Female Hollywood stars in the mid-to-late 20th century who rightly acquired the title of sexy "bombshell"

Mamie Van Doren was a lesser-known movie starlet, but she joined the trio of blonde beauties by possessing all the attributes of a bombshell and outlasting the other two by many decades. First gaining attention as a beauty contest winner, model, singer and Howard Hughes-promoted RKO actress, Mamie was identified with a tight-sweatered look and "bullet bras." As the screen's 'bad-girl,' she headlined many low-budget B-films, drive-in quickies and trashy sexploitation films that have since become camp classics (i.e., Untamed Youth (1957), High School Confidential (1958), Girl's Town (1959), The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960), Sex Kittens Go the College (1960), and The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966) opposite Jayne Mansfield), but they all fizzled at the box-office.

Jayne Mansfield parlayed her very busty, bleached platinum-blonde, sexually-appealing persona, after her Playmate modeling for Playboy's February 1955 issue, into a breakthrough Hollywood role in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Her high-pitched voice, openly-displayed cleavage, flaunted pulchritude, tight-fitting scanty costumes, and her willingness to stereotypically portray a 'sex kitten' or 'dumb blonde' became her lasting legacy. She was the "most photographed woman" in 1957, due in part to various successful attempts to accidentally expose her anatomy (the first 'wardrobe malfunctions'). Her aspirations to become a respectable actress weren't taken seriously, bringing her the nickname "the poor man's Marilyn." Her premature 1967 tragic car-crash death at the age of 34 marked the second famous vixen death.

Jean Harlow was a gifted and highly sensual actress who flaunted the no-underwear look on camera and a scandalous off-screen love life. Her breakthrough role at age 18 was in Howard Hughes' WWI war film Hell's Angels (1930) - as sexy floozy Helen with a plunging neckline dress, she announced to her male companion: "Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" Dubbed a "platinum blonde" after appearing as a callous society girl in Platinum Blonde (1931), she then became the first "blonde bombshell" after her starring role in the pre-Hays Code screwball comedy Bombshell (1933). [The film was first titled Blonde Bombshell to assure audiences it wasn't another war film.] In the satire (based upon the career of sexy silent star "It Girl" Clara Bow), she portrayed popular movie-star Lola Burns, plagued by fake scandals and publicity campaigns created by her studio press agent. Harlow was an accomplished dramatic actress and