Prolific actress who became the most famous wartime pin-up girl

The image of Betty Grable in her bathing suit still remains one of the most iconic photographs of 20th century film - 35 years after her death on 2 July, 1973, aged 56.

Thousands of American soldiers treasured the picture of the glamorous Hollywood star ensuring her place as the World War Two forces’ favourite pin-up girl.

Not only did she enjoy one of pre and post-war cinema’s most successful careers, but by the 1940s she was the highest-paid female star in Hollywood .

She will be remembered by audiences as much for her singing and acting prowess as her shapely legs which were famously insured for $1million each.

Born Elizabeth Ruth Grable in Missouri, America on 18 December, 1916, she was the third child of parents who would produce a family of two daughters and eight sons.

Ms Grable’s mother is believed to have been the driving force behind the start of her career, determined one of her two daughters would become a star.

A part as a chorus girl in Happy Days in 1929 at the age of 13 saw Ms Grable’s first - yet illegal underage - role on the big screen which she got away with as her ‘blackface’ makeup did not betray her young age.

A subsequent role secured with false identification procured by her mother led to the child star being fired before finally landing a part as a Goldwyn Girl in Whoopee in 1930.

The 1930s brought work at different studios including a role in the Academy Award-nominated The Gay Divorcee in 1934 with screen legends Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Her marriage in 1937 to fellow child actor Jackie Coogan was unable to withstand external pressures and ended three years later but not before Ms Grable stole her own slice of fame in the Broadway hit Dubarry Was a Lady in 1939.

As her marriage ended in divorce she landed a contract with 20th Century Fox which was to make her the company’s biggest star during the 40s with a succession of films in glorious technicolor.

No other actress could compete for her crown of queen of the box office at which she held a top ten box rating for a decade fighting off competition from the likes of Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Lamour, Veronica Lake and Lana Turner.

It was at the height of her popularity that she posed for the photograph that was to bring smiles to the faces of serving American soldiers and was later included in LIFE Magazine’s 100 Photos that Changed the World.

Her postwar career was prolific and involved roles in musicals such as When My Baby Smiles At Me in 1948 and My Blue Heaven in 1950. Ms Grable, who remarried jazz trumpeter Harry James in 1943, made almost 25 films in 13 years.

But it was her impressive catalogue of work that would leave the star on the brink of exhaustion and embroiled in feuds with over zealous studio bosses.

The actress who famously said of herself: “I’m strictly an enlisted man’s girl”, continued to perform on television and in nightclubs until the late 1950s retiring from the spotlight before being diagnosed with lung cancer in 1972. She lost her fight against the disease within a year.