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Jean Peters Profile
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| (Elizabeth Jean Peters) |
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| 15 October 26 | is born in Canton, Ohio, of Welsh extraction to Gerald Morris and Elizabeth Peters. She's a distant cousin of Welsh boxer Tommy Farr. |
| c. 35 | her sister, Shirley A., is born |
| 36 | her father dies at age 36 |
| ? | attends the University of Michigan and later transfers to Ohio State. She works hard for a degree allowing her to teach English. |
| 45 | wins a campus popularity contest and is crowned "Miss Ohio State University." Without a screen test, 20th Century-Fox gives her a six-month contract at $150 a week. |
| rents a small house and moves in with her best girlfriend from college, Arlen Hurwitz of Cleveland |
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| ? | buys a box at Gilmore Stadium, Los Angeles |
| ? | homesick she sends for her mother, grandmother, and 14-year-old sister Shirley |
| ? | she and her mother buy some Los Angeles real estate |
| ? | Darryl F. Zanuck encounters her Forth of July photo in a gallery and chooses her for the lead in Captain from Castile |
| ? | boasts that she lives on $400 a month |
| Early January 46 | is screen-tested at 20th Century-Fox and signs an option. Then she returns to Columbus, Ohio. |
| 46 | Hughes is attracted to her after seeing rushes of Captain from Castile, and a meeting is easily arranged. Inside ten days he gives her an enormous diamond and emerald ring. |
| 4 July 46 | catches the attention of Hughes while attending a Santa Catalina Island boating party at the invitation of Bill Cagney with her escort Audie Murphy |
| 11 July 46 | visits Hughes at Good Samaritan Hospital four days after his XF-11 crash |
| October 46 | the press reports Hughes’ phoning her |
| 47 | she tells Audie Murphy that he has no chance with her anymore. Insane with rage, the war hero tries to bribe Hughes' guards for a chance to gun him down |
| ? | starts living with Hughes in a house purchased for her and her family on Veteran Avenue, Westwood. He also maintains two bungalows at the Beverly Hills Hotel, two apartments in the Los Angeles Town House, an apartment at 10000 Sunset Boulevard, a hideaway in the San Fernando Valley, a rented villa in Palm Springs, and a small house in Las Vegas. |
| 13 March 47 | the press reports she's wearing a striking ring of diamonds and sapphires on her engagement finger when she appears in Los Angeles court for approval of a movie contract, and it provokes the question of whether she and Hughes are serious about each other. "I guess so - yes, it's serious - it's serious with both of us," she tells reporters after the $300-a-week contract is approved. She also says the ring was only a birthday present and won't fit any other finger. |
| June 47 | she and Mark Stevens are scheduled for White Fang, a Jack London story about a dog |
| October 47 | says that at age 21 she's too young to drink, too young to marry, and not much interested in parties. "Maybe that will come later," she options. |
| 48 | refuses to play in the picture Sand. When she refuses Yellow Sky soon afterwards, her studio is outraged and removes her from payroll. |
| back home in Ohio, she has 3 dogs, 18 cats, a goat named Josephine, and a lamb called Ali Baba |
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| is scheduled to play in Street with No Name, but Barbara Lawrence gets her part |
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| Hughes writes his first Kleenex directive on her concerning how to escort her to the movies |
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| December 48 | columnist Sheilah Graham reports that Jean's "whatever-it-was with Howard Hughes is cold. But she's still chauffeured around in Howard's car." |
| 49 | Hughes offers her a magnificent engagement ring in Palm Springs |
| is in front of the camera for Turned Up Toes. She lives in a simple bungalow in Bel Air with her mother, aunt, and young sister, Shirley. |
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| January 49 | director Lloyd Bacon wants to borrow her for his Cabin in the Sky |
| February 49 | makes her radio debut opposite Cornel Wilde in Radio Theatre's version of Captain from Castile |
| June 49 | it is reported that she would like to do Carmen |
| May 51 | flies to New York City to test for Viva Zapata. She is supposed to test one afternoon and shoot the next day. Director Elia Kazan says: "Rehearsals are out. The Red Sox are playing the Yankees." So they all take off for the ballgame, discuss the text between innings, and shoot it the following day. |
| June 51 | is ill on the Viva Zapata location in Texas. "May be the heat or it may be a stomach ulcer..." |
| July 51 | is referred to as “Punctual Pete“ by her co-workers cause she’s never late for an appointment |
| September 51 | her bronchial condition giver her so much misery that she will check into the Good Samaritan Hospital for ten days after finishing Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie |
| November 51 | arrives in Waycross, Georgia, to start filming Swamp Girl. "Before leaving Hollywood, she cancelled out on a deal to buy a hilltop home complete with swimming pool. She decided it was too expensive. |
| December 51 | the press reports that she kept a detailed diary of every day of her five years in Hollywood and plans to publish it soon. "That ought to be humorous reading..." |
| February 52 | is a twosome with Ohio State's Vic Janowitz |
| June 52 | is on the cover of Quick |
| October 52 | thinks sex is overdone in Hollywood and rejects a build-up as a sexy dish. She says she's "not the type." She plays a bad girl in Blaze of Glory. |
| is expected to star with Dale Robertson in the upcoming Gatling Gun, the story of the first machine gun. Leonard Goldstein will produce it at 20th Century-Fox. |
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| 18 December 52 | is among show business personalities honored at a send-off luncheon in Hollywood for their upcoming tours to entertain the troops. She will go to Korea with Richard Allan, Paul Douglas, Jan Sterling, Carleton Carpenter, Movita, Carolina Cotton, Walter Pidgeon, Debbie Reynolds, Keenan Wynn, Dawn Addams, Roscoe Ates, Lita Baron, Rory Calhoun, and Bill Shirley. |
| 53 | some of her scenes in Blueprint for Murder are shot at the former Marion Davies home on the beachfront at Santa Monica, California |
| February 53 | buys two apartment houses - each having ten bachelor units - at Laguna Beach |
| columnist Hedda Hopper reports that Jean has signed a rather unusual contract with 20th Century-Fox for two more years. "During that time she'll not have to worry about a single option being picked up; on the other hand, she'll have no choice in the pictures given her to do. Twentieth is building its former outdoor girl into a sexy siren." |
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| gifts her sister Shirley with a car for a graduation present. "Next year Shirley enters UCLA to study geology. She won't take a screen test, doesn't want to be an actress.” |
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| March 53 | columnist Erskine Johnson writes: "It's almost all over between Jean Peters and the bachelor movie executive who doesn't like to see his name in print..." |
| April 53 | on the set of Vicki, everybody wonders about her escort. She says it is Paul Marino, an old school friend. |
| July 53 | producer Eddie Small wants to borrow her for his upcoming Tarantula. "Jean, after long 'isolation,’ did some dating for a while but seems to have crept back into a shell again. She remains one of the quietest and perhaps loneliest stars in town..." |
| has her hair cut into a short Italian bob for Three Coins in the Fountain |
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| 53 | meets handsome and wealthy Texas oilman and Lockheed executive with CIA duties in Korea and Istanbul, Stuart Cramer III from Charlotte, North Carolina, on a plane returning home from Italy after the filming of Three Coins in the Fountain |
| August 53 | spends four days at the Las Vegas Flamingo en route to New York and Italy |
| September 53 | columnist Erskine Johnson writes. "The plot of Fox's We Believe in Love may be great, but the inside story of Jean Peter's front-office fight for the trip to Italy to make the picture and her reasons for wanting to get away from Hollywood surely top any fiction. It's an affair of the heart." |
| October 53 | she and Bob Wagner are a two at a party. "But it was just 'one of those things' a studio publicity department arranged - and neither gives a real dam about the other..." |
| November 53 | columnist Hedda Hopper heralds that Jean will play opposite Kirk Douglas, Victor Mature, and Ava Gardner in Darryl F. Zanuck's The Egyptian. "She can hardly wait to put on golden gauze and lead a brace of leopards on a leash." |
| December 53 | columnist Erskine Johnson writes that it's she, "not Marilyn Monroe, who gets the plum role along with Bella Darvi in Fox's big Cinemascope spectacle The Egyptian..." |
| 31 December 53 | spends New Years Eve at the Beverly Hills Hotel with Hughes, who is also with Susan Hayward and Merry Anderson, no one knowing about the other |
| 4 January 54 | stars with Michael Rennie on Hollywood Radio Theatre’s "The Day the Earth Stood Still" |
| April 54 | chums say that she and Robert Wagner are more than a little serious about each other |
| May 54 | Louella Parsons phones Hughes to tell him about Jean’s marriage proposal from Cramer |
| 29 May 54 | marries wealthy socialite Stuart Warren Cramer III in a surprise, secret ceremony. The wedding is only attended by the parents of the couple in the sanctuary of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. He's 26; she's 27. She walks to the altar on the same golden carpet that Queen Elizabeth II used on her Coronation Day. The marriage is performed by the Reverend George M. Docherty, pastor of the church. Afterwards, she refuses when asked to kiss Cramer for the photographers. She and Cramer met by accident in Rome while she was making Three Coins in the Fountain and there was a mix-up of his and her luggage at the airport; Cramer is the grandson of North Carolina textile tycoon Warren Cramer and owns part of the Mineral Wells Texan Petroleum Company. |
| after the ceremony they leave for Bermuda |
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| ? | Cramer gifts her with a 50-carat diamond brooch |
| ? | she and Cramer settle in Miami, and she is spied making love to Cramer by a Hughes private eye |
| ? | Hughes asks Cramer to let her go |
| ? | Cramer visits her in Florida at Hughes' suggestion |
| ? | the Beverly Hills Hotel has strict orders not to serve her any liquor except for a half bottle of champagne on her birthday |
| ? | on some sort of marital promissory note from Hughes, she agrees to divorce Cramer and marry him |
| 1 July 54 | separates from Cramer and returns to Hollywood to film A Man Called Peter |
| July 54 | burns her hand badly on set of The Broken Lance, picking up a branding iron without gloves |
| Modern Screen reports it is becoming serious with her and Robert Wagner |
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| Summer 54 | Hughes has her, Terry Moore, Debra Paget and Mitzi Gaynor waiting in Las Vegas |
| she and Ava Gardner are kept by Hughes at Lake Tahoe, both awaiting their divorces and baby-sat by a Hughes secretary |
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| August 54 | is reported living on California Street in Washington, D.C. |
| according to her agent, she won't be back in Hollywood for about a month. "Burt Lancaster wanted Jean for his next film, Gabriel Horn, and even before her marriage she wanted to do it, but her studio said she wasn't available. Far from retiring from the screen, Jean still has about four years to go on her Fox contract." |
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| September 54 | the press notes Cramer trying to talk her out of resuming her film career |
| November 54 | returns to the films with location filming for A Man Called Peter in Atlanta, Georgia |
| declares in Hollywood: "I never really lived a Hollywood life. We don't intend to live here because I've never been crazy out Los Angeles and neither is Stuart. We'll live in New York or Charlotte, North Carolina." |
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| columnist Walter Winchell suggests Cramer may inherit an important Washington post |
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| January 55 | has a drinking problem and depression, so Cramer finally throws in the towel |
| March 55 | is reported building up residence time in Florida for a divorce from Cramer |
| even her agent is stumped about her whereabouts. "She's been on the missing list since she completed A Man Called Peter..." |
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| May 55 | goes to court to divorce Stuart Cramer |
| 20th Century-Fox hasn’t heard anything of her for three weeks |
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| June 55 | is considered for the part of Lilia, the slave girl, in The Ten Commandments. Others on Cecil B. DeMille's list are Pier Angeli, Vanessa Brown, Pat Crowley, Piper Laurie, Irene Montwill, Lori Nelson, Cathy O'Donnell, Karen Sharpe, Elaine Stewart, and Donna Reed. Finally Debra Paget is signed, without an interview with DeMille. |
| August 55 | is back in Hollywood "with her Florida suntan. She isn't talking, but it's dollars to doughnuts she has her freedom from Stuart Cramer III..." |
| November 55 | Photoplay magazine knows: "20th Century-Fox can’t find her to tell her she’s off suspension for turning down A View from Pompey's Head, Stuart Cramer would like to know where she is, too!" |
| December 55 | finally returns to town with Cramer, but they don’t see each other. She refuses to be loaned to Universal-International to star with Audie Murphy because several years ago they were a very romantic item and she isn’t sure just how she feels toward him now. |
| 9 December 55 | after a 33-day marriage, she files for divorce from Cramer in Los Angeles charging mental cruelty. She asks for no community property and makes no financial demands; she only walks away with her maiden name, Elizabeth Jean Peters. He's 27; she's 29. |
| ? | young singer Yvonne Shubert gives her the toughest competition with Hughes |
| March 56 | drops out of sight and is "out-Garboing Garbo as Hollywood's number 1 riddle girl..." |
| April 56 | will replace Joan Collins in The Last Wagon |
| 12 January 57 | under the name of Marian Evans, she secretly marries Hughes, alias G.A. Johnson, at the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, Nevada. He's 51; she's 30. They return the same day to Los Angeles and honeymoon shortly at a secluded ranch near Palm Springs. |
| 15 January 57 | a stunned Kathryn Grayson is informed about Hughes' marriage in New York City |
| 16 March 57 | the Los Angeles Mirror News breaks the news that she married Hughes on March 12 at sea on his yacht anchored off Miami Beach |
| 2 April 57 | columnist Walter Winchell tells that Newsweek reported that the marriage took place in Las Vegas on March 13. Later he wonders if she and Hughes "were merged outside the 3 mile limit in the sky? Considering that the rumored wedding hasn't been confirmed (or denied) and no trace of the license found in California or nearby states..." |
| 57 | lives with Hughes at the Beverly Hills Hotel and isn't allowed to go out - not even for shopping |
| ? | smokes too much for Hughes’ taste |
| ? | gets weary of the film screenings that Hughes stages at the Goldwyn studios projection room and backs off |
| ? | spends a few weeks with Hughes at Nassau, Bahamas |
| Christmas 57 | starts sending Christmas cards printed "Jean and Howard Hughes" |
| 24 December 60 | is allowed to sleep again with Hughes at Rancho Santa Fe |
| ? | Hughes reluctantly allows her to vacuum the shag carpet but refuses to see the ugly, fat vacuum cleaner bag |
| 61 | she and Hughes move into in an imitation French Chateau at 1001 Bel Air Road, Bel Air, at an annual rent of $50,000. In 1973, Zsa Zsa Gabor will buy the house. |
| 10 July 66 | Hughes awakens after several days of depression, beckons her back into his life and promises her to start anew without the Mormon aides |
| 17 July 66 | Hughes moves out, leaving her at 1001 Bel Air, and breaks the pact of reconciliation |
| November 66 | accompanies Hughes, who slips unnoticed into his Desert Inn, Las Vegas, penthouse |
| 67 | likes fashion by Bonnie Cashin or from her favorite couturier Nolan Miller |
| March 67 | is reported living with Hughes in his newly acquired Desert Inn resort |
| is invited by Hughes to meet him at the Las Vegas Desert Inn, but he can't raise himself to meet with her when she arrives |
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| 68 | lives on Bel Air Road, atop a peak of the Santa Monica Mountains, under 24-hour guarded surveillance |
| ? | Hughes seeks to purchase the Curtis Publishing Co. when he can't kill a proposed article about her in the Lady's Home Journal magazine |
| December 69 | is reported living an active life, unrecognized in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. She attends baseball, basketball and football games in Los Angeles, frequently in the company of a female acquaintance or accompanied by a Hughes security man. During the week she busies herself with chartable works. One of her favorite contributions is reading for the Braille Institute in a recording studio. At night she attends a university under an assumed name, working for a master's degree in sociology, although she also takes art courses. |
| 15 January 70 | announces in Las Vegas that she will seek a divorce from Hughes after 13 years of marriage. She does not state the grounds for the action in the brief statement issued by the Hughes Nevada operations office. She wants $70,000 a year and her freedom. He's 64; she's 43. |
| ? | columnist Sidney Skolsky suggests that Hughes made a settlement of some $120,000,000 on her |
| ? | moves to a smaller house in Beverly Hills, lets the guards go and begins to appear in public, attending movie screenings and going to restaurants |
| Late January 70 | columnist Earl Wilson reports her seen with Stanley Hough, 20th Century-Fox production head. They first met on the set of Captain from Castile in 1946. |
| 9 April 70 | is seen in public for the first time after announcing her divorce from Hughes when attending the Academy Awards show at the Los Angeles Music Center |
| February 71 | there are rumors she may marry Hough |
| 15 June 71 | receives her divorce from Hughes in Hawthorne, Nevada, after living six weeks in Crystal Bay to comply with the residency requirement. Judge Kenneth Mann grants the decree in a brief court hearing. |
| 25 August 71 | she and Hough take out their wedding license in Santa Monica, California. Date and place of the wedding aren't disclosed. |
| 27 August 71 | marries Stanley L. Hough in a private ceremony at a West Los Angeles church. He's 51; she's 44. A spokesman says the couple will live in Beverly Hills. |
| 70s | pursues a Bachelor of Arts degree at UCLA to prepare for a teaching career |
| November 72 | appears in the "Hollywood Television Theater" production of Winesburg, Ohio |
| December 72 | at a news conference to announce her return to acting, she says she will never reveal details about Hughes because she respects his desire for privacy |
| 73 | becomes national honorary chairwoman of the National Society for Autistic Children |
| February 73 | attends the Screen Smart Set luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel |
| April 74 | is manager of the Screen Smart Set Shop, where used clothing of movie and TV stars is sold for the benefit of the Motion Picture and TV Relief Fund |
| June 74 | her sister, Arlen Stuart, has a part in a "Cannon" segment |
| 30 March 76 | from the Acapulco Princess Hotel, Hughes sends a last letter to her telling that he has always loved her |
| 5 April 76 | Hughes leaves Acapulco and dies at age 70 of kidney failure, on board his plane, bound for his native Houston, Texas |
| ? | upon learning of Hughes’ death, she is greeted by reporters in Beverly Hills and simply says: "I'm sorry and I'm sad that he's dead." |
| 21 April 78 | her sworn statement is introduced as evidence at the Mormon will trial in Las Vegas Nevada. She says Hughes wanted his wealth to go to medical research. |
| May 79 | she and Jane Russell guest on Dinah Shore's TV show, "Dinah". They tell what they think glamour is and what they think is glamorous in men. |
| 84 | appears in an episode of "Murder, She Wrote" |
| 23 February 90 | Hough dies at age 71 in Switzerland of a heart attack while on a skiing vacation with Jean. His brother, Richard Hough, and his brother's adult children attempt CPR but to no avail. |
| 97 | is active in charity work and declines to give interviews about her years with Hughes |
| 99 | her address is 507 North Palm Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 |
| ? | moves to be closer to her sister, Shirley Cook, in Carlsbad, a suburb of San Diego |
| ? | resides at 2409 Buena Vista Circle, Carlsbad, CA 92008 |
| 13 October 00 | as Elizabeth J. Hough, she dies at age 73 at her home in Carlsbad / La Jolla, California, from leukemia. Her sister survives. |
| 17 October 00 | is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, in section AA, tier 22, grave 39 |
| Sources: Howard Hughes - The Secret Life by Charles Higham, Howard Hughes - The Untold Story by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske, The Beauty and the Billionaire by Terry Moore, Movie Greats by Paul Michael, Written in Stone by Katherine Orrison, The Hollywood Reporter, Movieland, Hollywood Starlet, Movie Play, Screen Stories, Modern Screen, Silver Screen, Photoplay, Jasmin, The Sunday Times-Signal, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Council Bluffs Iowa Nonpareil, Middletown Times Herald, Waterloo Sunday Courier, The Monessen Daily Independent, Portland Press Herald, The Daily Register, The Newark Advocate and American Tribune, Valley Morning Star, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Redlands Daily Facts, Pottstown Mercury, The Portsmouth Herald, Mansfield News-Journal, The Lethbridge Herald, The Bridgeport Telegram, The Coshocton Tribune, Nevada State Journal, The Port Arthur News, The Independent Record, The Newark Advocate, The Independent, Burlington Daily Times-News, Family Weekly, Valley News, The Sunday Times, The Times Recorder, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Stevens Point Daily Journal, Syracuse Post-Standard, The News, Times-Herald, Chronicle-Telegram, Orange County Local News, D.L. Lyons for The Ladies? Home Journal, www.Ancestry.com | |
| Recommended Books: Howard Hughes - The Secret Life by Charles Higham Howard Hughes - The Untold Story by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske Mrs. Howard Hughes by Raymond Strait | |
| Links: Filmography Find A Grave | |