Nationality American Role Actress Name Jean Rogers | Years active 1933–1951 Occupation Actress | |
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Full Name Eleanor Dorothy Lovegren Died February 24, 1991, Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, United States Spouse Dan Winkler (m. 1943–1970) Movies Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon's Trip to Ma, Ace Drummond, A Stranger in Town, The Adventures of Frank Similar People Ford Beebe, Frederick Stephani, Ray Taylor, Alex Raymond, Henry MacRae | ||
The adventures of frank merriwell 1936 don briggs jean rogers carla laemmle
Jean Rogers (March 25, 1916 – February 24, 1991) was an American actress who starred in serial films in the 1930s and low–budget feature films in the 1940s as a leading lady. She is best remembered for playing Dale Arden in the serials Flash Gordon (1936) and Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938).
Contents
- The adventures of frank merriwell 1936 don briggs jean rogers carla laemmle
- Movie Legends Jean Rogers
- Early life
- Flash Gordon
- Feature films
- Later life
- Filmography
- References
Movie Legends - Jean Rogers
Early life
Rogers was born Eleanor Dorothy Lovegren in Belmont, Massachusetts. Her father was an immigrant from Malmö, Sweden. She had hoped to study art, but in 1933 she won a beauty contest sponsored by Paramount Pictures that led to her career in Hollywood. Rogers starred in several serials for Universal between 1935 and 1938, including Ace Drummond and Flash Gordon.
Flash Gordon
Rogers was assigned the role of Dale Arden in the first two Flash Gordon serials. Buster Crabbe and Rogers were perfectly cast as the hero and heroine in the first serial Flash Gordon, and Rogers' beauty, long blonde hair, and revealing costumes endeared her to moviegoers. The evil ruler "Ming the Merciless" (Charles B. Middleton) lusted after her, and Flash Gordon was forced to rescue her from one situation after another. While filming the series in 1937, her costume caught fire and she suffered burns on her hands. Co-star Crabbe smothered the fire by wrapping a blanket on her.
In the first serial, Dale competed with Princess Aura (Priscilla Lawson) for Flash Gordon's attention. Rogers' character was fragile, small-chested, diminutive, and totally dependent on Flash Gordon for her survival; Lawson's Princess Aura was domineering, independent, voluptuous, conniving, sly, ambitious, and determined to make Flash her own. The competition for Flash Gordon's attention is one of the highlights of the film. In the second serial, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, Jean Rogers sported a totally different look. She had dark hair and wore the same modest costume in each episode. Rogers matured after the first serial, and no sexual overtones are seen in Trip To Mars. Rogers told writer Richard Lamparski that she was not eager to do the second serial and asked her studio to excuse her from the third.
Feature films
Despite starring in serial films, Rogers felt she was not going to improve her career unless she could participate in feature films. She discovered that it was more tedious working in feature films. She played John Wayne's leading lady in the 1936 full-length motion picture Conflict and co-starred with Boris Karloff in the horror film Night Key the following year. During the 1940s, Rogers appeared solely in feature films, including The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1940) with Lloyd Nolan, Viva Cisco Kid (1940) with Cesar Romero as the Cisco Kid, Design for Scandal (1941) with Rosalind Russell and Walter Pidgeon, Whistling in Brooklyn (1943) with Red Skelton, A Stranger in Town (1943) with Frank Morgan, Backlash (1947), and Speed to Spare (1948) with Richard Arlen. Still, she was unhappy with the studios, possibly because she was relegated to films on a lower salary. She decided to freelance with companies such as 20th Century Fox and MGM. Her last appearance was in a supporting role in the suspense film The Second Woman, made in 1950 by United Artists.
Later life
Rogers married Dan Winkler in 1943 after she was dropped by MGM. She continued freelancing until retiring in 1951. Because she starred mainly in low-budget films, she was never a top star. In a 1979 interview, she explained what it was like and why she decided not to play Dale Arden in the third Flash Gordon serial.
She died in Sherman Oaks in 1991 at the age of 74 following surgery.