Jean Peters(1926-2000)
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Green-eyed beauty Jean Elizabeth Peters flashed across the screen as a
bright star during her relatively brief tenure in Hollywood. After just
seven years under contract to 20th Century-Fox (1947-54), she
joined in the reclusive lifestyle of her eccentric billionaire husband,
Howard Hughes, and all but
vanished from public view.
Jean was born in Canton, Ohio, in October of 1926. Her father died when she was ten years old. Her mother owned a
tourist camp on the outskirts of town and there was enough money around
to send Jean to college. She received the latter part of her tertiary
education at Ohio State University and graduated with a diploma
qualifying her as an English teacher. A campus popularity contest she won ended her plans as an English teacher because it came with a trip to
Hollywood and a screen test. In short order, "Miss Ohio State
University" was offered a seven-year contract at 20th Century-Fox
with a starting salary of $150 a week.
After being picked by Darryl F. Zanuck
to co-star opposite Tyrone Power in the
studio's splashy big-budget swashbuckler
Captain from Castile (1947),
Jean came to the attention of Howard Hughes. She discreetly dated
him for the remainder of the decade and continued to live an
unpretentious lifestyle, rarely seen in public and eschewing the
Hollywood nightlife and parties. A self-confessed tomboy, she rarely
wore make-up in private and preferred to dress in jeans rather than
glamorous gowns. She and her mother lived in a smallish bungalow in
Bel-Air, paid for by Hughes. After relative success in her second
feature, Deep Waters (1948), she
became increasingly dissatisfied with the prissy roles she was assigned
in her subsequent efforts. She was no shrinking violet when it came to
defending her interests: she refused outright to appear in Yellow Sky (1948) (a part she thought
as "too sexy") and Sand (1949), and her contract was
consequently terminated. She returned to farm life in
Ohio, but was back in New York in 1951 to be screen-tested by
Elia Kazan for the epic biopic of Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952), shot on
location in Mexico with Marlon Brando in
the lead.
Fox wisely used Jean during the next few years for similarly
unglamorous outdoor roles, notably as the titular heroine of
Anne of the Indies (1951), a
tempestuous girl living in the Georgia swamps in
Lure of the Wilderness (1952), a gum-chewing dame innocently involved in espionage in Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street (1953)
and as Burt Lancaster's Indian squaw in
the hard-hitting western Apache (1954).
She got good notices in all of these films and was now recognized as
a major star. As a result, she was cast in the prestigious film noir
Niagara (1953), opposite
Joseph Cotten and
Marilyn Monroe (both of whom she
befriended) and the Spencer Tracy
western Broken Lance (1954). Under a
new contract with Fox, Jean was now no longer in a position to refuse
an assignment and, though basically unhappy with her part in
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), the picture
proved to be one of her most popular pictures to date. Her next film,
A Man Called Peter (1955), was
to be her swan song. Following a 33-day marriage to a Texan oilman
which ended in a whirlwind divorce, Jean finally married Howard Hughes
in a secret ceremony and left public life for the next 13 years.
She never gave interviews and retreated to an isolated hilltop mansion
above the Santa Monica Mountains. In 1969 she resurfaced, studying for
a degree in sociology at UCLA under an assumed name.
When Jean's marriage to Hughes ended in June 1971, the actress settled
for the relatively modest sum of $70,000 a year and happily waived any
further claims on the estate. That same year she got married for the
third time, to 20th Century-Fox vice-president
Stan Hough. Her screen career was
briefly resuscitated when she was cast in the miniseries
Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (1976)
and she was last seen in an episode of
Murder, She Wrote (1984).
She devoted her final years to charitable causes and never spoke in
public about her years with Howard Hughes.
bright star during her relatively brief tenure in Hollywood. After just
seven years under contract to 20th Century-Fox (1947-54), she
joined in the reclusive lifestyle of her eccentric billionaire husband,
Howard Hughes, and all but
vanished from public view.
Jean was born in Canton, Ohio, in October of 1926. Her father died when she was ten years old. Her mother owned a
tourist camp on the outskirts of town and there was enough money around
to send Jean to college. She received the latter part of her tertiary
education at Ohio State University and graduated with a diploma
qualifying her as an English teacher. A campus popularity contest she won ended her plans as an English teacher because it came with a trip to
Hollywood and a screen test. In short order, "Miss Ohio State
University" was offered a seven-year contract at 20th Century-Fox
with a starting salary of $150 a week.
After being picked by Darryl F. Zanuck
to co-star opposite Tyrone Power in the
studio's splashy big-budget swashbuckler
Captain from Castile (1947),
Jean came to the attention of Howard Hughes. She discreetly dated
him for the remainder of the decade and continued to live an
unpretentious lifestyle, rarely seen in public and eschewing the
Hollywood nightlife and parties. A self-confessed tomboy, she rarely
wore make-up in private and preferred to dress in jeans rather than
glamorous gowns. She and her mother lived in a smallish bungalow in
Bel-Air, paid for by Hughes. After relative success in her second
feature, Deep Waters (1948), she
became increasingly dissatisfied with the prissy roles she was assigned
in her subsequent efforts. She was no shrinking violet when it came to
defending her interests: she refused outright to appear in Yellow Sky (1948) (a part she thought
as "too sexy") and Sand (1949), and her contract was
consequently terminated. She returned to farm life in
Ohio, but was back in New York in 1951 to be screen-tested by
Elia Kazan for the epic biopic of Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952), shot on
location in Mexico with Marlon Brando in
the lead.
Fox wisely used Jean during the next few years for similarly
unglamorous outdoor roles, notably as the titular heroine of
Anne of the Indies (1951), a
tempestuous girl living in the Georgia swamps in
Lure of the Wilderness (1952), a gum-chewing dame innocently involved in espionage in Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street (1953)
and as Burt Lancaster's Indian squaw in
the hard-hitting western Apache (1954).
She got good notices in all of these films and was now recognized as
a major star. As a result, she was cast in the prestigious film noir
Niagara (1953), opposite
Joseph Cotten and
Marilyn Monroe (both of whom she
befriended) and the Spencer Tracy
western Broken Lance (1954). Under a
new contract with Fox, Jean was now no longer in a position to refuse
an assignment and, though basically unhappy with her part in
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), the picture
proved to be one of her most popular pictures to date. Her next film,
A Man Called Peter (1955), was
to be her swan song. Following a 33-day marriage to a Texan oilman
which ended in a whirlwind divorce, Jean finally married Howard Hughes
in a secret ceremony and left public life for the next 13 years.
She never gave interviews and retreated to an isolated hilltop mansion
above the Santa Monica Mountains. In 1969 she resurfaced, studying for
a degree in sociology at UCLA under an assumed name.
When Jean's marriage to Hughes ended in June 1971, the actress settled
for the relatively modest sum of $70,000 a year and happily waived any
further claims on the estate. That same year she got married for the
third time, to 20th Century-Fox vice-president
Stan Hough. Her screen career was
briefly resuscitated when she was cast in the miniseries
Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (1976)
and she was last seen in an episode of
Murder, She Wrote (1984).
She devoted her final years to charitable causes and never spoke in
public about her years with Howard Hughes.