In Remembrance: Shelley Winters

     Shelley Winters, the 1940s blond bombshell actress who would go on to be the first actress to win two Best Supporting Actress Academy Awards, has passed away on January 14, 2006 in Beverly Hills, California. She was 85.

     Born Shirley Shrift in East St. Louis, Illinois, most sources list Winters’ birth date as August 18, 1922, though in a 2004 interview with Variety’s Army Archer, she admitted that she had lied about her age to Columbia Pictures studio chief Harry Cohn when signed her to the studio and was actually born in 1920.

     Raised in Brooklyn, Winters began studying acting high school. After graduation, she worked as an entertainer in the Catskills, performed in shows off-Broadway and in vaudeville. It was while appearing in the Broadway show Rosalinda that Winters was spotted by studio head Cohn.

     After spending four years appearing in small, mostly-unbilled, bit parts, Winters got her first big break in director George Cukor’s A Double Life (1947), in which she played a waitress who is murdered by Ronald Coleman. Winters’ career soon took off and she found herself in a wide range of films such as the 1949 adaptation of The Great Gatsby, the film noir Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949) and the western Winchester `73 (1950).

     Though her rising career could be tied to her blond bombshell looks, Winters was determined to show she was more than just another pretty starlet. However, when Winters approached George Stevens about the role of Alice Tripp - the young factory who is allowed to drown by Montgomery Clift – in his upcoming A Place In The Sun (1951), the director turned her away saying she was too blond and pretty to play the character. Winters then managed to persuade Stevens to meet her at the Hollywood Athletic Club. Dying her hair brown and wearing a loose, gray coat, Stevens at first didn’t recognize the actress. When he finally did recognize Winters, he agreed to let her test for the role, which she won. Winters would receive her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her work in the film.

     Winters would go on to appear in 115 films over the course of her career including Executive Suite (1954), The Night Of The Hunter, The Big Knife (both 1955), Lolita (1962), Alfie (1966), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Cleopatra Jones (1973), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), Pete’s Dragon (1977) and The Delta Force (1986).

     Winters would win two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress- the first for The Diary of Ann Frank (1959) and the second for A Patch Of Blue (1965). She would receive another Supporting Actress nomination for Poseidon Adventure.

     Winters last film was the 1999 Italian comedy La Bomba.