LIFE Gives Jayne A Fabulous Birthday Tribute

The actress and singer Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933) was one of those quintessentially American pop-culture creations who helped define the country’s mood — playful, naive, expansive — in the middle part of the 20th century. That she was also, in large part, a self-created icon who reveled in publicity stunts only added, and still adds today, to her appeal: it’s difficult, after all, to dislike someone who so giddily pursues fame, and who so exuberantly embraces it once it’s attained.

Here, on Jayne Mansfield’s 80th birthday, LIFE.com remembers the archetypal blonde bombshell with a series of photos — none of which ran in LIFE magazine — made by Peter Stackpole in the spring of 1956. Mansfield was in her early 20s at the time and, while she was not yet a full-fledged movie star, she was clearly someone to watch; she had already made a name for herself on Broadway and was, it seemed, destined for bigger things on the silver screen. As LIFE wrote in an April 1956 issue:

Though the thought has never crossed her pretty blond head, Jayne Mansfield is one of the most interesting sociological studies to be found anywhere in the U.S. this spring. Miss Mansfield has burst dazzlingly upon the theatrical world as a star of a Broadway comedy called Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and currently seems to be getting her name and photograph into more Broadway columns and movie magazines than any other actress alive…. Miss Mansfield is still just herself, friendly and frank, perhaps even somewhat naive in her own calculating way. This is a rare situation, for ordinarily a movie queen is presented to the public only after some studio has gone to immense expense changing her over completely, to the point where her own mother would not recognize her.

Read more: http://life.time.com/icons/jayne-mansfield-photos-of-the-pop-culture-icon-in-1956/#ixzz2QrryhIb2