Jean Peters and Howard Hughes had one of the most unusual marriages in Hollywood history. Peters was famously private about her eccentric billionaire husband, but their relationship was marked by isolation, strange living arrangements, and her husband’s declining mental health. Peters was born on a farm in East Canton, Ohio, and originally planned to become a teacher. While studying at Ohio State University, she entered a beauty pageant and won, with the top prize including a screen test with 20th Century Fox.
She dropped out of college and was signed to a seven-year contract with the studio. Her early film career got off to a rocky start. Peters refused her first assigned role, a part that would have required her to wear makeup and horn-rimmed glasses to look unattractive. Her second film, the romantic comedy “Scudda Hoo!
Scudda Hay! “, featured a young Marilyn Monroe in one line. The studio removed her from the farm girl role in that picture despite Peters having grown up on a farm. Her first major success came with “Captain from Castile” in 1947, co-starring Tyrone Power.
Although the film was a critical hit, it failed to turn a profit due to its massive budget. Peters soon made a decision that angered the studio: she declined to appear in the Western “Yellow Sky” with Gregory Peck because she felt the role was too sexy. Fox responded by suspending her briefly before offering her another part. While filming “Deep Waters,” Peters dealt with a persistent fan who harassed her and sought to marry her.
She finally got rid of him by telling him he would have to support her entire family. In 1946, Peters met Howard Hughes, the film tycoon and aviator. After they began dating, Hughes invited her to watch him test pilot his XF-11 plane. The outing turned disturbing when the aircraft crashed with Hughes inside.
Hughes later proposed, but Peters declined, saying she could not be both a wife and an actress. Her career gained momentum when she was named one of the year’s five best finds. Peters, however, demanded her character in an upcoming film be blonde and wanted her hair bleached. The studio refused.
Peters finally found roles she felt comfortable with in the early 1950s. In “Anne of the Indies,” she played a pirate, a part she loved largely because of the tight pants and loose open shirt she got to wear. She described her character as primitive and animal-like. It marked a turn toward gritty, unglamorous roles and away from Hollywood glamour.
She then appeared opposite Marlon Brando in “Viva Zapata,” playing the wife of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. Brando showed affection for Peters on set, once climbing a tree in the middle of the night to serenade her. Her next role, in “Lure of the Wilderness,” featured her wearing stitched-together rags as the daughter of a man hiding out in a swamp. Peters was later cast in the film noir “Niagara,” but when Marilyn Monroe joined the film, the dynamic shifted.
Due to Monroe’s fame, the movie was reworked so that Monroe had the leading role. Around the same time, both actresses were considered for “Pickup on South Street,” and Peters received the offer. Despite disliking glamorous parts, she accepted because her character was tough-talking, and Monroe helped her prepare for the role. Peters continued in noir films, including “Vicki” and “A Blueprint for Murder.
” One director gave her a part in “Vicki” because he called her one of the greatest sirens. In 1954, she returned to more grounded roles in “Apache,” where she played the wife of an Apache warrior alongside Burt Lancaster. To play Native American characters, both actors had their faces painted brown. In 1955, Peters appeared in “A Man Called Peter.
” After that, her interest in filmmaking faded, and she declined roles so often that she was suspended again. The film became her last feature movie. Around that time, Peters married Stuart Cramer, whose father coined the term “air conditioning. ” The marriage happened just weeks after they met, but ended a few months later.
A friend of Peters’ later said she could not forget Howard Hughes, and her memories of him had ruined the marriage. Hughes asked Peters to marry him again after her marriage ended, and this time she said yes. In May 1957, the couple wed in secret at a small chapel in Tonopah, Nevada. The marriage was unusual from the start.
Hughes wanted them to live in separate bungalows at a Beverly Hills hotel, not even sharing a building. Peters tolerated the arrangement for years before demanding they live under the same roof. Even then, Hughes insisted on entirely separate living quarters, including a separate kitchen. Hughes’ mental health was deteriorating around the time of the marriage.
He developed phobias about germs and contamination and began storing his own urine in jars. If Peters wanted to see him, she had to make an appointment through one of his assistants. Hughes also had his security people follow Peters wherever she went, and she had to contact his assistant for everyday matters like ordering meals, seeing doctors, and voting. There is a theory about why Hughes married Peters.
Before the marriage, his mental health was declining, and he feared that the CEO of his company might have him declared mentally incompetent and committed to an asylum. With a wife at his side, no one could do so without her permission. Despite their physical distance, the couple communicated by passing notes to each other. The notes were reportedly filled with declarations of love, along with graphic details about Hughes’ medical issues and enemas.
Peters kept an active life while married. She returned to college and studied sociology at UCLA. One thing she refused to do was speak publicly about her husband. She declined to discuss him despite intense media interest, possibly to protect him, though some wondered whether her silence was simply because she barely knew him.
No photographs of Peters and Hughes together are known to exist. In 1971, the couple divorced. Hughes was worth several billion dollars at the time, and Peters could have sought a massive settlement. Instead, she agreed to an annual payment of $70,000, the equivalent of about $540,000 in today’s currency.
That same year, Peters married Stan Hough, a vice president at 20th Century Fox who soon left the studio to become a producer. Speculation circulated that she might return to acting, and she chose a TV movie called “Winesburg, Ohio. ” Peters liked the chance to play an unglamorous character but found the finished project boring, including her own performance. She returned several years later in the star-studded TV miniseries “The Money Changers,” appearing alongside Kirk Douglas, Christopher Plummer, and Joan Collins.
She explained her turn to television by saying it seemed like fun. Peters later appeared in a few more programs, including the miniseries “Peter and Paul” opposite Anthony Hopkins and a guest spot on “Murder, She Wrote. ”
Peters’ second husband died in 1990. She died of leukemia on October 13, 2000, two days short of her 74th birthday.
She was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.