A sex symbol of the s and early s, Mansfield was known for her numerous publicity stunts and open personal life. Although her film career was short-lived, she had several box-office successes, and won a Theatre World Award and Golden Globe Award , and soon gained the nickname of Hollywood 's "smartest dumb blonde.
Mansfield took her professional name from her first husband, public relations professional Paul Mansfield. Mansfield married three times, each marriage ending in divorce, and had five children. She was intimately involved with numerous men, including Robert and John F. Kennedy , her attorney Samuel S. Brody, and Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli. On June 29, , she died in a traffic collision at the age of Until age six, Mansfield lived in Phillipsburg, New Jersey , [ 10 ] where her father was an attorney practicing with future New Jersey governor Robert B.
In , her father died of a heart attack. At age 17, she married Paul Mansfield on May 6, Jayne and her husband enrolled in Southern Methodist University to study acting. She entered the Miss California contest but Paul found out and forced her to withdraw from the competition.
In , she moved back to Dallas and studied acting for several months under Baruch Lumet , the father of director Sidney Lumet and founder of the Dallas Institute of Performing Arts. Jayne worked at a variety of odd jobs including: selling popcorn at the Stanley Warner Theatre, teaching dance, [ 37 ] selling candy at a movie theater, [ 38 ] modeling part-time at the Blue Book Model Agency, [ 39 ] and working as a photographer at Esther Williams ' Trails Restaurant.
By her own account, the only title she refused was Miss Roquefort Cheese, because she believed it "just didn't sound right". After he left for military service, she made her first significant stage appearance in a production of Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman on October 22, , with the players of the Knox Street Theater, headed by Lumet. Early in her career, some advertisers considered her prominent breasts undesirable, which led to her losing her first professional assignment — a commercial for General Electric that depicted young women in bathing suits relaxing around a pool.
