Born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933, Mansfield became one of Hollywood’s biggest blonde bombshells in the 1950s and ’60s. She was seen as the alternative to Marilyn Monroe, often referred to as the “Working Man’s Monroe.”
Not only was she a Playboy Playmate, but she starred in numerous films like The Girl Can’t Help It, Promises! Promises!, and The Sheriff of a Fractured Jaw.
Tragically her life was cut short when in 1967 she was killed in a car accident. Mansfield was 34.
Hargitay, who was three years old at the time, was in the backseat of the car along with two of her siblings. The children survived, but Mansfield, her attorney and companion Sam Brody, and their driver Ronnie Harrison were killed instantly.
“I think I learned about crisis very young, and I learned very young that s— happens and there’s no guarantees, and we keep going. And then we transform it,” she told Glamour in 2021. “That’s been kind of my superpower, and the gift of having trauma early in life.”
“I clearly was in that frozen place for a lot of my childhood — of trying to survive, actually trying to survive,” she added. “My life has been a process of unpeeling the layers and trust and trusting again.”
Happy heavenly birthday, Jayne!
