Biography for
Mamie Van Doren More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

6 February 1931, Rowena, South Dakota, USA

Birth Name

Joan Lucille Olander

Height

5' 4" (1.63 m)

Spouse

Thomas Dixon	(26 June 1979 - present)
Ross McClintock	(1 December 1972 - 1973) (divorced)
Lee Meyers	(4 May 1966 - 3 January 1969) (divorced)
Ray Anthony	(29 August 1955 - 22 March 1961) (divorced) 1 child
Jack Newman	(1950 - 1950) (divorced)

Trade Mark

Platinum blonde hair

Voluptuous figure

Lisp, breathless voice

Trivia

Miss Palm Springs 1948, at age 15. Won the title "Miss Eight Ball" at age 16.

Signed by Universal Studios at age 18 with the hope that they could make her their answer to Fox's Marilyn Monroe.

Was discovered by Howard Hughes the night she was crowned Miss Palm Springs. He dated her for five years and launched her career by placing her in a few RKO films.

Her film Untamed Youth (1957) was originally condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, but that only served to enhance the curiosity factor, resulting in it being a big money-maker for the studio.

Issued out three quickie paperback biographies to juice up her fading popularity: "My Naughty, Naughty Life" (1961), "I Swing" (1965) and "My Wild Love Experiences" (1965).

She took her stage name (Mamie) from "First Lady" Mamie Eisenhower.

Claims to have had an affair with Rock Hudson.

Has appeared with Jackie Coogan in four different films: High School Confidential! (1958), The Beat Generation (1959), The Big Operator (1959) and Sex Kittens Go to College (1960).

Once posed for famous pin-up girl artist Alberto Vargas, the painter of the glamorous "Vargas Girls." His painting of Van Doren was on the July 1951 cover of Esquire.

Along with fellow platinum-blonde goddesses Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, she was known as one of "The Three M's."

Gave birth to her first child at age 25, a son, Perry Ray Anthony on March 18, 1956. Child's father is her second husband Ray Anthony.

During the Vietman War, she did tours for U.S. troops in Vietnam for three months in 1968, and again in 1970. In addition to USO shows, she visited hospitals, including the wards of amputees and burn victims.

In 1964, she was a guest at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood when The Beatles were at the club visiting Jayne Mansfield, and an inebriated George Harrison accidentally threw his drink on her while trying to throw it on some bothersome journalists.

In 1963, she posed twice for Playboy Magazine to promote her film 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964), though she was never a Playmate.

Performed a nightclub act in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1970s.

Personal Quotes

I don't wear panties anymore - this startles the Hollywood wolves so much they don't know what to pull at, so they leave me alone.

I came to Hollywood determined to follow in Jean Harlow's footsteps, but I was determined not to die young. My hope was to endure. And endure I have.

[about former suitor Howard Hughes] There's a scene in The Aviator (2004) that depicts Howard's first meeting with Faith Domergue that comes very close to the scene in my book "Playing the Field" describing my first meeting with him. He asks Faith how old she is. Answer: 15. He asked me the same thing. Answer: 16. He even asks if she lived with her parents and how nice it was that she lived at home. The only thing he didn't ask her in the movie was the main thing he asked me: "Are you a virgin?".

At my age, having an orgasm is like having an occasional cocktail.

[about the period in the early '60s when she was engaged to baseball star pitcher Bo Belinsky] It was a wild ride, but a lot of fun.