 1963, that kind of box office appeal was about all she had left.

Still, she continued to make Page 1. Her marriage with muscleman Mickey Hargitay in 1956 began to break up around 1962. They were reconciled in time to be lost overnight off the Florida Keys; the headlines suggested she had drowned. But the day after they found the capsized boat, they found Jayne and Mickey on a rock atoll with her press agent, who said the boat had overturned when Jayne thought she saw sharks. Mickey called it a lie when the papers called it a publicity stunt.