Jean Harlow was an extremely popular star of American film during her short life, which was cut short at the age of twenty-six due to kidney failure. During that span, she made forty-one movies, married three times (and was on the verge of a fourth), wrote a posthumously published novel, and won critical acclaim for her body of work, being ranked one of the greatest movie star of all times by the American Film Institute. The first “blonde bombshellâ€, Jean had an earthy and healthy sex appeal, and was successfully paired with such screen giants as Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and James Cagney. Born Harlean Harlowe Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, and affectionately called “Babyâ€, Jean made her first marriage to Charles McGrew, heir to large fortune, at the age of sixteen, and she and her young husband headed to Los Angeles, where Jean had appeared in bit parts. When her first marriage failed, Jean moved in with her mother and her second husband, who had also moved to Los Angeles. Ever the stage mother, Jean Harlow Carpenter Bello (Mama) pushed and encouraged her daughter to audition frequently, and Jean made her first big hit in Hell’s Angels in 1930. She became an overnight sensation and went on to become a superstar at MGM, boosting their sales at a critical time during the Depression. During this time, her second husband, producer Paul Bern, committed suicide amidst a mysterious scandal. When Jean went on to have an affair with the married boxer, Max Baer, the ever-protective studio prevailed upon her to marry Harold Rossom, a cinematographer and friend, in order to avoid bad publicity. They were quietly divorced seven months later. She and actor William Powell were slated to marry, when she became seriously ill on the set of Saratoga. After summoning a doctor and recalling Jean’s mother from vacation, Powell finally arranged to have her hospitalized at Good Samaritan, where she fell into a coma and died on June 7th, 1937. A stunned industry and public saw her to her burial, and Saratoga was finished with stand-ins and opened to the public as the highest grossing picture of 1937. An extraordinary life, extraordinarily short, extraordinarily fulfilled.
