Today is the 100th birthday of the actor Shelley Winters. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.
NAME: Shelley Winters
DATE OF BIRTH: 18-Aug-1920
PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Louis, MO
DATE OF DEATH: 14-Jan-2006
PLACE OF DEATH: Beverly Hills, CA
CAUSE OF DEATH: Heart Failure
REMAINS: Buried, Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, CA
OSCAR for Best Supporting Actress 1960 for The Diary of Anne Frank
OSCAR for Best Supporting Actress 1966 for A Patch of Blue
GOLDEN GLOBE 1973 for The Poseidon Adventure
EMMY 1964 for Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre “Two Is The Number”
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 1750 Vine St.
ST. LOUIS WALK OF FAME
BEST KNOWN FOR: DescriptionShelley Winters was an American actress whose career spanned almost six decades. She appeared in numerous films, and won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue, and received nominations for A Place in the Sun and The Poseidon Adventure.
Two-time Oscar-winning actress Shelley Winters borrowed her stage name from her favorite poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and her mother’s maiden name, Winter. The first studio she signed with reportedly added the final “s,” but it has also been said that she added the “s” herself when she heard that she was being referred to as “Chilly Winter”.
She left school at 15 to work as a counter clerk and model while studying drama and entering beauty pageants, determined to make it as an actress. For her first appearance on Broadway, a 1941 play called The Night Before Christmas, she needed to join the union, Actors Equity, and had to borrow $25 from her sister for dues — a fortune in those days. Winters has since speculated that her sister, then a student nurse, may have sold blood to come up with the cash. Winters headed west in the early 1940s, and first signed with Columbia studios, but was stuck with bit parts. She shared an apartment with Marilyn Monroe; they shared a bathing suit for cheesecake shots and a mink coat for dates. Legend has it that Winters taught Monroe how to “act pretty”, by tilting her head back, lowering her eyes, and ever-so-slightly opening her mouth.
Her first film was What A Woman! in 1943, but the titular woman was Rosalind Russell. For years, Winters’ roles were small, inconsequential, and rarely noticed. Frustrated with her lack of Hollywood success, Winters began acting in local theater to learn her craft. She first gained notice in 1947’s The Double Life. Her classics include Winchester ’73, The Night of the Hunter, the 1959 Diary of Anne Frank, the 1962 Lolita, and the 1966 Alfie.
Dead serious about acting, in the 1940s Winters studied Shakespeare with Charles Laughton, and sought to gain “a wide experience of literature, and all the plays that have been written, and the whole history of theatre.” During the 1950s she worked with Lee Strasberg’s Actor’s Studio to an almost religious degree. She never stopped studying acting until she began teaching it, and she eventually came to be considered one of the great American teachers of “The Method”.
She won her first Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in The Diary of Anne Frank, and gave the statuette to Frank’s father, Otto Frank, for the Anne Frank Museum. She won a second Oscar, and kept it, for her performance as a bigoted Southerner in 1965’s A Patch of Blue.
In 1960, Winters was among the sponsors of a very controversial advertisement in The New York Times, along with Eleanor Roosevelt and Diahann Carroll, for “The Committee to Defend Martin Luther King Jr. and the Struggle for Freedom in the South”. Gloria Steinem once said that Winters helped lay the groundwork for the women’s movement, by portraying victims who fought back.
Winters was one of Robert De Niro’s first fans. She was introduced to him by her goddaughter, actress Sally Kirkland, and she cast De Niro in one of his first noteworthy roles, as her psychopathic, drug-addled son in Bloody Mama. She is 23 years older than De Niro, but some accounts suggest she may have slept with him.
In her later years as sort of a camp queen, Winters swam in The Poseidon Adventure with an all-star cast turned upside-down, and once poured her drink over Oliver Reed’s head after he made a sexist remark on Carson’s Tonight Show. Among her other late-career memorable roles, she played the quintessential Jewish mother in Next Stop, Greenwich Village, Elvis’s mom in the Kurt Russell TV movie Elvis, and Roseanne Barr’s grandmother on that long-running 1990s sitcom.
She has written two autobiographies, which told some readers much more than they needed to know about Winters’ love life. Her long list of conquests purportedly includes Robert Blake, Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, Albert Finney, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, John Garfield, Sterling Hayden, William Holden, Howard Hughes, Joseph P. Kennedy, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn, and Lawrence Tierney, among others. Bette Davis is said to have once asked, “Who the hell hasn’t Shelley Winters slept with?”
Film
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 | There’s Something About a Soldier | Norma | Uncredited |
| What a Woman! | Secretary | ||
| 1944 | Sailor’s Holiday | Gloria Flynn | Credited as Shelley Winter |
| Knickerbocker Holiday | Ulda Tienhoven | ||
| Cover Girl | Chorus Girl | Uncredited | |
| She’s a Soldier Too | ‘Silver’ Rankin | ||
| Dancing in Manhattan | Margie | ||
| Together Again | Young Woman Fleeing Nightclub Raid | ||
| 1945 | Tonight and Every Night | Bubbles | |
| Escape in the Fog | Taxi Driver | ||
| A Thousand and One Nights | Handmaiden | ||
| 1946 | The Fighting Guardsman | Nanette | |
| Two Smart People | Princess | ||
| Susie Steps Out | Female Singer | ||
| Abie’s Irish Rose | Bridesmaid | Uncredited | |
| 1947 | New Orleans | Ms. Holmbright | |
| Living in a Big Way | Junior League Girl | ||
| The Gangster | Hazel – Cashier | ||
| Killer McCoy | Waitress / Autograph Hound | ||
| A Double Life | Pat Kroll | ||
| 1948 | Red River | Dance Hall Girl in Wagon Train | Uncredited |
| Larceny | Tony | ||
| Cry of the City | Brenda Martingale | ||
| 1949 | Take One False Step | Catherine Sykes | |
| The Great Gatsby | Myrtle Wilson | ||
| Johnny Stool Pigeon | Terry Stewart | ||
| 1950 | Winchester ’73 | Lola Manners | |
| South Sea Sinner | Coral | ||
| Frenchie | Frenchie Fontaine | ||
| 1951 | A Place in the Sun | Alice Tripp | |
| He Ran All the Way | Peggy Dobbs | ||
| Behave Yourself! | Kate Denny | ||
| The Raging Tide | Connie Thatcher | ||
| 1952 | Phone Call from a Stranger | Binky Gay | |
| Meet Danny Wilson | Joy Carroll | ||
| Untamed Frontier | Jane Stevens | ||
| My Man and I | Nancy | ||
| 1954 | Tennessee Champ | Sarah Wurble | |
| Saskatchewan | Grace Markey | ||
| Executive Suite | Eva Bardeman | ||
| Playgirl | Fran Davis | ||
| Mambo | Toni Salermo | ||
| To Dorothy a Son | Myrtle La Mar | ||
| 1955 | I Am a Camera | Natalia Landauer | |
| The Night of the Hunter | Willa Harper | ||
| The Big Knife | Dixie Evans | Credited as Miss Shelley Winters | |
| The Treasure of Pancho Villa | Ruth Harris | ||
| I Died a Thousand Times | Marie Garson | ||
| 1959 | The Diary of Anne Frank | Mrs. Petronella Van Daan | Won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| Odds Against Tomorrow | Lorry | ||
| 1960 | Let No Man Write My Epitaph | Nellie Romano | |
| 1961 | The Young Savages | Mary diPace | |
| 1962 | Lolita | Charlotte Haze | |
| The Chapman Report | Sarah Garnell | ||
| 1963 | The Balcony | Madame Irma | |
| Wives and Lovers | Fran Cabrell | ||
| 1964 | A House Is Not a Home | Polly Adler | |
| Time of Indifference | Lisa | ||
| 1965 | The Greatest Story Ever Told | Healed Woman | |
| A Patch of Blue | Rose-Ann D’Arcey | Won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | |
| 1966 | Harper | Fay Estabrook | |
| Alfie | Ruby | ||
| The Three Sisters | Natalya | ||
| 1967 | Enter Laughing | Mrs. Emma Kolowitz | |
| 1968 | The Scalphunters | Kate | |
| Wild in the Streets | Mrs. Daphne Flatow | ||
| Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell | Shirley Newman | ||
| 1969 | The Mad Room | Mrs. Armstrong | |
| Arthur? Arthur! | Hester Green | ||
| 1970 | Bloody Mama | “Ma” Kate Barker | |
| How Do I Love Thee? | Lena Marvin | ||
| Flap | Dorothy Bluebell | ||
| 1971 | What’s the Matter with Helen? | Helen | |
| Revenge! | Amanda Hilton | ||
| 1972 | Something to Hide | Gabriella | |
| Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? | Mrs. Forrest | ||
| The Poseidon Adventure | Belle Rosen | ||
| 1973 | Blume in Love | Mrs. Cramer | |
| Cleopatra Jones | Mommy | ||
| The Stone Killer | Drunk Woman in Police Station | Cameo; uncredited | |
| 1975 | Poor Pretty Eddie | Bertha | |
| That Lucky Touch | Diana Steedeman | ||
| Journey Into Fear | Mrs. Mathews | ||
| Diamonds | Zelda Shapiro | ||
| 1976 | La dahlia scarlatta | Catrina | |
| The Tenant | The Concierge | ||
| Next Stop, Greenwich Village | Faye Lapinsky | ||
| Mimì Bluette… fiore del mio giardino | Caterina | ||
| 1977 | Tentacles | Tillie Turner | |
| An Average Little Man | Amalia Vivaldi | ||
| Pete’s Dragon | Lena Gogan | ||
| Black Journal | Lea | ||
| 1978 | King of the Gypsies | Queen Rachel | |
| 1979 | The French Atlantic Affair | Helen Wabash | |
| The Visitor | Jane Phillips | ||
| City on Fire | Nurse Andrea Harper | ||
| The Magician of Lublin | Elzbieta | ||
| 1981 | S.O.B. | Eva Brown | |
| Looping | Carmen | ||
| 1983 | Fanny Hill | Mrs. Cole | |
| 1984 | Over the Brooklyn Bridge | Becky | |
| Ellie | Cora Jackson | ||
| 1985 | Déjà Vu | Olga Nabokova | |
| 1986 | The Delta Force | Edie Kaplan | |
| Witchfire | Lydia | ||
| Very Close Quarters | Galina | ||
| 1988 | Purple People Eater | Rita | |
| 1989 | An Unremarkable Life | Evelyn McEllany | |
| 1990 | Touch of a Stranger | Ida | |
| 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 | |
| Backfire! | The Good Lieutenant | ||
| Jury Duty | Mom | ||
| Mrs. Munck | Aunt Monica | ||
| 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” |
| The United States Steel Hour | Evvie | Episode: “Inspired Alibi” | |
| Wagon Train | Ruth Owens | Episode: “The Ruth Owens Story” | |
| Schlitz Playhouse of Stars | Mildred Corrigan | Episode: “Smarty” | |
| 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” |
| 1965 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Mrs. Bixby | Episode: “Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat” |
| Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre | Edith | Episode: “Back to Back” | |
| 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” |
| 1971 | A Death of Innocence | Elizabeth Cameron | Television film |
| 1972 | Adventures of Nick Carter | Bess Tucker | |
| 1973 | The Devil’s Daughter | Lilith Malone | |
| 1974 | Big Rose: Double Trouble | Rose Winters | |
| The Sex Symbol | Agathy Murphy | ||
| McCloud | Thelma | Episode: “The Barefoot Girls of Bleecker Street” | |
| 1975 | Chico and the Man | Shirley Schrift | Episode: “Ed Steps Out” |
| 1976 | Frosty’s Winter Wonderland | Crystal (voice) | Television film |
| 1978 | Kojak | Evelyn McNeil | Episode: “The Captain’s Brother’s Wife” |
| The Initiation of Sarah | Mrs. Erica Hunter | Television film | |
| 1979 | Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July | Crystal (voice) | |
| Elvis | Gladys Presley | ||
| Vega$ | J.D. Fenton | Episode: “Macho Murders” | |
| 1982 | The Love Boat | Teresa Rosselli | Season 6 – Episode: 1 |
| 1983 | Parade of Stars | Sophie Tucker | Television film |
| 1984 | Hotel | Adele Ellsworth | Episode: “Trials” |
| Hawaiian Heat | Florence Senkowski | Episode: “Andy’s Mom” | |
| 1985 | Alice in Wonderland | The Dodo Bird | Television film |
| 1987 | The Sleeping Beauty | Fairy | |
| 1991–1996 | Roseanne | Nana Mary | 10 episodes |
Theater
| Year | Title | Role | Venue | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | The Night Before Christmas | Flora | Morosco Theatre, Broadway | [39] |
| 1942 | Rosalinda | Fifi | 46th Street Theatre, Broadway | |
| 1943 | Oklahoma! | Ado Annie | St. James Theatre, Broadway | |
| 1955 | A Hatful of Rain | Celia Pope | Plymouth Theatre, Broadway | |
| 1956 | Girls of Summer | Hilda Brookman | Longacre Theatre, Broadway | |
| 1961 | The Night of the Iguana | Maxine Faulk | Royale Theatre, Broadway | |
| 1966 | Under the Weather | Marcella Hilda Flora |
Cort Theatre, Broadway | |
| 1970 | Minnie’s Boys | Minnie Marx | Imperial Theatre, Broadway | |
| 1978 | The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds |
Beatrice | Biltmore Theatre, Broadway |
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
| Year | Program | Episode/source |
|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Lux Radio Theatre | Phone Call from a Stranger |
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