Jeanne Carmen - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Jeanne Laverne Carmen was born in Paragould, Arkansas. As a child she picked cotton before running away from home at age 13. As a teen, she moved to New York City and landed a job as a dancer in Burlesque, with Bert Lahr. Later she became a model, appearing in several men's magazines. She also became a trick golfer, appearing with Jack Redmond.

While in her 20s, she came to Hollywood and appeared in B movies such as Guns Don't Argue and The Monster of Piedras Blancas. Carmen's sultry good looks, naturally dark hair, hourglass figure, and striking green eyes quickly landed her on the big screen in 1956 playing a feisty Spanish senorita named "Serelda" in The Three Outlaws, a Western based on the same events as the later Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and co-starring Neville Brand and Alan Hale, Jr as Butch and Sundance. She was then cast by producer/director Howard W. Koch as an Indian girl in War Drums alongside Lex Barker of Tarzan fame. Koch took a liking to Carmen and cast her in his next flick for Warner Bros, the teenage rock n roll juvenile delinquent themed Untamed Youth in 1957 co-starring Rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran, which inspired Cochran to cover the song "Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie" for her.

Carmen also appeared as a femme fatale in Portland Exposé alongside Frank Gorshin who later gained fame as the "Riddler" on the Batman series. She also appeared in the Three Stooges short subject A Merry Mix Up playing Joe Besser's girlfriend "Mary." The short is notable for the Stooges playing three sets of identical triplets.