A blonde bombshell , [ 2 ] [ 3 ] she is one of the "Three M's" [ 4 ] [ 5 ] along with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield , who were friends [ a ] and contemporaries. During her time at Universal, she starred in teen dramas, exploitation films, musical, and comedy films among other genres. She has married five times, and had intimate affairs with many other Hollywood actors. She was one of the leading sex symbols in the s. However, she left him to go back to Los Angeles. She starred on television shows such as What's My Line?
After Universal failed to renew her contract in , Van Doren struggled to find work as a free agent. Van Doren had previously refused Noonan's offer to star in Promises!
Van Doren went to Vietnam during the Vietnam War to entertain troops in the s. Partially due to the sudden deaths of Mansfield and Monroe, Van Doren decided to retire from acting. Van Doren continued her website until it shut down in the s. Olander and Bennett had met at a Swedish Lutherian Church, which had been partially built by them. They married in August In , Van Doren's parents moved to Sioux City, Iowa , since her father got a better job as a mechanic.
This led to a young Van Doren moving into her maternal grandparents - the Bennett's, acre farm in Rowena. Van Doren also recalls in her autobiography her first experience flying a plane on the ranch. Van Doren grew up sickly on the ranch. However, she was still brought to school when sick by her grandmother, who wanted only herself on the ranch. This removal left a small scar on Van Doren's face. In every one of those celluloid fairy tales, the heroine lived happily ever after in the company of the man she loved.
How I yearned for that. It was then that I set my heart on becoming a Hollywood star. Her family quickly moved to an apartment, as many people were moving to the West Coast for the war effort at the time for jobs such as defense plants. After staying at a boardinghouse, Van Doren and her family moved to an apartment on Raymond Avenue, where Van Doren, a child, had to sneak through a door.
