#lance fuller

Photo by Earl Leaf (1905-1980).

Jayne Mansfield, Natalie Wood, Lance Fuller, John Smith, and Bob Fuller at a drive-in restaurant in Los Angeles, California, photos by Earl Leaf, June 13th, 1955. All of the young aspiring thespians were then under contract with Warner Bros. Studios, and Natalie, who'd been acting since childhood, had just completed filming her star-making role in Rebel Without a Cause at the time and would soon after attain A-list status, becoming a respected star and an important Hollywood player. The young men achieved minor careers, attaining success in supporting roles in films and television but never becoming household names like Wood and Mansfield did after these photos were taken. It's of interest to note that though Jayne auditioned for the role of Judy which Natalie ultimately played to great effect in Rebel Without a Cause, director Nicholas Ray (who humored her, but knew from the get-go she was completely wrong for) cast her in a small part as a car-hop at a drive-in restaurant in the movie instead. The brief scene was unfortunately cut from the finished film with only a couple of on-set production stills existing of Jayne's association with Rebel. Dropped by Warner Bros. soon after, she quickly scored a starring role in the Broadway play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? which she eventually starred in on-screen after 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the play and signed Mansfield to a long-term contract, partially as a threat to Marilyn Monroe, who 20th greatly under-appreciated and believed was "difficult" and "uncooperative" in her quest to appear in movies worthy of both her talent and status as the studio's top box office star. While signing with 20th paved the way for Jayne to finally achieve her lifelong dream of becoming a movie star, the studio treated her even worse than they treated MM and Jayne's high-octane blonde bombshell image, ravenous, often short-sighted ambition, her trusting nature, and her misguided penchant for staging publicity stunts (which grew increasingly more desperate and outrageous) resulted in an endless stream of scandalous headlines which eventually, and rather sadly, relegated her to being cast in second-rate movies and becoming a tabloid/gossip-mag celebrity, never allowing her an opportunity to actually prove her talent and intelligence or to be taken seriously by Hollywood prior to her tragic passing at the age of 34 in a horrific car accident in 1967. It's worth noting that 20th Century Fox terminated Mansfield's long-term contract in April of 1962, three months before they fired Marilyn Monroe and canceled production on her final, prophetically titled movie Something's Got to Give. Marilyn sadly took her own life at the age of 36 two months later. Despite her great success as an Oscar-nominated screen star, Natalie Wood also met a tragic end, dying under mysterious circumstances in the deep, dark waters off the coast of Catalina Island in 1981 at the age of 43. The investigation into her sad and untimely passing remains an open police case, officially classified as "unsolved" to this very day.

A publicity photo of Lance Fuller, Jayne Mansfield, John Smith, Natalie Wood, and Robert Fuller in Jayne Mansfield's pink 1954 Jaguar XK120 - June 13, 1955

Natalie Wood, John Smith, Bob Fuller, Lance Fuller, and actress Jayne Mansfield

Jayne Mansfield with Natalie Wood, Lance Fuller, John Smith and Bob Fuller, 1955.

Bob Fuller, Natalie Wood, John Smith, Jayne Mansfield, and Lance Fuller posing at drive-in restaurant (1955)

Behind the scenes during the filming of "This Island Earth" (1955).