Jean Wallace

Teenage fashion model and Earl Carroll showgirl Jean Wallace failed in her first bid to break into movies, after MGM discovered that she was only 17, not 19 years old - as she had claimed. Being underage meant that she could only work four hours a day (and with an official tutor) and so her bit in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) was all there was. At Paramount, her luck improved. Signed to a six months contract (plus complimentary tutor) the platinum blonde insurance salesman's daughter made her first motion picture appearance in a credited part in Louisiana Purchase (1941). Her next stop was 20th Century Fox where she spent five years under contract, but had very little to do after refusing to appear in Kiss of Death (1947), not a good career move, as it turned out. For the next few years, Jean's screen career was overshadowed by her turbulent private life. A chance meeting in July 1941 between Jean and the actor Franchot Tone, formerly Joan Crawford partner and twice her age, had led to a whir