I was always one step behind Marilyn. She made all the right moves, hung out with the right people who could advance her career. I was just the opposite. I was always breaking dates with moguls and running off with guys younger than myself.

Mamie Van Doren

I never wanted to be a trophy wife. I wanted to make it on my own. I didn't want to depend on a man.

Mamie Van Doren

I truly believe that one of the reasons why I look and feel so well is because I've very few inhibitions. I don't care about age. Life is too short to worry about what other people think.

Mamie Van Doren

I'm going to tell you something: it's a job to be glamorous. I mean, if you think it comes easy, it doesn't. Marilyn went through it; all the sex symbols go through it.

Mamie Van Doren

Being a sex symbol had its advantages. You got to meet a lot of interesting people, and men especially. It was a man's world in those days, and I had a lot of luck with men.

Mamie Van Doren

It is possible that blondes also prefer gentlemen.

Mamie Van Doren

My best asset is my brain. Without my brain, I don't think the rest of me would be too hot.

Mamie Van Doren

There's nothing worse than Hollywood when you're on the way down. It has a way of telling you, 'Mamie, get out. You've had it.'

Mamie Van Doren

The one mistake I will always kick myself for is not doing 'Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?' It was written for me.

Mamie Van Doren

I was always protective of Jayne. I never allowed people to talk about her behind her back because those same people would talk about me.

Mamie Van Doren

I met Chanel in the 1960s when I was working over in Europe. She sent me clothes all the time because I was only, like, 110.

Mamie Van Doren

I didn't feel like I was meant to be a nurse or a secretary.

Mamie Van Doren

I was groomed as a so-called sex symbol, a rival to Marilyn Monroe, and from then on, whenever my picture appeared in paper, it was 'sex kitten,' 'sex symbol,' 'sex goddess,' 'sex pot.' I've accepted it, and I'm flattered, but in some ways, it's been a hindrance to me because I haven't been able to be taken seriously as an actress.

Mamie Van Doren

I have never been a Marilyn Monroe wannabe. I have always been happy in my own skin!

Mamie Van Doren

I came to Hollywood determined to follow in Jean Harlow's footsteps, but I was determined not to die young. My hope was to endure. And endure I have.

Mamie Van Doren

Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and I were so different from each other. I was doing very young movies, and Marilyn, who was ahead of me, was doing a lot of homogenized movies that weren't quite as wild as the ones I was doing. Jayne was more of a character of herself.

Mamie Van Doren

I took my acting very seriously. I did over 40 films, and naturally, some of them were called B-movies because the woman was at the top of the billing. Women couldn't star in their own movies.

Mamie Van Doren

I studied really hard. But Hollywood never appreciated my talent.

Mamie Van Doren

It's such a shame that you were put in a category of a dumb blonde, but that's what they did in the '50s. You fought the system, but you didn't win.

Mamie Van Doren

The studios always had their idea of what I was, and they'd give me the dumb-blonde roles.

Mamie Van Doren

'Untamed Youth' was my favorite. I got to sing and dance and do my own gyrations.

Mamie Van Doren