Jean Rogers, born Eleanor Dorothy Lovegren, was an American actress who starred in serial films in the 1930s and low–budget feature films in the 1940s as a leading lady. She is best remembered for playing Dale Arden in the science fiction serials Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars.
Jean Rogers, born Eleanor Dorothy Lovegren, was an American actress who starred in serial films in the 1930s and low–budget feature films in the 1940s as a leading lady. She is best remembered for playing Dale Arden in the science fiction serials Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars.
She graduated from Belmont High School, and had hoped to study art, but in 1933, she won a beauty contest sponsored by Paramount Pictures that led to her career in Hollywood. Rogers starred in several serials for Universal between 1935 and 1938, including Ace Drummond and Flash Gordon. Rogers was one of seven women chosen out of 2,700 passengers on excursion boats and ferries who were interviewed for roles in Eight Girls in a Boat. The group began work in Hollywood on September 3, 1933. By 1937, Rogers was the only one of the seven featured as an actress.
Rogers was assigned the role of Dale Arden in the first two Flash Gordon serials. Buster Crabbe and Rogers were cast as the hero and heroine in the first serial, Flash Gordon, and Rogers' beauty, long blonde hair, and revealing costumes endeared her to moviegoers. The evil ruler Ming the Merciless lusted after her, and Gordon was forced to rescue her from one situation after another. While filming the series in 1937, her costume caught fire and she suffered burns on her hands. Co-star Crabbe smothered the fire by wrapping a blanket on her.
In the first serial, Arden competed with Princess Aura for Gordon's attention. Rogers' character was fragile, small-chested, diminutive, and totally dependent on Gordon for her survival; Lawson's Princess Aura was domineering, independent, voluptuous, conniving, sly, ambitious, and determined to make Gordon her own. The competition for Gordon's attention is one of the highlights of the film. In Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars, the second serial, Rogers sported a totally different look. She had dark hair and wore the same modest costume in each episode. Rogers matured after the first serial, and no sexual overtones are seen in Trip to Mars. Rogers told writer Richard Lamparski that she was not eager to do the second serial and asked her studio to excuse her from the third.
Despite starring in serial films, Rogers felt she was not going to improve her career unless she could participate in feature films. She discovered that it was more tedious working in feature films. She played John Wayne's leading lady in the 1936 full-length motion picture Conflict and co-starred with Boris Karloff in the horror film Night Key the following year. During the 1940s, Rogers appeared solely in feature films, including The Man Who Wouldn't Talk with Lloyd Nolan, Viva Cisco Kid with Cesar Romero as the Cisco Kid, Design for Scandal with Rosalind Russell and Walter Pidgeon, Whistling in Brooklyn with Red Skelton, A Stranger in Town with Frank Morgan, Backlash, and Speed to Spare with Richard Arlen. Still, she was unhappy with the studios, possibly because she was relegated to B-movie productions on a lower salary. She decided to freelance with companies such as 20th Century Fox and MGM. Her last appearance was in a supporting role in the suspense film The Second Woman, made in 1950 by United Artists.
She died in Sherman Oaks in 1991 at the age of 74 following surgery. She was later cremated and her ashes returned to her family.
External links
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/nm0736939
Wikipedia: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q538222
Facebook: No data
Instagram: No data
X: No data
Filmography (Movies)
Spaceship to the Unknown
Character:Dale Arden (archive footage)
Release Date:01/01/1966
The Second Woman
Character:Dodo Ferris
Release Date:07/07/1950
Squadron of Doom
Character:Peggy Trainor
Release Date:15/12/1949
Fighting Back
Character:June Sanders
Release Date:30/07/1948
Speed to Spare
Character:Mary McGee
Release Date:14/05/1948
Backlash
Character:Catherine Morland
Release Date:01/03/1947
Hot Cargo
Character:Jerry Walters
Release Date:28/06/1946
Gay Blades
Character:Nancy Davis
Release Date:25/01/1946
Rough, Tough and Ready
Character:Jo Matheson
Release Date:22/03/1945
The Strange Mr. Gregory
Character:Ellen Randall
Release Date:12/01/1945
Whistling in Brooklyn
Character:Jean Pringle
Release Date:01/12/1943
Swing Shift Maisie
Character:Iris Reed
Release Date:01/10/1943
A Stranger in Town
Character:Lucy Gilbert
Release Date:01/04/1943
The War Against Mrs. Hadley
Character:Patricia Hadley
Release Date:07/08/1942
Pacific Rendezvous
Character:Elaine Carter
Release Date:21/05/1942
Sunday Punch
Character:Judy
Release Date:08/05/1942
Dr. Kildare's Victory
Character:Miss Annabelle Kirke
Release Date:04/02/1942
Personalities
Character:(uncredited)
Release Date:01/01/1942
Design for Scandal
Character:Dotty
Release Date:01/12/1941
Let's Make Music
Character:Abby Adams
Release Date:17/01/1941
Brigham Young
Character:Clara Young
Release Date:27/09/1940
Yesterday's Heroes
Character:
Release Date:20/09/1940
Viva Cisco Kid
Character:Joan Allen
Release Date:12/04/1940
Charlie Chan in Panama
Character:Kathi Lenesch
Release Date:01/03/1940
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk
Character:Alice Stetson
Release Date:11/01/1940
Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence
Character:Anita Santos
Release Date:03/11/1939
Stop, Look and Love
Character:Louise Haller
Release Date:22/09/1939
Hotel for Women
Character:Nancy Prescott
Release Date:03/08/1939
Inside Story
Character:June White
Release Date:10/03/1939
While New York Sleeps
Character:Judy King
Release Date:16/12/1938
Mars Attacks the World
Character:Dale Arden
Release Date:07/11/1938
Always in Trouble
Character:Virginia Darlington
Release Date:28/10/1938
Time Out for Murder
Character:Helen Thomas
Release Date:25/09/1938
Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars
Character:Dale Arden
Release Date:21/03/1938
Flash Gordon: The Deadly Ray From Mars
Character:Dale Arden
Release Date:21/03/1938
Rocket Ship
Character:Dale Arden
Release Date:05/03/1938
Reported Missing
Character:Jean Clayton
Release Date:15/08/1937
The Wildcatter
Character:Helen Conlon
Release Date:06/06/1937
Night Key
Character:Joan Mallory
Release Date:18/04/1937
Secret Agent X-9
Character:Shara Graustark
Release Date:12/04/1937
When Love Is Young
Character:Irene Henry
Release Date:26/03/1937
Mysterious Crossing
Character:Yvonne Fontaine
Release Date:27/12/1936
Conflict
Character:Maude Sangster
Release Date:29/11/1936
Ace Drummond
Character:Peggy Trainor
Release Date:18/10/1936
My Man Godfrey
Character:Socialite (uncredited)
Release Date:02/09/1936
Crash Donovan
Character:Blonde (uncredited)
Release Date:01/08/1936
Flash Gordon
Character:Dale Arden
Release Date:06/04/1936
The Adventures of Frank Merriwell
Character:Elsie Belwood
Release Date:13/01/1936
Fighting Youth
Character:Blonde Student
Release Date:01/11/1935
Stormy
Character:Kerry Dorn
Release Date:21/10/1935
Tailspin Tommy in The Great Air Mystery
Character:Betty Lou Barnes
Release Date:20/10/1935
His Night Out
Character:Information (uncredited)
Release Date:01/10/1935
Manhattan Moon
Character:Joan
Release Date:01/07/1935
Twenty Million Sweethearts
Character:Radio Fan (uncredited)
Release Date:26/05/1934
Stand Up and Cheer!
Character:Dancer
Release Date:04/05/1934
Images
