Playboy Playmates: Fame and Fortune

All of the famous Playboy Playmates are blonds (bleached apparently)

All of the famous Playboy Playmates are busty

All have struggled to be taken seriously as actresses and have fought being sterotyped as dumb.

Three died before reaching 40

Three (Marilyn, Jayne, Anna) grew up without fathers.

All had tragedies related to their children. Marilyn and Pamela had miscarriages. Jayne's son Zoltan was mauled and nearly killed by a lion. Jenny's son is Autistic. Anna's son was depressed and died due to drugs.

Marilyn Monroe was the most famous Playboy Playmate ever. However, as mentioned above, technically the name did not exist at the time that her feature was published. Marilyn was known as "Sweetheart of the Month".

Marilyn did her nude photoshoot in 1949, 4 years before it was published in Playboy (December 1953) when she was a struggling actress. Hugh Hefner bought the rights to the photos for $500 and used them to launch Playboy. By that time, Marilyn had already reached a certain amount of fame. Rather than be hurt by the publicity, her career seemed to become even stronger. Marilyn was one of the first to benefit from her feature as Playmate/Sweetheart of the Month.

But Marilyn had a sad life. Many know about her tragic childhood, and her three failed marriages. But many do not know that Marilyn was considered a communist sympathizer by the FBI. The FBI even kept a file on Marilyn:

* Marilyn's FBI files part 1

* Marilyn's FBI files part 2

Marilyn was, in our opinion, by far the most talented and legendary of all the playmates. Even Hugh Hefner has said that she is his favorite Playmate ever. For this reason, we have made a page just for Marilyn Monroe. We will not repeat the information here.

Jayne Mansfield was Playmate of the Month for February 1955. Like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield died young at the age of 34. But in her short career, she became very famous.

Jayne's most famous acting roles were:

The Wayward Bus, for which Jayne Mansfield won a Golden Globe award for New Star Of The Year - Actress.

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? which co-starred Tony Randall one of the leading comedic actors of the era.

Kiss Them for Me costarred Jayne Mansfield and Carey Grant, one of the best leading men out of Hollywood

Promises! Promises! Jayne Mansfield became the first mainstream American actress to appear in the nude. Although banned in Cleveland, Promises! Promises! achieved box-office success elsewhere.

Jayne Mansfield reported her I.Q. as 163, she spoke five languages, and was a classically trained pianist and violinist. But what made her famous was her figure and publicity stunts which she used to keep herself in the news.

Jayne Mansfield has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6328 Hollywood Boulevard.

Jayne Mansfield died the same way her father, Herbert Palmer did, in a car, though her father had a heart attack and Jayne died in a tragic car accident.

Pamela Anderson was the February 1990 Playmate of the month and one of the most famous playmates of recent times. Pamela was born in Ladysmith, British Columbia and is the daughter of a waitress, and a furnace repairman.

Pamela's modeling career started when she went friends to a BC Lions football game wearing a Labatt's Beer t-shirt. Cameras zoomed in on her and her image was displayed on the stadium screen. The crowd erupted and Pamela was led to center field for an ovation. Labatt's Beer immediately offered her a modeling contract. Her modeling career led her to appear in Playboy, which led to a minor role on the successful sitcom, Home Improvement as a a "Tool Time girl". Pamela left Home Improvement for the role of C. J. Parker on Baywatch appearing in seasons 3-7.

Since Baywatch, Pamela has appeared in a series of poorly received TV shows (V.I.P, Stacked, Stripperella) and movies (Pauly Shore Is Dead, and the recently released Blonde and Blonder).

Possibly her biggest claim to fame was from a pornographic home video of her and husband Tommy Lee taken on their honeymoon which spread through the intenet like a virus. Anderson sued the Internet Entertainment Group, the company that was distributing the video. Eventually the courts awarded Anderson and Lee $1.5 million plus attorney fees for their share of the profits.

Like Marilyn, Anna was the product of a broken home and spent much of her childhood living away from her parents. She was married, gave bith and divorced before the age of 26. She worked as a waitress and exotic dancer before appearing in Playboy.

Anna was on the cover of the March 1992 issue of Playboy, then was the Playmate of the Month for May 1992 and then was chosen as Playmate of the Year for 1993 (the Year before Jenny McCarthy.)

She was selected by Guess Jeans to be their spokesmodel as she resembled Jayne Mansfield (see above) and did a series of Jayne Mansfield photosessions for Guess Jeans.

Anna reached the peak of her celebrity, but the reasons were less due to her acting talents than to her personal life. Anna married 89 year old billionaire J. Howard Marshall and later had a very public court battle with his son over inheritance. Smith also battled drug addiction, obesity and frequently appeared in public apparently under the influence of drugs. On her reality TV show, "The Anna Nicole Show" shown on E! Anna's speach was often slurred and almost incomprehensible.

The nearly simultaneous birth of her daughter and death of her son seemed to overwhelm her and five months later she died, like her son, due to drug overdose.

Jenny is currently the least well known of the five famous Playboy Playmates. She is also probably the most balanced of the five. Jenny grew up with both parents, though her parents separated after she reached adulthood.

Jenny was Playmate of the month for October 1993 and Playmate of the Year for 1994. She followed Pamela Anderson with small roles in both "Baywatch" and "Home Improvement" and appeared together with Pamela in "Scary Movie 3". Jenny was host for the MTV show "Singled Out". She starred in the MTV comedy series "The Jenny McCarthy Show" and hosted the E! reality show "Party at the Palms".

Due to her son's afflication with Autism, Jenny is Spokesperson for "Talk About Curing Autism". Jenny is also in the center of the controversy about autism being caused by vaccination. There is no scientific evidence for her belief, since the paper that was published with this theory has been shown to be based on manipulated data and fraudulent research. Nevertheless Jenny continues to promote this belief and many children are going unvaccinated for potentially deadly childhood diseases. Read more about this controversy in an Article Published In Time.

Jenny is known for her humor sometimes raunchy humor in her performances. This combination of sensuality and outlandish humor is her tradmark, and serves to set her apart from the other famous playmates who were mostly known only for their looks and sensuality.