Born: Nov 26, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Died: Nov 22, 2002 in Camarillo, California
Occupation: Actor
Active: '40s-'50s
Major Genres: Comedy, Crime
Career Highlights: Armored Car Robbery, The Dark Past, The Fuller Brush Man
First Major Screen Credit: A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
Biography
Blonde, Brooklyn-born model and chorus girl Adele Jergens gained national fame when she was elected "Miss World's Fairest" at the 1939 World's Fair; if one chose to believe her "official" birth date, she was 13 years old at the time. Signed to a Columbia Pictures contract in 1944, Jergens showed up in that studio's "A" and "B" product in a succession of hard-boiled and "loose" roles. Her most curious assignment at Columbia was 1949's Ladies of The Chorus, wherein 27-year-old Jergens played the mother of 23-year-old Marilyn Monroe. Evidently, Jergens was possessed of a good nature, else she wouldn't have seemed so comfortable playing the foil to such comedians as Red Skelton, Abbott & Costello, Alan Young and even the Bowery Boys. Mostly consigned to programmers in the 1950s, Jergens enjoyed a rare "A" part in MGM's psychological melodrama The Cobweb. Adele Jergens was the widow of actor Glenn Langan, whom she married in 1949. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Adele Jergens (November 26, 1917 - November 22, 2002) was an American actress.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jergen's birth date is sometimes listed as 1922. Jergens first rose to prominence in the late 1930s, when she was named "Miss World's Fairest" at New York's 1939 World's Fair and in the early 1940s, she worked as a Rockette, and was named the Number One Showgirl in New York City.
After a few years of working as a model and chorus girl, including being an understudy to Gypsy Rose Lee, Jergens landed a movie contract with Columbia Pictures in 1944. That's when brunette Jergens became a blonde. Her chorus girl past came in handy when she played an exotic dancer in Armored Car Robbery (1950). She was usually cast as blonde floozies and burlesque dancers. She once played Marilyn Monroe's mother in Ladies of the Chorus (1948) despite the fact that Jergens was only 9 years older than Monroe.
In 1949, she met and married actor Glenn Langan (The Amazing Colossal Man). They remained married until his death in 1991. Their only child, actor Tracy Langan, predeceased his mother.