Her father managed the Casino Bowling Alley and The Ritz Restaurant, and later owned the Boston Shoe Store on Valley Street.

After meeting and befriending the then-struggling actor Rudolph Valentino at a party, they entered a two-month courtship and married on November 6, 1919.

[13] After filing for divorce, Valentino did not wait the requisite period for it to be finalized before marrying his second wife, Natacha Rambova, in Mexico, and he was charged with bigamy when the couple returned to the United States.

[citation needed] In the 1977 film Valentino a character loosely based on Acker is played by Carol Kane.

[18] In 1930, after she lost her fortune in the 1929 stock market crash, she sued William Delahanty, claiming that he agreed to pay her $18,400 per year if she gave up her film career.

[19] Acker met Chloe Carter (June 21, 1903 – October 28, 1993), a former Ziegfeld Follies girl, who was the first wife of film composer Harry Ruby.

[21] Acker died of natural causes in 1978 at the age of 85,[22] and is buried next to Carter at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

[23] Although not born in the Central Pennsylvania town of Lewistown, Jean Acker is considered a local celebrity.

Her face dominates an outdoor mural titled "Mifflin County Movie History" and is located on Monument Square in Downtown Lewistown.