Adele Jergens
Jergens pin-up, July 1945
Born
Adele Louisa Jurgens (or Jurgenson)

(1917-11-26)November 26, 1917
Brooklyn, New York. U.S.
DiedNovember 22, 2002(2002-11-22) (aged 84)
Camarillo, California, U.S.
Resting placeOakwood Memorial Park Cemetery
Pioneer Section, Lot 553, Grave 1
Years active1943–1956
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1949; died 1991)​
Children1

Adele Jergens (November 26, 1917 – November 22, 2002) was an American actress.[1]

Early life and career

Jergens in 1945

Born in Brooklyn, New York, as Adele Louisa Jurgens (some sources say Jurgenson), she rose to prominence in the late 1930s when she was named "Miss World's Fairest" at the 1939 New York World's Fair.[2] In the early 1940s, she briefly worked as a Rockette and was named the number-one showgirl in New York City.[3]

After a few years of working as a model and chorus girl, including being an understudy to Gypsy Rose Lee in the Broadway show Star and Garter in 1942, Jergens landed a movie contract with Columbia Pictures in 1944, and dyed her brown hair blonde.[2]

At the beginning of her career, she was usually cast as a blonde floozy or burlesque dancer, such as in Down to Earth starring Rita Hayworth (1947) and The Dark Past starring William Holden (1948).[4]

She played Marilyn Monroe's mother in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) despite being only nine years older than Monroe.[5] She played an exotic dancer in Armored Car Robbery and a criminal's girl in Try and Get Me (both 1950), and appeared in the movie Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951).[3]

She had a part in The Cobweb (1955), directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Richard Widmark and Lauren Bacall. She worked in the 1950s radio show Stand By for Crime as Glamourpuss Carol Curtis alongside her real-life husband Glenn Langan as Chuck Morgan.[6]

Personal life and death

In 1949, while filming Treasure of Monte Cristo, a film noir set in San Francisco, she met and married co-star Glenn Langan.[5] They remained married until his death from lymphoma on January 26, 1991, at age 73.

They had one child, a son named Tracy Langan, who eventually worked in Hollywood as a film technician. Tracy died of a brain tumor in 2001.[7]

Death

Adele Jergens-Langan, who retired from the screen in 1956, died on November 22, 2002, from pneumonia in her Camarillo, California, home. Her death occurred four days before her 85th birthday.[8]

She was buried beside her husband and son at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California, under the headstone marked Langan.[9]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ "Adele Jergens". BFI. Archived from the original on 2015-05-25.
  2. 1 2 Hal Erickson. "Adele Jergens – Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos". AllMovie. Archived from the original on August 14, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  3. 1 2 McLellan, Dennis (9 December 2002). "Adele Jergens, 84; Blond Bombshell in Many Films". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  4. ↑ Bergan, Ronald. "Obituary: Adele Jergens". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 21, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Adele Jergens at Brian's Drive-In Theater". briansdriveintheater.com. Archived from the original on 2015-06-27.
  6. ↑ "Stand by for Crime". 13 July 2006.
  7. ↑ "Adele Jergens – The Private Life and Times of Adele Jergens". glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24.
  8. ↑ "Archives: Story". filmsofthegoldenage.com.
  9. ↑ Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons (3d ed.). McFarland. ISBN 9781476625997 – via Google Books.
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