Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the pre-Code era of American cinema.

After a series of critically failed films, and Hughes' loss of interest in her career, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought out Harlow's contract in 1932[3] and cast her in leading roles in a string of hits built on her comedic talent: Red-Headed Woman (1932), Red Dust (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), Reckless (1935) and Suzy (1936).

Harlow's popularity rivaled and then surpassed that of MGM's top leading ladies Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer.

She was underage at the time and grew resentful and unhappy in the marriage, but the Carpenters remained together living in a Kansas City house owned by her father.

[11] Harlean was enrolled at the Hollywood School for Girls, where she met Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joel McCrea, and Irene Mayer Selznick, but dropped out at the age of 14, in the spring of 1925.

[12] With their finances dwindling, Jean and Harlean moved back to Kansas City after Skip Harlow issued an ultimatum that he would disinherit his daughter if they did not return.

[14] During Harlow's freshman year at the school, she was paired with a "big sister" from the senior class who introduced her to 19-year-old Charles "Chuck" Fremont McGrew III, an heir to a large fortune.

The couple left Chicago and moved to Los Angeles, settling into a home in Beverly Hills, where Harlow thrived as a wealthy socialite.

[18] After several calls from casting and a number of job offers rejected by Harlean, Mother Jean finally pressed her into accepting work at the studio.

Harlean appeared in her first film, Honor Bound (1928), as an unbilled "extra" for $7 a day (equivalent to approximately $124 in 2023[19] dollars) and a box lunch, common pay for such work.

[22] She had small roles in the 1929 Laurel and Hardy shorts: Double Whoopee, Liberty and Bacon Grabbers, the last giving her a costarring credit.

[29] Hughes was reshooting most of his originally silent film with sound and needed an actress to replace Greta Nissen, whose Norwegian accent was undesirable for her character.

Hell's Angels premiered in Hollywood at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on May 27, 1930, and became the highest-grossing film of that year, besting even Greta Garbo's talkie debut in Anna Christie.

"[32] In spite of her relative success with Hell's Angels, Harlow again found herself in the role of "uncredited extra" in the Charlie Chaplin film City Lights (1931), though her appearance did not make the final cut.

[36] In 1931, his Caddo Company loaned her out to other studios, where she gained more attention by appearing in The Secret Six, with Wallace Beery and Clark Gable; Iron Man, with Lew Ayres and Robert Armstrong; and The Public Enemy, with James Cagney.

[38] Harlow briefly dated gangster Abner Zwillman, who bought her a jeweled bracelet and a red Cadillac, and made a large cash loan to studio head Harry Cohn to obtain a two-picture deal for her at Columbia Pictures.

Bern then began urging close friend Irving Thalberg, production head of MGM, to sign Harlow, noting her popularity and established image.

After initial reluctance Thalberg agreed, and on March 3, 1932, Harlow's 21st birthday, Bern called her with the news that MGM had purchased her contract from Hughes for $30,000.

MGM began trying to distinguish Harlow's public persona from her screen characters by putting out press releases that her childhood surname was not the common 'Carpenter' but the chic 'Carpentiér', claiming that writer Edgar Allan Poe was one of her ancestors and publishing photographs of her doing charity work to change her image to that of an all-American woman.

[66] After the hit Hold Your Man, MGM cast the Harlow-Gable team in two more successful films: China Seas (1935), with Wallace Beery and Rosalind Russell;[67] and Wife vs. Secretary (1936), with Myrna Loy and James Stewart.

"[69] Harlow was consistently voted one of the strongest box office draws in the United States from 1933 onward, often outranking her female colleagues at MGM in audience popularity polls.

The couple were reportedly engaged for two years,[70] but differences that ranged from past marriages to Powell's uncertainty about the future, kept them from publicly formalizing their relationship.

Afterwards the release of worldwide hit Libeled Lady (1936), in which she was top-billed over Powell, Loy, and Tracy, brought good reviews for Harlow's comedic performance.

[76] In January 1937, Harlow and Robert Taylor traveled to Washington, D.C., to take part in fundraising activities associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt's birthday, for the organization later known as the March of Dimes.

She requested that the assistant director telephone William Powell, who immediately left his own movie set, in order to escort her back home.

[93] When she did not return to set, a concerned Gable visited her and later remarked that she was severely bloated and that he smelled urine on her breath when he kissed her—both signs of kidney failure.

"[106] Harlow was interred in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale in a private room of multicolored marble, which William Powell bought for $25,000 (equivalent to approximately $529,861 in 2023[19] dollars).

[107] She was laid to rest in the pink negligee she'd worn in Saratoga and in her hands she had a white gardenia along with a note that Powell had written: "Goodnight, my dearest darling."

Twentieth Century-Fox had slated Jayne Mansfield for the role, and ideas for Columbia Pictures actress Cleo Moore to play Harlow were also tabled.

[134] In 2004, Gwen Stefani briefly appeared as Harlow at the red carpet premiere for Hell's Angels in Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator.