Adele Jergens (November 26, 1917 – November 22, 2002) was an American actress.
Early life
Adele Jergens was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 26, 1917. She took ballet instruction in her early years but later changed to dancing in burlesque, which led to her teachers and classmates calling her "the girl with the million-dollar legs". She attended South Side High School in Rockville Centre, New York.
Career Jergens danced in the chorus at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre and the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies, and she became a model for the John Robert Powers agency in 1938.
Jergens rose to prominence in the late 1930s when she was named "Miss World's Fairest" at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In the early 1940s, she briefly worked as a Rockette and was named the number-one showgirl in New York City.
After a few years' work 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.
At the beginning of her career, she was usually cast as a floozy or burlesque dancer, such as in Down to Earth starring Rita Hayworth (1947), The Dark Past starring William Holden (1948), and Armored Car Robbery (1950).
She played Marilyn Monroe's mother in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) despite being only nine years older than Monroe. She played a criminal's girl in Try and Get Me (1950), and appeared in the movie Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951).
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.
Personal life In 1949, while filming Treasure of Monte Cristo, a film noir set in San Francisco, she met and married co-star Glenn Langan. They remained married until his death from lymphoma on January 26, 1991, at age 73.
They had one child, a son, Tracy Langan, who eventually worked in Hollywood as a film technician. He died of a brain tumor in 2001.
Death Jergens died from pneumonia on November 22, 2002, in her home in Camarillo, California, aged 84.
She was buried beside her husband and son at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California.
Selected filmography
Hello Frisco, Hello (1943) – Chorine (uncredited) Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943) – Diner at Delmonico's / Chorus Girl (uncredited) Jane Eyre (1943) – Woman at Party (uncredited) The Gang's All Here (1943) – Chorus Girl (uncredited) Pin Up Girl (1944) – Canteen Worker (uncredited) Black Arrow (1944) – Mary Brent Dancing in Manhattan (1944) – Darnelle (uncredited) Together Again (1944) – Gilda LaVerne (uncredited) Tonight and Every Night (1945) – Showgirl (uncredited) A Thousand and One Nights (1945) – Princess Armina State Fair (1945) – Girl on Rollercoaster (uncredited) Fallen Angel (1945) – Woman at Madley's Show (uncredited) She Wouldn't Say Yes (1945) – Allura The Corpse Came C.O.D. (1947) – Mona Harrison Down to Earth (1947) – Georgia Evans When a Girl's Beautiful (1947) – Adele Jordan Blondie's Anniversary (1947) – Gloria Stafford The Prince of Thieves (1948) – Lady Christabel I Love Trouble (1948) – Boots Nestor The Woman from Tangier (1948) – Nylon The Fuller Brush Man (1948) – Miss Sharmley The Dark Past (1948) – Laura Stevens Ladies of the Chorus (1948) – Mae Martin Slightly French (1949) – Yvonne La Tour Law of the Barbary Coast (1949) – Lita The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949) – Inez Gray Make Believe Ballroom (1949) – Adele Jergens The Mutineers (1949) – Norma Harrison Treasure of Monte Cristo (1949) – Jean Turner The Traveling Saleswoman (1950) – Lilly Radar Secret Service (1950) – Lila Blonde Dynamite (1950) – Joan Marshall Side Street (1950) – Lucille 'Lucky' Colner Everybody's Dancin' (1950) – Adele Jergens Beware of Blondie (1950) – Toby Clifton Armored Car Robbery (1950) – Yvonne LeDoux Edge of Doom (1950) – Irene Blues Busters (1950) – Lola Stanton The Sound of Fury (1950) – Velma Sugarfoot (1951) – Reva Cairn Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) – Boots Marsden Show Boat (1951) – Cameo McQueen (uncredited) Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952) – Gladys Somebody Loves Me (1952) – Nola Beach Overland Pacific (1954) – Jessie Loraine Fireman Save My Child (1954) – Harry's Wife The Miami Story (1954) – Gwen Abbott The Big Chase (1954) – Doris Grayson Strange Lady in Town (1955) – Bella Brown Outlaw Treasure (1955) – Rita Starr The Cobweb (1955) – Miss Cobb The Lonesome Trail (1955) – Mae Day the World Ended (1955) – Ruby Girls in Prison (1956) – Jenny Fighting Trouble (1956) – Mae Randle Runaway Daughters (1956) – Dixie Jackson
References
External links
Adele Jergens Los Angeles Times Obituaries