1. Elizabeth Jean Peters was an American film actress.
41 Facts About Jean Peters
1. 2.
Jean Peters was known as a star of 20th Century Fox in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and as the second wife of Howard Hughes.
3.
Late in her career, and after her retirement, Jean Peters occasionally played roles in TV productions, appearing in four from 1973 to 1988.
4.
Jean Peters was born on October 15,1926, in East Canton, Ohio, the eldest daughter of Elizabeth Thomas and Gerald Jean Peters, a laundry manager.
5.
Jean Peters went to college at the University of Michigan and later transferred to Ohio State University, where she studied to become a teacher and majored in literature.
6.
Jean Peters dropped out of college to become an actress, a decision she later regretted.
7.
Jean Peters was selected to replace Linda Darnell as the female lead in Captain from Castile opposite Tyrone Power, when Darnell was reassigned to save the production of Forever Amber.
8.
Jean Peters was named among the best five 'finds' of the year, among Barbara Bel Geddes, Valli, Richard Widmark and Wanda Hendrix.
9.
Jean Peters was next assigned to co-star next to Clifton Webb in Mr Belvedere Goes to College, but Shirley Temple later replaced her.
10.
In early 1949 Jean Peters signed on to play Ray Milland's love interest in It Happens Every Spring.
11.
Jean Peters next starred alongside Paul Douglas in the period film Love That Brute, for which she had to wear a dress so snug she was unable to sit.
12.
The film was originally titled Turned Up Toes, and Jean Peters was cast in the film in June 1949, shortly after the release of It Happens Every Spring.
13.
Jean Peters once became famous for playing a simple country girl, but as she grew up, the studio did not find her any more suitable roles.
14.
At her insistence, Jean Peters was given the title role in Anne of the Indies, which the press declared was the film that finally brought her stardom.
15.
Also in 1951, Jean Peters had her first collaboration with Marilyn Monroe, when they had secondary roles in As Young as You Feel.
16.
Jean Peters was set to play the title role in the drama film Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie.
17.
Jean Peters was one of many names in the studios O Henry's Full House.
18.
Jean Peters co starred with Jeffrey Hunter in Lure of the Wilderness.
19.
For Pickup on South Street, Jean Peters was advised to bleach her hair, but she refused to do so, wanting to avoid comparisons with Winters and Grable.
20.
Jean Peters did agree to adopt a "sexy shuffle" for the role.
21.
Jean Peters was helped by Marilyn Monroe to understand the role of a siren.
22.
Jean Peters later said that she had enjoyed making the film, but announced in an interview that she was not willing to take on other siren roles.
23.
In Niagara, Jean Peters replaced Anne Baxter, with whom she co-starred in the anthology film O Henry's Full House.
24.
Jean Peters's character was initially the leading role, but the film eventually became a vehicle for Monroe, who was by that time more successful.
25.
Jean Peters was assigned to the film in December 1952 and told the press she liked playing in the film because it allowed her to sing, but no song by her is used in the picture, only the playing of a piano.
26.
Jean Peters's next film was A Man Called Peter, in which she played Catherine Marshall, the wife of Peter Marshall, a Presbyterian minister and chaplain of the United States Senate.
27.
Jean Peters was supposedly discouraged from continuing as an actress by Hughes, and reported in late 1957 that she was planning on becoming a producer.
28.
In March 1959, it was announced that Jean Peters was to return to the screen for a supporting role in The Best of Everything.
29.
In 1976, Jean Peters had a supporting role in the TV miniseries The Moneychangers.
30.
Jean Peters appeared in the 1981 television film Peter and Paul, produced by her then-husband, Stan Hough.
31.
Jean Peters guest-starred in Murder, Jean Peters Wrote in 1988, which was her final acting performance.
32.
Jeanne Crain said Peters was "anything but a party girl".
33.
In 1954, Peters married Texas oilman Stuart Cramer.
34.
In 1957, after her divorce from Cramer, Jean Peters married Howard Hughes.
35.
The couple had met in the 1940s, before Jean Peters became a film actress.
36.
The actor Max Showalter confirmed this, after becoming a close friend of Jean Peters during shooting of Niagara.
37.
Jean Peters agreed to a lifetime alimony payment of $70,000 annually, adjusted for inflation, and she waived all claims to Hughes's estate, then worth several billion dollars.
38.
Jean Peters said that she hoped to avoid being known as 'Mrs Howard Hughes' for the rest of her life, although that would be difficult.
39.
Later in 1971, Jean Peters married Stan Hough, an executive with 20th Century Fox.
40.
Jean Peters died of leukemia on October 13,2000, in Carlsbad, California, two days before her 74th birthday.
41.
Jean Peters was buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.