Shelley Winters

Shelley Winters
Winters in a studio publicity photo c. 1951
Born	Shirley Schrift (1920-08-18)August 18, 1920 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died	January 14, 2006(2006-01-14) (aged 85) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart failure
Resting place	Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, Culver City, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	The New School
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1943–2006
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	Mack Paul Mayer ​ ​ (m. 1942; div. 1948)​ Vittorio Gassman ​ ​ (m. 1952; div. 1954)​ Anthony Franciosa ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1960)​ Gerry DeFord ​ ​ (m. 2006)​
Children	1

Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned five decades.

She appeared in numerous films, and won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and received nominations for A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Other roles Winters appeared in include A Double Life (1947), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Lolita (1962), Alfie (1966), and Pete's Dragon (1977).

In addition to film, Winters also appeared in television, including a years-long tenure on the sitcom Roseanne, and also authored three autobiographical books.

Early life

Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Rose (née Winter), a singer with the Muny, and Jonas Schrift, a designer of men's clothing. Her parents were Jewish; her father emigrated from Austria, and her mother was born in St. Louis to Austrian immigrants. Her parents were third cousins.

Her family moved to Brooklyn, New York, when she was 9 years old, and she grew up partly in Queens, New York, as well. As a young woman, she worked as a model. Her sister Blanche Schrift later married George Boroff, who ran the Circle Theatre (now named El Centro Theatre) in Los Angeles. At age 16, Winters relocated to Los Angeles, California, and later returned to New York to study acting at the New School.

Career

Early work; breakthrough

Winters originally broke into Hollywood films as a Blonde Bombshell type, but quickly tired of the role's limitations. She claims to have washed off her makeup to audition for the role of Alice Tripp, the factory girl, in A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens, which is still a landmark American film. As the Associated Press reported, the general public was unaware of how serious a craftswoman Winters was. "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 studied in the Hollywood Studio Club, and in the late 1940s, she shared an apartment with another newcomer, Marilyn Monroe.

Her first film appearance was in What a Woman! (1943). Working in films (in mostly bit roles) through the 1940s, Winters first achieved stardom with her breakout performance as the victim of insane actor Ronald Colman in George Cukor's A Double Life, in 1947. She quickly ascended in Hollywood with leading roles in The Great Gatsby (1949) with Alan Ladd, and in Winchester 73 (1950), opposite James Stewart. Her performance in A Place in the Sun (1951), a departure from the sexpot image that her studio, Universal Pictures, was grooming her for at the time, brought Winters her first acclaim, earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

With James Stewart in Winchester 73 (1950)

Throughout the 1950s, Winters continued in films, including Meet Danny Wilson (1952) as Frank Sinatra's leading lady, notably in Charles Laughton's 1955 Night of the Hunter with Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish, and the less successful I Am a Camera starring opposite Julie Harris and Laurence Harvey. She also returned to the stage on various occasions during this time, including a Broadway run in A Hatful of Rain, in 1955–1956, opposite future husband Anthony Franciosa. She won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for The Diary of Anne Frank in 1960, and another, in the same category, for A Patch of Blue in 1966. She donated her Oscar for The Diary of Anne Frank to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Notable later roles included her lauded performance as the man-hungry Charlotte Haze in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita; starring opposite Michael Caine in Alfie; and as the fading, alcoholic former starlet Fay Estabrook in Harper (both 1966). In The Poseidon Adventure (1972), she was the ill-fated Belle Rosen (for which she received her final Oscar nomination), and also appeared in Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976). She returned to the stage during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana. She appeared in such cult films as 1968's Wild in the Streets and 1971's Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?. She also starred in the 1970 Broadway musical Minnie's Boys as Minnie Marx, the mother of Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo Marx.

Later career

As the Associated Press reported, "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." That led to a second career as a writer. Though not a conventional beauty, she claimed that her acting, wit, and "chutzpah" gave her a love life to rival Monroe's. Her alleged "conquests" included William Holden, Sean Connery, Burt Lancaster, Errol Flynn, and Marlon Brando.

Winters made an appearance at the 1998 Academy Awards telecast, which featured a tribute to Oscar winners past and present including Gregory Peck, Claire Trevor, Jennifer Jones, and Luise Rainer.

Later audiences knew her primarily for her autobiographies and for her television work, in which she usually played a humorous parody of her public persona. In a recurring role in the 1990s, Winters played the title character's grandmother on the ABC sitcom Roseanne. Her final film roles were supporting ones: she played a restaurant owner and mother of an overweight cook in Heavy (1995) with Liv Tyler and Debbie Harry, an aristocrat in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich, and an embittered nursing home administrator in 1999's Gideon.

Personal life

Winters in publicity photo, circa 1950

Winters was married four times. Her husbands were:

• Captain Mack Paul Mayer, whom she married on December 29, 1942 in Brooklyn; they divorced in October 1948. Mayer was unable to deal with Shelley's "Hollywood lifestyle" and wanted a "traditional homemaker" for a wife. Winters wore his wedding ring up until her death, and kept their relationship very private.
• Vittorio Gassman, whom she married on April 28, 1952 in Juarez, Mexico; they divorced on June 2, 1954. They had one child: Vittoria, born February 14, 1953, a physician who practices internal medicine at Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut. She was Winters' only child.
• Anthony Franciosa, whom she married on May 4, 1957; they divorced on November 18, 1960.
• Gerry DeFord, whom she married on January 14, 2006.

Hours before her death, Winters married long-time companion Gerry DeFord, with whom she had lived for 19 years. Though Winters' daughter objected to the marriage, the actress Sally Kirkland performed the wedding ceremony for the two at Winters' deathbed. Kirkland, a minister of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, also performed non-denominational last rites for Winters.

Winters also claims to have had a romance with Farley Granger that became a long-term friendship (according to her autobiography Shelley Also Known As Shirley). She starred with him in the 1951 film Behave Yourself!, as well as in a 1957 television production of A. J. Cronin's novel Beyond This Place.

Winters was a Democrat and attended the 1960 Democratic National Convention. In 1965, she addressed the Selma marchers briefly outside Montgomery on the night before they marched into the state capitol.

She became friendly with rock singer Janis Joplin shortly before Joplin died in 1970. Winters invited Joplin to sit in on a class session at the Actors' Studio at its Los Angeles location. Joplin never did.

Death

Winters died at the age of 85 on January 14, 2006, of heart failure at the Rehabilitation Center of Beverly Hills; she had suffered a heart attack on October 14, 2005. Her body was interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City. Her third former husband, Anthony Franciosa, had a stroke on the day she died and died five days later.

Filmography

Uncredited in Tonight and Every Night (1945), Winters is behind Rita Hayworth.

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1943	There's Something About a Soldier	Norma	Uncredited
1943	What a Woman!	Secretary	Uncredited
1944	Sailor's Holiday	Gloria Flynn	Credited as Shelley Winter
1944	Knickerbocker Holiday	Ulda Tienhoven	Credited as Shelley Winter
1944	Cover Girl	Chorus Girl	Uncredited
1944	She's a Sailor Too	'Silver' Rankin	Uncredited
1944	Dancing in Manhattan	Margie	Uncredited
1944	Together Again	Young Woman Fleeing Nightclub Raid	Uncredited
1945	Tonight and Every Night	Bubbles	Uncredited
1945	Escape in the Fog	Taxi Driver	Uncredited
1945	A Thousand and One Nights	Handmaiden	Uncredited
1946	The Fighting Guardsman	Nanette	Uncredited
1946	Two Smart People	Princess	Uncredited
1946	Susie Steps Out	Female Singer
1946	Abie's Irish Rose	Bridesmaid	Uncredited
1947	New Orleans	Ms. Holmbright	Uncredited
1947	Living in a Big Way	Junior League Girl	Uncredited
1947	The Gangster	Hazel - Cashier	Uncredited
1947	Killer McCoy	Waitress / Autograph Hound	Uncredited
1947	A Double Life	Pat Kroll
1948	Red River	Dance Hall Girl in Wagon Train	Uncredited
1948	Larceny	Tony
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	A Place in the Sun	Alice Tripp	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (2nd place) Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1951	He Ran All the Way	Peggy Dobbs
1951	Behave Yourself!	Kate Denny
1951	The Raging Tide	Connie Thatcher
1951	Meet Danny Wilson	Joy Carroll
1952	Phone Call from a Stranger	Binky Gay
1952	Untamed Frontier	Jane Stevens
1952	My Man and I	Nancy
1954	Tennessee Champ	Sarah Wurble
1954	Saskatchewan	Grace Markey
1954	Executive Suite	Eva Bardeman	Venice Film Festival Special Prize for Ensemble Acting
1954	Playgirl	Fran Davis
1954	Mambo	Toni Salermo
1954	To Dorothy a Son	Myrtle La Mar
1955	I Am a Camera	Natalia Landauer
1955	The Night of the Hunter	Willa Harper
1955	The Big Knife	Dixie Evans	Credited as Miss Shelley Winters
1955	The Treasure of Pancho Villa	Ruth Harris
1955	I Died a Thousand Times	Marie Garson
1959	The Diary of Anne Frank	Mrs. Petronella Van Daan	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1959	Odds Against Tomorrow	Lorry
1960	Let No Man Write My Epitaph	Nellie Romano
1961	The Young Savages	Mary diPace
1962	Lolita	Charlotte Haze	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1962	The Chapman Report	Sarah Garnell
1963	The Balcony	Madame Irma
1963	Wives and Lovers	Fran Cabrell
1964	A House Is Not a Home	Polly Adler
1964	Time of Indifference	Lisa
1965	The Greatest Story Ever Told	Healed Woman
1965	A Patch of Blue	Rose-Ann D'Arcey	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance
1966	Harper	Fay Estabrook
1966	Alfie	Ruby	Laurel Award for Top Female Supporting Performance (2nd place) Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1966	The Three Sisters	Natalya
1967	Enter Laughing	Mrs. Emma Kolowitz
1968	The Scalphunters	Kate
1968	Wild in the Streets	Mrs. Daphne Flatow
1968	Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell	Shirley Newman
1969	The Mad Room	Mrs. Armstrong
1969	Arthur? Arthur!	Hester Green
1970	Bloody Mama	'Ma' Kate Barker
1970	How Do I Love Thee?	Lena Marvin
1970	Flap	Dorothy Bluebell
1971	What's the Matter with Helen?	Helen
1971	Revenge	Amanda Hilton
1971	A Death of Innocence	Elizabeth Cameron	Television film
1972	Something to Hide	Gabriella
1972	Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?	Mrs. Forrest
1972	The Poseidon Adventure	Belle Rosen	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1972	Adventures of Nick Carter	Bess Tucker	Television film
1973	The Devil's Daughter	Lilith Malone	Television film
1973	Blume in Love	Mrs. Cramer
1973	Cleopatra Jones	Mommy
1973	The Stone Killer	Drunk Woman in Police Station	Uncredited
1974	Big Rose: Double Trouble	Rose Winters	Television film
1974	The Sex Symbol	Agathy Murphy	Television film
1975	Poor Pretty Eddie	Bertha
1975	That Lucky Touch	Diana Steedeman
1975	Journey Into Fear	Mrs. Mathews
1975	Diamonds	Zelda Shapiro
1976	Next Stop, Greenwich Village	Faye Lapinsky	Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1976	The Tenant	The Concierge
1976	Mimì Bluette... fiore del mio giardino	Caterina
1976	La dahlia scarlatta
1976	Frosty's Winter Wonderland	Crystal (voice)	Television film
1977	Tentacles	Tillie Turner
1977	An Average Little Man	Amalia Vivaldi	David di Donatello Special Distinction Award
1977	Pete's Dragon	Lena Gogan
1977	Black Journal	Lea
1978	King of the Gypsies	Queen Rachel
1978	The Initiation of Sarah	Mrs. Erica Hunter	Television film
1979	The French Atlantic Affair	Helen Wabash
1979	Elvis	Gladys Presley	Television film
1979	The Visitor	Jane Phillips
1979	City on Fire	Nurse Andrea Harper
1979	Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July	Crystal (voice)	Television film
1979	The Magician of Lublin	Elzbieta
1981	S.O.B.	Eva Brown
1981	Looping	Carmen
1983	Parade of Stars	Sophie Tucker	Television film
1983	Fanny Hill	Mrs. Cole
1984	Over the Brooklyn Bridge	Becky
1984	Ellie	Cora Jackson
1985	Déjà Vu	Olga Nabokova
1985	Alice in Wonderland	The Dodo Bird	Television film
1986	The Delta Force	Edie Kaplan
1986	Witchfire	Lydia
1986	Very Close Quarters	Galina
1987	The Sleeping Beauty	Fairy	Television film
1988	Purple People Eater	Rita
1989	An Unremarkable Life	Evelyn McEllany
1990	Touch of a Stranger
1991	Stepping Out	Mrs. Fraser
1992	Weep No More, My Lady	Vivian Morgan
1993	The Pickle	Yetta
1994	The Silence of the Hams	Mrs. Motel
1995	Heavy	Dolly Modino
1995	Backfire!	The Good Lieutenant
1995	Jury Duty	Mom
1995	Mrs. Munck	Aunt Monica
1995	Raging Angels	Grandma Ruth
1996	The Portrait of a Lady	Mrs. Touchett
1998	Gideon	Mrs. Willows
1999	La bomba	Prof. Summers
2006	A-List	Herself

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	The Ford Television Theatre	Sally Marland	Episode: "Mantrap"
1955	Producers' Showcase	Crystal Allen	Episode: "The Women"
1957	The Alcoa Hour	Pat Kroll	Episode: "A Double Life"
1957	The United States Steel Hour	Evvie	Episode: "Inspired Alibi"
1957	Wagon Train	Ruth Owens	Episode: "The Ruth Owens Story"
1957	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Mildred Corrigan	Episode: "Smarty"
1957	DuPont Show of the Month	Louisa Burt	Episode: "Beyond This Place"
1960	Play of the Week	Rose	Episode: A Piece of Blue Sky
1962	Alcoa Premiere	Meg Fletcher Millie Norman	Episode: "The Way From Darkness" Episode: "The Cake Baker"
1964	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Jenny Dworak	Episode: "Two is the Number" Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
1965	Thirty-Minute Theatre	Mrs. Bixby	Episode: "Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat"
1965	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Edith	Episode: "Back to Back" Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Drama
1966	Batman	Ma Parker	Episode: "The Greatest Mother of Them All" Episode: "Ma Parker"
1967	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Clarry Golden	Episode: "Wipeout"
1968	Here's Lucy	Shelley Summers	Episode: "Lucy and Miss Shelley Winters"
1974	McCloud	Thelma	Episode: "The Barefoot Girls of Bleecker Street" Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Comedy or Drama Series
1975	Chico and the Man	Shirley Schrift	Episode: "Ed Steps Out"
1978	Kojak	Evelyn McNeil	Episode: "The Captain's Brother's Wife"
1979	Vega$	J.D. Fenton	Episode: "Macho Murders"
1982	The Love Boat	Teresa Rosselli	Episode: "Venetian Love Song/Down for the Count/Arrividerci, Gopher/The Arrangement"
1984	Hotel	Adele Ellsworth	Episode: "Trials"
1984	Hawaiian Heat	Florence Senkowski	Episode: "Andy's Mom"
1991–1996	Roseanne	Nana Mary	10 episodes

Theater

• Of V We Sing (between 1939 and 1941) (Off-Broadway)
• The Time of Your Life (between 1939 and 1941) (understudy for Judy Haydon) (Broadway)
• Meet The People (1939?) (U.S. Touring Company)
• The Night Before Christmas (1941) (Broadway)
• Rosalinda (1942) (Broadway)
• Conquered in April (between 1942 and 1946) (Broadway)
• Oklahoma! (replacement for Celeste Holm 1947) (Broadway)
• A Hatful of Rain (1955) (Broadway)
• Girls of Summer (1956) (Broadway and Summer stock)
• Invitation to March (1960) (Boston)
• The Night of the Iguana (1962) (replacement for Bette Davis) (Broadway)
• Under the Weather (1966) (Broadway)
• LUV (1967) (Broadway)
• One Night Stands of a Noisy Passenger (1970) (writer) (Off-Broadway)
• Minnie's Boys (1970) (Broadway)
• The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1973–74) (Broadway)
• Cages(1974) (Philadelphia, PA)
• Kennedy's Children (1976) (Chicago)
• The Gingerbread Lady (1981) (Chicago)
• Natural Affection (unknown)

Summer Stock plays

• The Taming of the Shrew (1947)
• Born Yesterday (1950)
• Wedding Breakfast (1955)
• A Piece of Blue Sky (1959)
• Two for the Seasaw (1960)
• The Country Girl (1961)
• A View from the Bridge (1961)
• Days of the Dancing (1964)
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1965)
• 84 Charing Cross Road (1983)

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1953	Lux Radio Theatre	Phone Call from a Stranger

Books

• Winters, Shelley (1980). Shelley: Also known as Shirley. Morrow. ISBN 978-0-688-03638-6.
• Winters, Shelley (1989). Shelley II: The Middle of My Century. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-44210-4.
• Shelley: The Middle of My Century (audiobook; audio cassette)

Further reading

• Shelley Winters at TVGuide.com
• Bernstein, Adam (January 14, 2006). "Actress Shelley Winters Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
• Harmetz, Aljean (January 15, 2006). "Shelley Winters, Winner of Two Oscars, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
• Bernstein, Adam (January 15, 2006). "Actress Shelley Winters, 85; Blond Bombshell to Oscar Winner". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
• "Oscar winner Shelley Winters dies at 85". The Boston Globe. January 15, 2006.
• Winters' Entry on the St. Louis Walk of Fame
• Shelley Winters in an exclusive interview about acting

External links

• Shelley Winters at the University of Wisconsin's Actors Studio audio collection
• Shelley Winters at the Internet Broadway Database
• Shelley Winters at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Shelley Winters at IMDb
• Shelley Winters at the TCM Movie Database