"Hell's Angels" (1930), "Red Dust" (1932), "Dinner at Eight" (1933), "Libeled Lady" (1936) are just some of the films in which the acting talent of Jean Harlow (1911 – 1937), the first American to conquer the world with her platinum blonde hair, writes "Style".

In her short but fruitful career, she collaborated with the greatest directors of the time, such as Howard Hughes, Frank Capra, Victor Fleming, and everyone had words of praise for her acting skills. Despite her beauty, wealth and fame, she lived a rather turbulent and not very happy private life.

Marriage at sixteen

Harleen Carpenter, as her real name was, spent her childhood in Kansas. She was the dentist's only child Mont Carpenter and the rich heiress Jean Poe, grew up in a luxurious family home, devoid of all care. Her father gave her the nickname Baby, which her friends used for the rest of her life.

When her parents' marriage began to fall apart, her mother decided to divorce, something that was unusual and even scandalous at the time. Finally free, following her acting ambitions, her mother moved to Hollywood, taking little Harleen with her. Unfortunately, she was greeted there by a "cold shower" – she was told she was too old to get acting roles.

Disillusioned with her experience in Hollywood, her mother moved back to Kansas and sent her teenage daughter to school in Illinois. Freed from the control of her mother, who adored her but stifled her, Harleen began to enjoy her new environment, especially in the company of young men. Just before she turned sixteen, she dropped out of school and married one of them— Charles McCraw.

The girl in the car

After Charles received a large inheritance, the young couple moved to Los Angeles. Harleen was on her way to achieving what her mother had dreamed of, and it happened quite by accident. Namely, she became close to her first neighbor Rosalie Roy, who was trying to break into the world of film.

While waiting for Rosalie in the car during her visit to the Fox studio, the beautiful blonde was spotted by a producer. He invited her to an audition for a small film role, and after initial hesitation, she signed up under her mother's maiden name – Jean Harlow. Around that time, her marriage to her first husband also ended.

In the next two years she acted in short comedies, and the role of a promiscuous girl in "Hell's Angels" (1930) turned her into a real movie star. At first, critics were skeptical of her talent, but thanks to her persistence and talent, she managed to secure star status in the predominantly male environment that dominated Hollywood at the time.

She died of uremia (reduced kidney function) while filming Saratoga. At that moment, Harlow was only 26 years old and living her greatest popularity. Despite the fact that the romantic comedy was completed with an understudy, "Saratoga" is her most commercially successful film. The American Film Institute named Jean Harlow one of the 25 greatest female movie stars of all time.

Theories about her death

Over the years, various rumors have surfaced about the cause of Jean Harlow's sudden death. Her death was so sudden and unexpected that it was insinuated that it was caused by a botched abortion, diet or blood poisoning from excessive use of hair "bleach" to achieve her trademark patina color.

Man in front of a mirror

And while she had great success in her acting career, she had a number of problems in her private life. She left behind a bunch of short, unhappy and even violent relationships and adventures, and she also had problems with alcohol.

A particularly dark chapter of her life was written by her marriage to the film director, screenwriter and producer Paul Bern. In addition to constantly cheating on her, over time he began to abuse her first verbally and then physically.

In 1932, after only two months of marriage, Paul Bern took his own life. He shot himself in front of a mirror, leaving a farewell letter on the cupboard. His body was found by a butler, and instead of calling the police, he informed MGM studio about the murder.

Partly because of that unusual procedure, and partly because of the director's not-so-clean past, it started to be speculated that someone "helped" him in his departure to the other world. In the sea of ​​suspects, the name of his ex-girlfriend, who killed herself just a few days after Bern's funeral, was mentioned most often.

House of Death

Devastated, Jean Harlow moves out of the house where her husband died, a beautiful Bavarian-style mansion on the slopes of Beverly Hills. She reportedly told friends that the place disturbs her because of the strange noises that appear at night. The house was rumored to be haunted, and it had that reputation for years after the actress' death, when a young man drowned in the pool in front of her.

In 1963, the house was bought by a famous Hollywood hairdresser Jay Sebring, who moved in with his girlfriend at the time, the actress Sharon Tate. From the very first day, the actress felt "strange vibrations", which she explained in a further interview.

As she described it, the temperature in the bedroom would suddenly start to drop, and the floors would creak constantly, even when no one was walking on them. Once, when she was alone in the house, Tate saw "the figure of a creepy little man." Not long after she saw the mysterious figure, she and Sebring moved out of the house. Tate believed that the apparition that terrified her was actually the ghost of Paul Byrne.

And after Tate broke up with Sebring to be in a relationship with the director Roman Polanski, they remained close friends and were together on the fateful night when they fell victim to the frenzied followers of Charles Manson from the Manson Family sect. She died at twenty-six – just like Jean Harlow.