Biography

The persona was the blonde bombshell, and she built it through image as much as through roles. In 1951 she posed for Alberto Vargas and his painting ran on the July cover of Esquire. In 1963 she posed twice for Playboy to promote one of her films, though she was never a Playmate. Nudity and topless photographs sat at the centre of her appeal, along with rock and roll records, a nightclub act and stage work in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dames at Sea at the Drury Lane Theatre in Chicago. With Monroe and Jayne Mansfield she formed the three M's.

In 1968 and again in 1970 she travelled to Vietnam to perform for American troops, and beyond the shows she visited hospitals, including the amputee and burns wards that many other celebrities avoided. On television she passed through The Jack Benny Show, Burke's Law, Fantasy Island, Vega$ and L.A. Law. In 1987 she published her autobiography, Playing the Field, which brought her more attention than she had known in over twenty-five years. She returned to acting occasionally after that, in independent film and on television, and in 2006 she posed for Vanity Fair beside Pamela Anderson. She was the last of the three M's.