Shelley Winters dies

[brownie]

A major actress has gone away!

From the AP:

OSCAR WINNER SHELLEY WINTERS DIES AT 85

By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Shelley Winters, the forceful, outspoken star who graduated from blond bombshell parts to dramas, winning Academy Awards as supporting actress in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue," has died. She was 85.

Winters died of heart failure early Saturday at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She had been hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack.

The actress sustained her long career by repeatedly reinventing herself. Starting as a nightclub chorus girl, advanced to supporting roles in New York plays, then became famous as a Hollywood sexpot.

A devotee of the Actors Studio, she switched to serious roles as she matured. Her Oscars were for her portrayal of mothers. Still working well into her 70s, she had a recurring role as Roseanne's grandmother on the 1990s TV show "Roseanne."

"Shelley was idol of mine — and many — an extraordinary woman with powerful charisma, enormous talent and a keen, perceptive mind," said longtime friend and actress Connie Stevens.

In 1959's "The Diary of Anne Frank," she was Petronella Van Daan, mother of Peter Van Daan and one of eight real-life Jewish refugees in World War II Holland who hid for more than a year in cramped quarters until they were betrayed and sent to Nazi death camps. The socially conscious Winters donated her Oscar statuette to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

In 1965's "Patch of Blue," she portrayed a hateful, foul-mouthed mother who tries to keep her blind daughter, who is white, apart from the kind black man who has befriended her.

Ever vocal on social and political matters, Winters was a favored guest on television talk shows, and she demonstrated her frankness in two autobiographies: "Shelley, Also Known as Shirley" (1980) and "Shelley II: The Middle of My Century" (1989).

Winters wrote openly in them of her romances with Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and other leading men. She also said after she came to Hollywood in the mid-1940s she was roommates with another rising starlet — Marilyn Monroe.

"I've had it all," she exulted after her first book became a best seller. "I'm excited about the literary aspects of my career. My concentration is there now."

Typically Winters, she also had a complaint about her literary fame: While reviewers treated her book as a serious human document, she said, talk show hosts Phil Donohue and Johnny Carson "only want to know about my love affairs."

Winters, whose given name was Shirley Schrift, was appearing in the Broadway hit "Rosalinda" when Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn offered her a screen test. A Columbia contact and a new name — Shelley Winters — followed, but all the good roles at the studio were going to Jean Arthur in those days.

Winters' early films included such light fare as "Knickerbocker Holiday," "Sailor's Holiday," "Cover Girl," "Tonight and Every Night" and "Red River."

When her contract ended, Winters returned to New York as Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!"

She would soon be called back and signed to a seven-year contract at Universal, where she was transformed into a blonde bombshell. She vamped her way through a number of potboilers for the studio, including "South Sea Sinner," with Liberace as her dance-hall pianist, and "Frenchie," as wild saloon owner Frenchie Fontaine, out to avenge her father's murder.

The only hint of her future as an actress came in 1948's "A Double Life" as a trashy waitress strangled by a Shakespearian actor, Ronald Colman. The role won Colman an Oscar.

"A Place in the Sun" in 1951 brought her first Oscar nomination and established her as a serious actress. She desperately sought the role of the pregnant factory girl drowned by Montgomery Clift so he could marry Elizabeth Taylor. The director, George Stevens, rejected her at first for being too sexy.

"So I scrubbed off all my makeup, pulled my hair back and sat next to him at the Hollywood Athletic Club without his even recognizing me because I looked so plain. That got me the part," she recalled in a 1962 interview.

Winters received her final Oscar nomination, for 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure," in which she was one of a handful of passengers scrambling desperately to survive aboard an ocean liner turned upside down by a tidal wave. By then she had put on a good deal of weight, and following a scene in which her character must swim frantically she charmed audiences with the line: "In the water I'm a very skinny lady."

Although she was in demand as a character actress, Winters continued to study her craft. She attended Charles Laughton's Shakespeare classes and worked at the Actors Studio, both as student and teacher. She appeared on Broadway as the distraught wife of a drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain" and as the Marx Brothers' mother in "Minnie's Boys."

Among her other notable films: "Night of the Hunter," "Executive Suite," "I Am a Camera," "The Big Knife," "Odds Against Tomorrow," "The Young Savages," "Lolita," "The Chapman Report," "The Greatest Story Ever Told," "A House Is Not a Home," "Alfie," "Harper," "Pete's Dragon," "Stepping Out" and "Over the Brooklyn Bridge."

During her 50 years as a widely known personality, Winters was rarely out of the news. Her stormy marriages, her romances with famous stars, her forays into politics and feminist causes kept her name before the public. She delighted in giving provocative interviews and seemed to have an opinion on everything.

Robert Mitchum once told her: "Shelley, arguing with you is like trying to hold a conversation with a swarm of bumblebees."

The revelations in her autobiographies provided endless material for interviewers and gossip writers. She wrote of an enchanted evening when she and Burt Lancaster attended "South Pacific" in New York, dined elegantly, then retired to his hotel room.

"This chance meeting proved to be the beginning of a long but painful romance," she wrote. "Despite the immediate and powerful chemistry between us, the love and the friendship, some wise part of me knew that he would never abandon his children while they were young and needed him."

She also told of a dalliance with William Holden after a studio Christmas party. In a glamorous, real-life version of the play "Same Time, Next Year," they continued their annual Yuletide rendezvous for seven years.

She wrote that despite their intimacy, they continued to refer to each other as "Mr. Holden" and "Miss Winters," and when they met on the set of the 1981 film "S.O.B." she said, "Hello, Mr. Holden." He smiled and replied, "Shelley, after your book, I think you should call me Bill."

Shirley Schrift was born on Aug. 18, 1920, and grew up New York, where she appeared in high school plays.

"My childhood is a blur of memories," she wrote in the first of her autobiographies. "Money was so scarce in my family that at the age of 9 I was selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door.

"It was during this stage of my life that I developed a whole fantasy world; reality was too unbearable. Every chance I got, I was at the movies. I adored them."

Working as a chorus girl and garment district model helped finance her drama studies. She gained practical training by appearing in plays and musicals on the summer Borscht Circuit in the Catskill mountains.

During the Detroit run of a musical revue, she married businessman Paul "Mack" Mayer on Jan. 1, 1942. He entered the Army Air Corps, and after the war, the pair found they had little in common. They divorced in 1948.

Winters' second and third marriages were brief and tempestuous: to Vittorio Gassman (1952-1954) and Anthony Franciosa (1957-1960). The combination of a Jewish Brooklynite and Italian actors seemed destined to produce fireworks, and both unions resulted in headlines.

A daughter, Vittoria, resulted from the marriage to Gassman. She became a successful physician.

She was superb in so many films.

Some of favorites films with her 'A Place In The Sun', 'Night of the Hunter', 'Lolita' and so many more...

[J.A.W.]

A major actress has gone away!

She was superb in so many films.

Some of favorites films with her 'A Place In The Sun', 'Night of the Hunter', 'Lolita' and so many more...

Couldn't agree more!

Just heard the news on Dutch TV.

[catesta]

I remember her most from the Poseidon Avdenture.

R.I.P. , Ms. Winters.

[AllenLowe]

I thought she drowned in that boat accident (and I don't mean Poseidon Adventure) -

whiney bad method acting at its worst, I fear -

Edited January 14, 2006 by AllenLowe

[Stereojack]

I thought she was wonderful in "Alfie".

[Johnny E]

I thought she was wonderful in "Alfie".

I know what you mean. The chemistry she had with Jude Law was electric!

[Stereojack]

I thought she was wonderful in "Alfie".

I know what you mean. The chemistry she had with Jude Law was electric!

Oh yeah, there was a newer "Alfie". Never saw it. -_-

[Quincy]

Once strictly by coincidence I rented Red River, Winchester '73, Night Of The Hunter & A Place In The Sun all within the course of a few weeks. She made such an impression that I made a point of renting movies to see her in ones that we hadn't seen, such as Executive Suite and A Patch Of Blue, along with re-renting ones we had such as Lolita & Night of the Hunter. It'd be fun to see clips of her bawdy appearances on Johnny Carson, as I was too young and stupid at the time to know what a great actress she was. I hope they do a 5-10 minute piece about her on the Oscars. She deserves at least that.

[Jazzmoose]

whiney bad method acting at its worst, I fear -

Seeing as how my main memory of her is Wild in the Streets, I can't argue with you...

[BERIGAN]

Once strictly by coincidence I rented Red River, Winchester '73, Night Of The Hunter & A Place In The Sun all within the course of a few weeks. She made such an impression that I made a point of renting movies to see her in ones that we hadn't seen, such as Executive Suite and A Patch Of Blue, along with re-renting ones we had such as Lolita & Night of the Hunter. It'd be fun to see clips of her bawdy appearances on Johnny Carson, as I was too young and stupid at the time to know what a great actress she was. I hope they do a 5-10 minute piece about her on the Oscars. She deserves at least that.

I have seen Red River, Winchester '73, Night Of The Hunter, and she was quite different in all of them(and there is something really creepy about the Mom in Night of the Hunter) I think people tend to recall the last thing they see people in, and judge accordingly, and that's not fair. Even in something like The Poseidon Adventure( I know Gene Hackman likes to badmouth the film whenever he can) she is very believable for some reason. I guess because you can really sense her character's (and Shelly's) desire to make a difference, to still be relevant well into middle age.

I remember reading a few years back where people were going nuts over some oscar winner walking down the street, following her, and Shelly saying something to the effect of hey, I was nominated several times, I won an oscar as well, look at me!

And dream on about a nice Oscar tribute...they think it's swell to waste 3-4 hours of our live's with lame actors who have trouble reading lame jokes off of cue cards, lame musical numbers, and even lamer hosts, but quick, get thru the people who died as fast as you can...just show images, no sound....They're dead to hollywood now, in more ways than one. Don't show a clip Donald O'Connor running up a wall, show him mugging in a 10 second clip, that'll make someone young want to check out a Donald O'Connor film!

It's been a pet peeve of mine for many years the terrible "tributes" they do on the Oscar shows, in case you can't tell.

Rest in Peace Miss Winters.

Edited January 15, 2006 by BERIGAN

[MartyJazz]

I thought she was wonderful in "Alfie".

I know what you mean. The chemistry she had with Jude Law was electric!

Oh yeah, there was a newer "Alfie". Never saw it. -_-

The recent version wasn't bad - in fact, I liked the way they slightly changed the story to accommodate the social changes since the late '60s e.g., there's no need to do an illegal abortion now, so the challenge was to create an equally dramatic event that has a profound effect on the Alfie character. And they did come up with a good, convincing one. BUT even so, how do you improve upon Michael Caine in the lead with a Sonny Rollins soundtrack?!!!! Can't be done.

Back to Shelly Winters. As Alfie says in the original film, she was in "byoo..ful condition". When she looks Alfie in the eye in their final scene and says with such calm devastation, "He's younger than you are. Get it?", ...well, it knocks me out every time. Oh, I've only seen the film maybe 25 times.

[Swinger]

I've only seen her in one movie:

Stanley Kubrick's Lolita.

She was great!

[Randy Twizzle]

Unmentioned in the obits is Winter's part in spreading the story that Jerry Mathers of "Leave it to Beaver" fame was killed in Vietnam. Here's an excerpt from an online interview with Mathers in 1998:

Question: How did the rumor get started that you died in Vietnam?

BeavrCleav: I had given out an Emmy to Gene Kelly in uniform because I was

in the Air Force at the time. People saw me in uniform. They tell

me that the bureau chiefs of AP and UPI were scanning casualty lists

for their wire services. Someone saw the same name or a similar name pulled

my obituary file and ran it. Shelly Winters read it in the paper went on the Tonight Show,

announced it, and said Bring The Boys Home!

Because she said that we were killing the flower of American

youth. Tony Dow even sent flowers and a letter of condolence to my

family.

[7/4]

[Johnny E]

With Richardo Montalbon circa 1950

She was really good in A Place in the Sun as well. I love that movie.

Edited January 15, 2006 by Johnny E

[AllenLowe]

it's too bad she had to do those deoderant commercials -

[Jazzmoose]

(and there is something really creepy about the Mom in Night of the Hunter)

Well...there's something really creepy about that whole movie, if you ask me...

[Johnny E]

[Soul Stream]

uhh....I thought she had died 10 years ago. Dug the P. Adventure as a kid. Her swimming underwater is a sight I'll never forget, unfortunately. Oh, that dress....

[king ubu]

Jude Law?... Alfie?... hahahahahahahahaha... must be one of the most pointless remakes ever! There is, was and will be only one Alfie, for sure!

R.i.p. Shelley Winters.

[Kalo]

(and there is something really creepy about the Mom in Night of the Hunter)

Well...there's something really creepy about that whole movie, if you ask me...

It's supposed to be creepy. That shot of her underwater, dead in the submerged car, is one of the single most beautiful shots in all of American film, up there with the final close-up of Chaplin's face in City Lights.

Night of the Hunter is a true American classic (Robert Mitchum, Lillian Gish, those kids! And directed by Charles Laughton, channeling D.W. Griffith). Plus, Winters was in Lolita, as well. These two films alone make up for all the crappy flicks and buffoonish talk show appearances.

R.I.P. Shelley Winters.

[BruceH]

Night of the Hunter is a true American classic (Robert Mitchum, Lillian Gish, those kids! And directed by Charles Laughton, channeling D.W. Griffith). Plus, Winters was in Lolita, as well. These two films alone make up for all the crappy flicks and buffoonish talk show appearances.

R.I.P. Shelley Winters.

As well as her appearences in Winchester '73, He Ran All the Way, and A Palace In the Sun.