Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jane Palmer on April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Her parents, Herbert and Vera (nee Jeffrey) Palmer, were witness to her enthusiastic performances at an early age. When she was five, Jayne was singing for anyone who would listen, including her gigantic collection of stuffed animals. At seven, she would stand in her driveway and play the violin for passers-by.

In 1939, Jayne’s father died of a heart attack. Fortunately, Vera was able to support the family by working as a schoolteacher. Not long afterward, she met and married Harry "Tex" Peers, and they decided to move from Phillipsburg, New Jersey to Dallas.

In Dallas, Jayne attended Highland Park High School. She studied dramatics at Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas, and, later, the University of California at Los Angeles.

At a party on Christmas Eve, 1949, Jayne met Paul Mansfield. Handsome and studious, Paul treated Jayne with genuine respect. They fell in love, and were married on January 28. After a difficult labor, Jayne Marie Mansfield was born on November 8, 1950. Well aware of his wife's Hollywood ambitions, Paul thought becoming a mother would distract her. He was wrong. Though she was thrilled with the birth of her daughter, Jayne had not faltered in her dream to become a star. The war in North Korea started, and Paul had to leave for Army reserve duty. Before leaving, he relented and promised her that when it was over, the family would move to Hollywood. Two years later, the Mansfield family started out for California. Paul would stay only four months. They divorced and he went back to Dallas. Nonetheless, Jayne kept the name Mansfield because she thought it sounded illustrious.

In 1954 she arrived in Los Angeles. She took a job at a movie theatre but was soon accepting work as a model and studing acting at UCLA. She was selected Miss Photoflash in 1952 and subsequently won many other beauty titles. She got some bit parts in television and eventually landed a small but sexy role in “Pete Kelly's Blues” (1955). This led to roles which were more prominent in several ways.. Her first film was The Female Jungle (1955). She made brief appearances in Prehistoric Women (1955), Illegal (1955), and Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) and signed for her Broadway debut in George Axelrod's play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955). The role brought her a good deal of attention for her scantily clad appearance therein, and she repeated the role in the film version opposite Tony Randall (1957).

Although her fame was short-lived, Jayne was featured in numerous movies including; The Wayward Bus (1957), Kiss Them for Me (1957), The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958), The George Raft Story (1961), It Happened in Athens (1962), A Guide for the Married Man (1967), and other films, working with such directors as Raoul Walsh, Mitch Leisen, Stanley Donen, and Frank Tashlin.

In 1958 married Miklos (Mickey) Hargitay, a former Mr. Universe, two years later. With Hargitay she had two sons, Miklos Jeffrey and Zoltan Anthony, and a daughter, Mariska Magdolna. Jayne and Hargitay were divorced in 1964. A few months later she married Matt Cimber, who had directed her in Bus Stop in Yonkers, New York, and later in the film Single Room Furnished (1967). In 1965 she gave birth to a son, Anthony Richard.

She made a number of guest appearances on television, formed Jayne Mansfield Productions, posed several times for Playboy magazine, performed with nightclub acts in Las Vegas, and, toward the end of her career, starred in a number of low-budget films in Europe. She also dabbled in television, with cameo appearances on "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour," "Jack Benny Program," "Burke's Law" and "The Steve Allen Show."

In 1967, Jayne's life was still moving at full speed. Her time was split between a Southern nightclub tour and the production of "Single Room, Furnished," a drama that would become her last film. "Furnished" was directed by her then husband, Cimber.

On June 29, Jayne was riding in front with Ronnie Harrison and lawyer Sam Brody on the way from a Mississippi nightclub engagement. Her children, Mickey Jr., Zoltan and Mariska sat in the back. As they rounded a curve on a dark stretch of road, the car slammed into a slowed semi. Though the children survived with minor injuries, everyone sitting in the front was killed instantly. Mansfield was just 34. She was buried in the family plot in Fairview Cemetery in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania.