On This Day: Hollywood sex symbol Jayne Mansfield dies in car crash

JUNE 29, 1967: Hollywood sex symbol Jayne Mansfield died in car crash, along with her lover Sam Brody and their driver, on this day in 1967.

Three of the 34-year-old’s children were also in the vehicle when it slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer and went under it on a highway near New Orleans.

Yet Miklos, eight, Zoltan, six, and three-year-old Mariska Hargitay – all from Mansfield’s second marriage to actor Mickey Hargitay – suffered only minor injuries.

They were saved because they were believed to be slumped over sleeping in the back, where the roof remained largely intact, while the front sheared off and then caved in.

The three adults in the front seat - including chauffeur Ronny Harrison and Brody, who was also the Too Hot to Handle star’s lawyer – died instantly.

The force of the roof shearing off either cut off Mansfield’s actual hair or sent a blonde wig, which was confused for a decapitated head, flying into the road.

The early Playboy Playmate, who changed her name from Vera Jayne Palmer, died from a ‘crushed skull with avulsion of cranium and brain’, an autopsy found.

She had been travelling in a Buick Electra owned by Gus Stevens, whose Mississippi club she had sang at the evening before, when she died en route to another gig.

Her funeral was held at a church in Pen Argyr, Pennsylvania, near her birthplace of Bryn Mawr, which were both towns given Welsh names by settlers from Wales.

The only one of her three husbands to show up was Hargitay, whom was showed with Mansfield and their two oldest children in British Pathé footage.

[On This Day: Sharon Tate stabbed to death by Charles Manson gang]

The newsreel recording her death also showed an earlier occasion when the busty, pink-loving actress met a young Queen Elizabeth II at a film premiere.

Mansfield, whose hourglass figure and looks were often compared to Marilyn Monroe, began her acting career after winning several beauty pageants while doing a theatre studies degree at the University of California in Los Angeles.

However, her prominent breasts were initially considered to hamper her potential to land movie roles during what was a very conservative era.

But when she posed nude for new publication Playboy in February 1953, both Hugh Hefner’s kitchen-run magazine and Mansfield’s career took off.

Yet posing nude also ruined her marriage to first husband, PR Paul Mansfield, who cited the pictures to gain custody of their daughter Jayne Marie Mansfield.

Despite her personal turmoil, she landed her first film role as a supporting member of the cast in Female Jungle, which was filmed in ten days while she was still a student.

Within two years she was starring in the hit Broadway musical Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? – winning a Theatre World Award for her performance.

[On This Day: Marilyn Monroe found dead aged 36]

She later played the lead role of Rita Marlowe, a spoof of Monroe, in the film version.

Her success on Broadway allowed her to showcase her comedic talents by starring in 1956’s The Girl Can’t Help It, which won her a Golden Globe for best newcomer.

At the heart of her appeal were her playful sexuality and her Blonde Bombshell looks.

She also generated massive publicity from her frequent wardrobe malfunctions – on one occasion her dress slipped twice in one evening – and salacious private life.

As well as three husbands – with director Matt Cimber her last – she allegedly bedded both President John F Kennedy and his brother Bobby and had several affairs.

Her seemingly impossible figure – measured as 40D-21-36 in 1953 - was also the subject of frequent conversations in America.

TV evangelist Billy Graham once exclaimed: ‘This country knows more about Jayne Mansfield's statistics than the Second Commandment.’

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But by 1963, demand for big-breasted actresses had fallen and Mansfield, whose bust was measured at 46DD shortly before her death, struggled to get film roles.

Her posthumously-released last fictional movie – Single Room Unfurnished – was directed by Climber, with whom she had a son Antonio before divorcing in 1966.

Hargitay later produced a 1968 documentary about her life, called The Wild, Wild, World of Jayne Mansfield.

As a result of Mansfield’s death, trailers in America became required to have a solid bar beneath them that prevent cars from sliding underneath during impact.