Jean Rogers

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.

Known For: Acting

Born: Belmont, Massachusetts, USA, 1916-03-25

Died: 1991-02-24

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1934	Stand Up and Cheer!	Dancer	49
2	1934	Twenty Million Sweethearts	Radio Fan (uncredited)	60
3	1935	Manhattan Moon	Joan	0
4	1935	His Night Out	Information (uncredited)	0
5	1935	Tailspin Tommy in The Great Air Mystery	Betty Lou Barnes	60
6	1935	Stormy	Kerry Dorn	0
7	1935	Fighting Youth	Blonde Student	70
8	1936	The Adventures of Frank Merriwell	Elsie Belwood	40
9	1936	Flash Gordon	Dale Arden	64
10	1936	Crash Donovan	Blonde (uncredited)	0
11	1936	My Man Godfrey	Socialite (uncredited)	75
12	1936	Ace Drummond	Peggy Trainor	65
13	1936	Conflict	Maude Sangster	20
14	1936	Mysterious Crossing	Yvonne Fontaine	0
15	1937	When Love Is Young	Irene Henry	0
16	1937	Secret Agent X-9	Shara Graustark	67
17	1937	Night Key	Joan Mallory	61
18	1937	The Wildcatter	Helen Conlon	0
19	1937	Reported Missing	Jean Clayton	0
20	1938	Rocket Ship	Dale Arden	48
21	1938	Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars	Dale Arden	62
22	1938	Flash Gordon: The Deadly Ray From Mars	Dale Arden	100
23	1938	Time Out for Murder	Helen Thomas	60
24	1938	Always in Trouble	Virginia Darlington	60
25	1938	Mars Attacks the World	Dale Arden	60
26	1938	While New York Sleeps	Judy King	0
27	1939	Inside Story	June White	0
28	1939	Hotel for Women	Nancy Prescott	60
29	1939	Stop, Look and Love	Louise Haller	50
30	1939	Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence	Anita Santos	63
31	1940	The Man Who Wouldn't Talk	Alice Stetson	40
32	1940	Charlie Chan in Panama	Kathi Lenesch (Baroness Kathi von Czardos)	68
33	1940	Viva Cisco Kid	Joan Allen	55
34	1940	Yesterday's Heroes		0
35	1940	Brigham Young	Clara Young	44
36	1941	Let's Make Music	Abby Adams	56
37	1941	Design for Scandal	Dotty	52
38	1942	Personalities	(uncredited)	0
39	1942	Dr. Kildare's Victory	Miss Annabelle Kirke	58
40	1942	Sunday Punch	Judy	50
41	1942	Pacific Rendezvous	Elaine Carter	60
42	1942	The War Against Mrs. Hadley	Patricia Hadley	52
43	1943	A Stranger in Town	Lucy Gilbert	61
44	1943	Swing Shift Maisie	Iris Reed	65
45	1943	Whistling in Brooklyn	Jean Pringle	63
46	1945	The Strange Mr. Gregory	Ellen Randall	51
47	1945	Rough, Tough and Ready	Jo Matheson	0
48	1946	Gay Blades	Nancy Davis	0
49	1946	Hot Cargo	Jerry Walters	0
50	1947	Backlash	Catherine Morland	49
51	1948	Speed to Spare	Mary McGee	50
52	1948	Fighting Back	June Sanders	60
53	1949	Squadron of Doom	Peggy Trainor	0
54	1950	The Second Woman	Dodo Ferris	56
55	1966	Spaceship to the Unknown	Dale Arden (archive footage)	60

Jean Rogers

Film

Television