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Jeanne Carmen (August 4, 1930 – December 20, 2007) was an American model, pin-up girl, trick-shot golfer, and B movie actress. A stage dancer on Broadway who later gravitated to fame and success as a pinup model, Jeanne Carmen was born in Arkansas to a family of cotton-pickers. Desiring a change of scene, she ran away from home at age 13, moved to Manhattan, and instantly landed her first role on the Great White Way, in a show called Burlesque starring Bert Lahr (The Wizard of Oz). Carmen subsequently posed for cheesecake photographs in men's magazines and performed golfing stunts before hitting Hollywood and signing for roles in a series of low-rent films including The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1957) and Born Reckless (1959). Along the way, she associated with the Tinseltown elite, and later claimed to have had love affairs with many top-drawer celebrities including Frank Sinatra. Carmen died of lymphoma in December 2007 at age 77. Carmen spent her early childhood in Arkansas with her family picking cotton. At age 13 she ran a way from home, eventually landing in New York City and taking a role as a dancer in an off-Broadway touring company. The early fifties found Jeanne in Las Vegas, in the company of the likes of mobster Johnny Roselli. Jeanne discovered she had a natural talent for the game of golf and made great hay and much money hustling on the links. In the early 50s Jeanne turned her back on the game of golf and went to Hollywood, where she was often in the company of some of that towns most notable swingers, Elvis, Sinatra and many others. she also maintained a close relationship with Marilyn Monroe. Jeanne never made it into the "big" movies but appeared in many of the "B" pictures, and was quite an item at the celebraty parties. After the death of her close friend Monroe, Carmen dropped out of sight and resided in Arizona. Jeanne Laverne Carmen was born in Paragould, Arkansas. As a child she picked cotton before running away from home at age 13. As a teen, she moved to New York City and landed a job as a dancer in Burlesque, with Bert Lahr. Later she became a model, appearing in several men's magazines. She also became a trick golfer, appearing with Jack Redmond. While in her 20s, she came to Hollywood and appeared in B movies such as Guns Don't Argue and The Monster of Piedras Blancas. Carmen's sultry good looks, "naturally dark hair, hourglass figure, and striking green eyes" quickly landed her on the big screen in 1956 playing a feisty Spanish senorita named "Serelda" in The Three Outlaws, "a western later remade as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and co-starring Neville Brand and Alan Hale, Jr as Butch and Sundance. She was then cast by legendary producer/director Howard W. Koch as an Indian girl in War Drums alongside Lex Barker of Tarzan fame. Koch took a liking to Carmen and cast her in his next flick for Warner Bros, the teenage rock n roll juvenile delinquent themed Untamed Youth in 1957 co-starring Rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran, which inspired Cochran to cover the song "Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie" for her. Carmen also appeared as a femme fatale in Portland Exposé alongside Frank Gorshin who later gained fame as the "Riddler" on the Batman series. She also appeared in the Three Stooges short subject A Merry Mix Up playing Joe Besser's girfriend "Mary." The short is notable for the Stooges playing three sets of identical triplets. In 1998, Carmen was the subject of a TV biography titled "Jeanne Carmen: Queen of the B-Movies", on the series E! True Hollywood Story. The show stated that Carmen maintained a "dangerously close friendship with Marilyn Monroe and The Kennedys" and that after the death of Monroe, Carmen was told to leave town by Chicago mobster Johnny Rosselli who was working for Chicago Mob Boss Sam Giancana. Carmen, believing her life was in danger, fled to Scottsdale, Arizona, where she lived incognito for over a decade. Carmen abandoned her platinum blonde locks, had three children and lived a quiet life, never mentioning her prior life in Hollywood. Jeanne Carmen's last published interview was on November 21, 2007, by SX News, an Australian weekly gay and lesbian newspaper. Understandably proud of her natural busty figure. "They're about a 38D or Double D these days," she says. (As quoted in Celebrity Sleuth magazine.) Measurements: 36-26-36 - as the glamorous "Trick-Shot Golfer" and pin-up (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine). Got her start on Broadway in 1948 via the chorus line of Bert Lahr's "Burlesque". Soon was in demand as a model and wound up as Dagmar's replacement on TV's "Broadway Open House". Also appeared on Bob Hope's early show originating from New York and The George Gobel Show. She is grandmother of Ashley, Melinda's daughter. She has three children from her previous marriage - Melinda, Brandon James, and Jade Austin. Survived by daughters Melinda Belli and Kellee Jade Campo, and her three grandchildren. Picked cotton until she ran away from home at age 13. While on tour with golfer Jack Redmond, she would perform stunts such as hitting a ball out of a man's mouth. She left home at the age of 13 after a disagreement with her parents (she disliked her stepfather) to pursue her career. First husband, an Italian singer named Sandy Scott, introduced her to Bert Lahr and she won a role as a dancer in his off-Broadway show "Burlesque". Vanished from public view to raise a family in Arizona but over the last 20 years had parlayed her associations with Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and the Kennedys into recurrent appearances on television exposés. On December 20, 2007, aged 77, Jeanne Carmen died from lymphoma at her home in Orange County, California, where she had resided since 1978. She was survived by three children, Melinda, Kellee Jade and Brandon, and three grandchildren. At the time of Carmen's death, a biographical film of her life was in early stages of development, with Christina Aguilera, Scarlett Johansson, and Kate Bosworth under consideration to play Carmen. |
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