Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American film actress who was known as the "Blonde Bombshell", and as being the original "platinum blonde", predating Marilyn Monroe as a blonde sex symbol.

Harlow shot to fame in the early 1930s starring in hits such as "Hell's Angels" and "The Public Enemy" and would die within the same decade at the height of her career of kidney failure. Enormously popular within her lifetime; she to this day has inspired a fervent following.

Early years

Harlow was born Harlean Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Mont Clair Carpenter, a dentist, and his wife, Jean Poe Harlow.

Her given name (Harlean) was invented from parts of her mother's maiden name, Jean Harlow. At first, Harlow adopted her mother's name as a stage name, then legally changed it in 1935.

Mother Jean, as she was known, divorced Harlean's father and moved to Hollywood with hopes of becoming an actress herself.

Shortly afterward, with plenty of screen tests but no positive results and threats of financial cut-off from Harlow's grandfather, Skip Harlow, she remarried Marino Bello and moved to Chicago, where Jean attended Ferry Hall School, a private girls' academy in the wealthy suburb of Lake Forest.

Beginnings

In the spring of 1928 back in Los Angeles and married to Charles McGrew, III, Harlean was introduced to Fox studio executive when she drove a friend to her appointment there. Although she expressed disinterest in acting, the executive insisted on writing her letters of introduction to Fox and The Central Casting Bureau.

Weeks later, on a dare from friends, she returned to Fox's casting office and signed in under her mother's maiden name, Jean Harlow.

Weeks later, at her mother's insistence and after turning down other job opportunities, Jean appeared in her first film, Honor Bound as an unbilled extra, for $7 dollars a day.

This led for to other roles, and Harlow landed bit parts in silent films such as Why is a Plumber? (1927), Moran of the Marines (1928) and The Love Parade (1929).

She had a more substantial role in Laurel and Hardy's short Double Whoopee (1929). She got her first major role when producer Howard Hughes cast her in the World War I film Hell's Angels (1930).

Notable for its two-strip Technicolor sequences (including some footage of Harlow in color, the only existing color footage of her), this film launched Harlow as the premier sex symbol of the 1930s and started a craze for platinum blonde hair that continues to this day.

What was notable about this was in Hollywood, only the "good girls" were blonde and the "bad girls" were brunette - Harlow's vamps turned that stereotype on its head and woman across the nation rushed to bleach their hair in wake of Harlow's rapidly rising popularity.

Loaned out by Hughes' Caddo Company to other studios, in 1931, Harlow began to gain more attention when she appeared in The Public Enemy, Goldie, The Secret Six with Clark Gable, and Platinum Blonde with Loretta Young.

Though the films were moderate hits, Harlow's acting ability was damned by critics as awful and was mocked, with some saying she ruined any scene she was in.

MGM

With Harlow's star on the ascent, she gained the attention of studio brass at MGM who bought out her contract from Howard Hughes. MGM was where Harlow would become "Harlow", not only with the image but be given superior movie roles to show off not only her beauty but her natural talent for comedy. In 1932 she had the starring roles in Red-Headed Woman, for which she received a salary of $1,250/week, and Red Dust, her second film with Clark Gable.These films showed her to be much more at ease in front of the camera and highlighted her skill as a comedienne. Harlow and Gable worked well together and co-starred in a total of six films.

It was during the making of Red Dust that Harlow's second husband, MGM producer Paul Bern (neé Paul Levy) died in an incident that remains mysterious to this day; he was found naked in his wife's bedroom, shot in the head. This created a scandal that reverberates to this day. Initially, the Hollywood community whispered Harlow had killed Burn herself though this was just rumor and would quickly be disproven. Harlow would surive this, her first great Hollywood scandal, and would come through unscathed and more popular with audiences than ever.

Years later it was suggested by screenwriter Ben Hecht that Bern was murdered by an unbalanced former lover, Dorothy Millette, who actually committed suicide the next day. (Years later, the Bern-Harlow house became the home of Jay Sebring and, for a time, Sharon Tate. They were later both murdered by Charles Manson's followers.)

By 1933, Harlow was becoming a superstar. She had a great comedic part in Dinner at Eight, and later that year she starred in Bombshell.

Because of Harlow's indiscreet affair with boxer Max Baer (Heavy Weight Champion of the World and key figure in the recent film 'Cinderella Man'), Mrs. Baer threatened divorce proceedings, naming Harlow as a co-defendent for "alienation of affection," then the common term for adultery.

MGM diffused the situation by arranging a quick fixed marriage between Harlow and cinematographer Harold Rosson. Still feeling the aftershocks of the mysterious Bern death, the studio didn't want another Harlow scandal on its hands. Rosson and Harlow were prior friends, and the gentle cameraman went along with the plan. They divorced quietly seven months later.

After the hits that were 'Hold Your Man' and 'Red Dust', MGM realized the goldmine of the Harlow-Gable vehicle, putting them in two more films: China Seas (1935) and Wife vs. Secretary (1936). Other co-stars included Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor and William Powell. She was allegedly involved romantically with Gable, Powell and Taylor.

By the mid-1930s Harlow was becoming one of the biggest stars in America and the foremost female star at MGM; Harlow was still a young woman with her star continuously on the ascendant while by this point the popularity of other female stars at MGM such as Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer were waning. Her movies continued to make huge profits at the box office even during the middle of the Depression; some credit Harlow's films with keeping MGM in the black while other studios fell into bankruptcy.

Following the end of her third marriage, Harlow met MGM star William Powell and quickly fell in love. They reportedly were engaged for two years, but differences kept them from marrying swiftly (she wanted children; he did not). Harlow also said that studio head Louis B. Mayer would never allow them to wed.

Later Career & Death

Harlow fell ill with influenza during the early part of 1937; although she recovered, the attack weakened her body against the onslaught of a more serious illness that was just beginning to take hold: kidney failure. In retrospective analysis, Harlow's kidneys may have been slowly failing during the ten years since she contracted scarlet fever while in her early teens. In the days before kidney dialysis and transplants, this condition was fatal.

While filming Saratoga (1937) with Clark Gable, Harlow collapsed on set and was rushed to the hospital, diagnosed with uremic poisoning (some sources claimed she actually died of complications from a botched abortion). She died just days later, at the age of 26.

Harlow is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California. William Powell paid for her tomb, which bears the simple inscription "Our Baby". Her funeral took place in the Wee Kirk O' The Heather Chapel at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

She was buried in the negligee that she had worn just weeks before, while filming a scene from the movie Saratoga. It's been reported that a single white gardenia with an unsigned note attached that read "Good night, my dearest darling" were placed in her hands. It is assumed that both were from William Powell, who also paid for her final resting place—the $25,000, 9x10-foot private room lined with multicolored imported marble located in the "Sanctuary of Benediction".

Many myths have swirled around Harlow's death and it was not until the early 1990s that her long-sealed medical records were uncovered. Legend had it that Harlow's mother, a follower of Christian Science, prevented doctors from attending to her dying daughter, but this myth has been extinguished; records prove Harlow received constant medical attention. Other long-standing myths, such as the suggestion that Harlow's kidneys were damaged in a beating from husband Paul Bern or that bleach from her hair seeped into her brain and killed her, are equally untrue.