She was also a nightclub entertainer, a singer, and one of the early Playboy Playmates.
In the sexploitation film Promises! Her other major movie performances were for The Girl Can't Help It 1956 , The Wayward Bus 1957 , and Too Hot to Handle 1960.
She was a major Hollywood sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s and 20th Century Fox's main sex symbol actress, alongside Marilyn Monroe.
Bowen has also appeared in films such as Happy Gilmore 1996 , Multiplicity 1996 , Venus and Mars 2001 , Joe Somebody 2001 , Kids in America 2005 , Sex and Death 101 2007 , Crazy on the Outside 2010 , Jumping the Broom 2011 , and Horrible Bosses 2011.
In 1967, Mansfield was killed in a car crash at the age of 34, along with two others.
Mansfield's professional name came from her first husband, public relations professional Paul Mansfield.