Adele Jergens

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File:Adele Jergens by Ned Scott, 1945.jpg

Adele Louisa Jurgens (some sources say Jurgenson) was born in Brooklyn, New York.

Jergens rose to prominence in the late 1930s when she was named "Miss World's Fairest" at the 1939 New York World's Fair.{{cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/artist/adele-jergens-p35552|title=Adele Jergens – Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos|author=Hal Erickson|work=AllMovie|accessdate=December 17, 2017|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160814084822/http://www.allmovie.com/artist/adele-jergens-p35552|archivedate=August 14, 2016}} In the early 1940s, she briefly worked as a Rockette and was named the number-one showgirl in New York City.{{cite news |last1=McLellan |first1=Dennis |title=Adele Jergens, 84; Blond Bombshell in Many Films |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-dec-09-me-jergens9-story.html |access-date=14 August 2021 |work=The Los Angeles Times |date=9 December 2002}}

After a few years' work as a model and chorus girl, including being an understudy to Gypsy Rose Lee in the Broadway show Star and Garter in 1942, Jergens landed a movie contract with Columbia Pictures in 1944, and dyed her brown hair blonde.

At the beginning of her career, she was usually cast as a floozy or burlesque dancer, such as in Down to Earth starring Rita Hayworth (1947), The Dark Past starring William Holden (1948),{{cite news|last=Bergan|first=Ronald|author-link=Ronald Bergan|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews|title=Obituary: Adele Jergens|work=The Guardian|access-date=December 17, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921210523/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/13/guardianobituaries.filmnews|archivedate=September 21, 2016}} and Armored Car Robbery (1950).

She played Marilyn Monroe's mother in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) despite being only nine years older than Monroe.{{cite web|url=http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/adelejergens.html|title=Adele Jergens at Brian's Drive-In Theater|work=briansdriveintheater.com|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627115402/http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/adelejergens.html|archivedate=2015-06-27}} She played a criminal's girl in Try and Get Me (1950), and appeared in the movie Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951).

She had a part in The Cobweb (1955), directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Richard Widmark and Lauren Bacall. She worked in the 1950s radio show Stand By for Crime as Glamourpuss Carol Curtis alongside her real-life husband Glenn Langan as Chuck Morgan.{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_Stand_By_For_Crime | title=Stand by for Crime | date=13 July 2006 }}

In 1949, while filming Treasure of Monte Cristo, a film noir set in San Francisco, she met and married co-star Glenn Langan. They remained married until his death from lymphoma on January 26, 1991, at age 73.

They had one child, a son, Tracy Langan, who eventually worked in Hollywood as a film technician. He died of a brain tumor in 2001.{{cite web|url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/382/Adele+Jergens/index.html|title=Adele Jergens – The Private Life and Times of Adele Jergens|work=glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924022720/http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/382/Adele+Jergens/index.html|archivedate=2015-09-24}}

Jergens died from pneumonia on November 22, 2002, in her home in Camarillo, California, four days shy of 85.{{cite web|url=http://www.filmsofthegoldenage.com/articles/2009/04/29/current_issue/blond%20dynamite.txt|title=Archives: Story|work=filmsofthegoldenage.com}}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

She was buried beside her husband and son at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOHgDAAAQBAJ&q=Adele+Jergens+burial+site+scott+wilson&pg=PA377|title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons|edition= 3d |first=Scott|last=Wilson|date=2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476625997|via=Google Books}}

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• Hello Frisco, Hello (1943) – Chorine (uncredited)
• Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943) – Diner at Delmonico's / Chorus Girl (uncredited)
• Jane Eyre (1943) – Woman at Party (uncredited)
• The Gang's All Here (1943) – Chorus Girl (uncredited)
• Pin Up Girl (1944) – Canteen Worker (uncredited)
• Black Arrow (1944) – Mary Brent
• Dancing in Manhattan (1944) – Darnelle (uncredited)
• Together Again (1944) – Gilda LaVerne (uncredited)
• Tonight and Every Night (1945) – Showgirl (uncredited)
• A Thousand and One Nights (1945) – Princess Armina
• State Fair (1945) – Girl on Rollercoaster (uncredited)
• Fallen Angel (1945) – Woman at Madley's Show (uncredited)
• She Wouldn't Say Yes (1945) – Allura
• The Corpse Came C.O.D. (1947) – Mona Harrison
• Down to Earth (1947) – Georgia Evans
• When a Girl's Beautiful (1947) – Adele Jordan
• Blondie's Anniversary (1947) – Gloria Stafford
• The Prince of Thieves (1948) – Lady Christabel
• I Love Trouble (1948) – Boots Nestor
• The Woman from Tangier (1948) – Nylon
• The Fuller Brush Man (1948) – Miss Sharmley
• The Dark Past (1948) – Laura Stevens
• Ladies of the Chorus (1948) – Mae Martin
• Slightly French (1949) – Yvonne La Tour
• Law of the Barbary Coast (1949) – Lita
• The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949) – Inez Gray
• Make Believe Ballroom (1949) – Adele Jergens
• The Mutineers (1949) – Norma Harrison
• Treasure of Monte Cristo (1949) – Jean Turner
• The Traveling Saleswoman (1950) – Lilly
• Radar Secret Service (1950) – Lila
• Blonde Dynamite (1950) – Joan Marshall
• Side Street (1950) – Lucille 'Lucky' Colner
• Everybody's Dancin' (1950) – Adele Jergens
• Beware of Blondie (1950) – Toby Clifton
• Armored Car Robbery (1950) – Yvonne LeDoux
• Edge of Doom (1950) – Irene
• Blues Busters (1950) – Lola Stanton
• The Sound of Fury (1950) – Velma
• Sugarfoot (1951) – Reva Cairn
• Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) – Boots Marsden
• Show Boat (1951) – Cameo McQueen (uncredited)
• Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952) – Gladys
• Somebody Loves Me (1952) – Nola Beach
• Overland Pacific (1954) – Jessie Loraine
• Fireman Save My Child (1954) – Harry's Wife
• The Miami Story (1954) – Gwen Abbott
• The Big Chase (1954) – Doris Grayson
• Strange Lady in Town (1955) – Bella Brown
• Outlaw Treasure (1955) – Rita Starr
• The Cobweb (1955) – Miss Cobb
• The Lonesome Trail (1955) – Mae
• Day the World Ended (1955) – Ruby
• Girls in Prison (1956) – Jenny
• Fighting Trouble (1956) – Mae Randle
• Runaway Daughters (1956) – Dixie Jackson

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• {{IMDb name|421922}}
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• Adele Jergens [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-dec-09-me-jergens9-story.html Los Angeles Times Obituaries]
• {{Find a Grave|7000039}}

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Category:American film actresses

Category:Burials at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery

Category:Musicians from Brooklyn

Category:1917 births

Category:2002 deaths

Category:American female dancers

Category:Dancers from New York (state)

Category:Actresses from Brooklyn

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:20th-century American musicians

Category:American radio actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:20th-century American dancers

Category:Columbia Pictures contract players

Category:Deaths from pneumonia in California