She was famous for only a short ten years, but the American Film Institute ranked her as one of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood, and Time Magazine listed her as one of the top 100 fashion icons of all time. She was saddled with a classic stage mother, but the love of her life was William Powell (“Asta’s dad” from the Thin Man series), and when Rin Tin Tin collapsed in the front yard of his home, it was her lap in which his head was cradled as he died. She was the Blonde Bombshell, instantly recognizable by her platinum blonde hair and pencil thin eyebrows, and she was a huge dog lover.  She, of course, was the “screen siren,” Jean Harlow.

Harlow died at the age of 26 in 1937 of renal failure brought on by acute nephritis, a complication of Scarlet Fever she’d had as a teenager, but for much of her adult life, she’d had dogs, including a Saint Bernard and a Dachshund. At the time of her passing, she loved a Pomeranian named “Oscar,” who, as the photo at the right shows, responded poorly to his mistress’ death.