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Article published in Dropline.biz on January 16, 2006 Shelley Winters Dies at 85 (1920-2006) By Gloria Muñoz (co-authored by Dino M. Zaffina)
Shelley Winters was born Shirley Shrift on August 18, 1920, in East St. Louis, Illinois. When Winters was still a child, she moved with her family to Brooklyn, where her father worked as a tailor’s assistant. The Shrift family was living on a very low income, so Winters began selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door at only 9 years of age. Her ambitious business drive led her to work as a sales clerk and a model in the Manhattan garment district. Winters began acting in high school plays. A love for the movies and stage led her to extensive drama studies at the Actors Studio in New York. She gained experience on the summer Borscht Circuit in the Catskills’ mountains by appearing in musicals and plays. Being a beautiful blond bombshell provided Winters with the assets to acquire a job as a chorus girl in different nightclubs. She continued to be persistent which created opportunities in Broadway and off-Broadway plays and movies in Hollywood, California. In 1942, Winters was discovered by Columbia Pictures executive, Harry Cohn. Cohn brought Winters out to Hollywood to play in many notable films. Although the next five years only provided Winters with minor roles, she knew that her Brooklyn street-wise ability would eventually lead her to starring roles. Her dreams came true in 1948 in the film A Double Life, where she played the mistress of Ronald Colman. This appeared to be Winters break-through role which put her on the Hollywood map. Only three years later, Winters was nominated for an Oscar for her role as “Alice Tripp” in the 1951 film A Place in the Sun. Alice accidentally drowned when the boat capsizes while she’s out on a lake with Montgomery Clift. He had been planning to kill her, because of the unwanted pregnancy and interference with his future marriage to Elizabeth Taylor, but hadn’t decided whether or not to go through with it when fate took the decision out of his hands. In 1959, Shelley Winters won that long awaited Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her dramatic role as “Petronella Van Daan” in the film The Diary of Anne Frank. Petronella was the mother of Peter Van Daan. They were a small group of Jewish refugees who were hiding from the Nazis until they were later discovered and imprisoned in death camps. It was reported that Winters gave her Oscar to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. In 1965, Winters won her second Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Patch of Blue, playing the racist, foul-mouthed, violent mother of a blind Caucasian girl who has been socializing with a black man. Seven years later, Winters received her final Oscar nomination, for her role of Belle Rosen in the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure. Winters gained a lot of weight for this role and unfortunately was never able to lose it. She played a former Olympic Swimmer who was trapped in a capsized ocean liner. Her character dies of a heart attack after rescuing Gene Hackman’s character from being trapped underwater. Winters was married three times and had one child. She married to Paul Mayer, Italian actor Vittorio Gassman, and actor Anthony Franciosa. Her daughter Vittoria was fathered by Gassman. Shelley Winters had an illustrious career in Hollywood that spanned from 1943 to 1999. A list of Winters credits and notable characters are as follows: 1943 – What a Woman! – Secretary 1944 – The Racket Man – Featured Role 1944 – Sailor’s Holiday – Gloria Flynn 1944 – Knickerbocker Holiday – Ulda Tienhoven 1944 – Cover Girl – Girl 1944 – She’s a Soldier Too – ‘Silver’ Ranki 1944 – Together Again – Young Woman 1945 – Tonight and Every Night – Bubbles 1945 – Dancing in Manhattan – Margie 1945 – Escape in the Fog – Taxi Driver 1945 – A Thousand and One Nights – Handmaiden 1946 – The Fighting Guardsman – Nanette 1946 – Two Smart People – Princess 1947 – New Orleans – Miss Holmbright 1947 – Living in a Big Way – Junior League Girl 1947 – The Gangster – Hazel 1947 – A Double Life – Pat Kroll 1947 – Killer McCoy – Autograph hound 1948 – Red River – Dance Hall Girl in Wagon Train 1948 – Larceny – Tory 1948 – Cry of the City – Brenda Martingale 1949 – Take One False Step – Catherine Sykes 1949 – The Great Gatsby – Myrtle Wilson 1949 – Johnny Stool Pigeon – Terry Stewart 1950 – Winchester ’73 – Lola Manners 1950 – South Sea Sinner – Coral 1950 – Frenchie – Frenchie Fontaine 1951 – The Raging Tide – Connie Thatcher 1951 – He Ran All the Way – Peggy Dobbs 1951 – A Place in the Sun – Alice Tripp 1951 – Behave Yourself! – Kate Denny 1952 – Phone Call from a Stranger – Bianca Carr 1952 – Meet Danny Wilson – Joy Carroll 1952 – Untamed Frontier – Jane Stevens 1952 – My Man and I – Nancy 1954 – To Dorothy a Son – Myrtle La Mar 1954 – Tennessee Champ – Sarah Wurble 1954 – Saskatchewan – Grace Markey 1954 – Executive Suite – Eva Bardema 1954 – Mambo – Toni Salerno 1955 – I Am a Camera – Natalia Landauer 1955 – The Night of the Hunter – Willa Harper 1955 – The Treasure of Pancho Villa – Ruth Harris 1955 – The Big Knife – Dixie Evans 1955 – I Died a Thousand Times – Marie Gibson 1959 – The Diary of Anne Frank – Mrs. Petronella Van Daan 1959 – Odds Against Tomorrow – Lorry 1960 – Let No Man Write My Epitaph – Nellie Romano 1961 – The Young Savages – Mary di Pace 1962 – Lolita – Charlotte Haze/Humbert 1962 – The Chapman Report – Sarah Garnell 1963 – Wipe-out 1963 – The Balcony – Madame Irma 1963 – Wives and Lovers – Fran Cabrell 1964 – Gli Indifferenti – Lisa... 1964 – A House Is Not a Home – Polly Adler 1965 – The Greates Story Ever Told – Healed Woman 1965 – A Patch of Blue – Rose-Ann D'Arcy 1966 – The Three Sister – Natalya 1966 – Harper – Fay Estabrook 1966 – Alfie – Ruby 1967 – Entering Laughing – Mrs. Emma Kolowitz 1968 – The Scalphunters – Kate 1968 – Wild in the Streets – Mrs. Daphne Flatow 1968 – Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell – Shirley Newman 1969 – Arthur! Arthur! 1969 – The Mad Room – Mrs. Armstrong 1970 – Bloody Mama – Kate ‘Ma’ Barker 1970 – How Do I Love Thee? – Lena Mervin 1970 – Flap – Dorothy Bluebell... 1971 – Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? – Rosie Forrest 1971 – What’s the Matter with Helen? – Helen Hill 1971 – Revenge – Amanda Hilton 1971 – A Death of Innocence – Elizabeth Cameron 1972 – Something to Hide – Gabriella 1972 – Adventures of Nick Carter – Bess Tucker 1972 – The Poseidon Adventure – Belle Rosen 1973 – The Devil’s Daughter – Lilith Malone 1973 – Blume in Love – Mrs. Cramer 1973 – Cleopatra Jones – Mommy1974 – Big Rose: Double Trouble – Rose Winters 1974 – The Sex Symbol – Agatha Murphy 1975 – Poor Pretty Eddy – Bertha 1975 – Journey Into Fear – Mrs. Mathews 1975 – That Lucky Touch – Diana Steedeman 1976 – La Dahlia Scarlatta 1976 – Next Stop, Greenwich Village – Fay Lapinsky 1976 – Le Locataire – The Concierge 1976 – Frosty’s Winter Wonderland – Crystal 1977 – Mimi Bluette fiore del mio giardino – Caterina 1977 – Gran Bollito – Lea 1977 – Un Borghese piccolo piccolo – Amalia Vivaldi 1977 – Pete’s Dragon – Lena Gogan 1978 – King of the Gypsies – Queen Rachel 1978 – The Initiation of Sarah – Mrs. Erica Hunter 1979 – Elvis – Gladys Presley 1979 – The Visitor – Jane Phillips 1979 – City on Fire – Nurse Andrea Harper 1979 – Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July – Crystal 1979 – The Magician of Lublin – Elizbieta 1979 – The French Atlantic Affair – Helen Wabash 1981 – S.O.B. – Eva Brown 1981 – Looping – Der lange Traum vom kurzen Glück – Carmen 1983 – Emma and Grandpa on the Farm – The Narrator 1983 – Fanny Hill – Mrs. Cole 1984 – Ellie – Cora Mae Jackson 1984 – Over the Brooklyn Bridge – Becky 1985 – Déjà vu – Olga Nabokova 1985 – Alice in Wonderland – Dodo Bird 1986 – Withchfire – Lydia 1986 – Very Close Quarters – Galina 1986 – The Delta Force – Edie Kaplan 1988 – Purple People Eater – Rita 1989 – An Unremarkable Life 1990 – Touch of a Stranger 1991 – Stepping Out – Mrs. Fraser 1992 – Weep No More, My Lady – Vivian Morgan 1993 – The Pickle – Yetta 1994 – Il Silenzio dei proscuitto – Mrs. Motel 1995 – Heavy – Dolly Modino 1995 – Backfire! – The Good Lieutenant 1995 – Jury Duty – Mrs. Collins 1995 – Mrs. Munck – Aunt Monica 1995 – Raging Angels – Grandma Ruth1996 – The Portrait of a Lady – Mrs. Touchett 1999 – Gideon – Mrs. Willows 1999 – La Bomba – Professor Summers _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
Articles Written or Co-Authored by Dino M. Zaffina |
© 2022 Dino M. Zaffina. All rights reserved.
Two-time Oscar winner dies at age 85 at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills due to heart failure.Winters had been hospitalized in October 2005 after suffering a heart attack.