Web Digest Weekly - Reflections

Reflections
Web Digest Weekly
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Everyone knew who Shelley Winters was. Whether they knew her by name or face, this ultra
talented lady made her mark in the world in a big way. She was adored by millions for over fifty
years. Her film career is the stuff of legend and her later work in television, as well in the writing of
her autobiographies, kept her in the public eye with ease. She could captivate an audience like few
others and her work always looked so natural that people believed her in almost any role she played.
She was a true actress who never stopped learning her craft, and one who amassed a loyal following
that stayed with her over the course of her long and successful career.

Although she began her career in movies as another blonde bombshell, Shelley wasn’t content with
this persona and she knew she could carry any part given to her. She studied intently at both The
Hollywood Studio and later at the Actor’s Studio, where she doubled as a teacher, and she prided
herself on always continuing to evolve in her craft. This is no doubt what propelled her from a mere
starlet in films like What A Woman! to movie star in A Double Life opposite Ronald Colman.
Shelley didn’t put all her faith in her beauty and the results were phenomenal. She would make
herself a wallflower to let Elizabeth Taylor shine through in A Place In The Sun or she would
become the victimized wife of a psychotic killer in Charles Laughton’s 1955 classic Night of The
Hunter.

A two time Academy Award winner, Shelley would take home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar
for her work in The Diary of Anne Frank in 1959 and then again in 1966 for A Patch of Blue. Her
work opposite Elizabeth Taylor in A Place In The Sun earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination
and then in 1972’s Irwin Allen classic The Poseidon Adventure she would earn yet another
Academy Award nomination. This was a lady who seemed to embody the meaning of what it was to
be an actress. Not just a movie star; but a true actress. Her work in films like The Great Gatsby,
Winchester 73, Lolita, Harper, Night of The Iguana, and Alfie exposed her to a wide array of
producers and styles; each one she seemed to capture without difficulty.

Born to Jewish parents on August 18, 1920, in St. Louis, Shelley was very proud of her heritage and
being Jewish was something that was very important to her. So much so, in fact, that she gave her
Oscar for The Diary of Anne Frank to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. Her birth name was
Shirley Shrift and she was always known as Shirley to her family and friends. In fact, her first
autobiography, published in 1980, was titled Shelley: Also Known As Shirley.

She was married four times. Her first marriage was to Captain Mack Paul Mayer, from 1943 to
1948, and the two divorced because Mayer wanted a more traditional, homemaker wife. Her
second trip down the aisle was in 1952 when she married Vittorio Gassman. Though they would also
divorce two years later, they would have a daughter named Vittoria, who is now a practicing
physician in Connecticut, and this would be Shelley’s only child. Her third marriage was to fellow
actor Anthony Franciosa, from 1957 to 1960, and then she didn’t marry again until just a day before
her death in 2006, when she wed her longtime companion Gerry Deford, with whom she had lived
for nineteen years.

Her career always seemed to continue without effort. When the film roles began getting lean in the
late 1980’s Shelley turned to television and became a favorite for a new generation of fans as
Roseanne Barr’s cantankerous, feisty grandmother on Roseanne; a role she would play throughout
the series’ run. Her second autobiography, The Middle of My Century, was released in 1989 and
Shelley turned more than a few heads with her recollections of romances with William Holden, Sean
Connery, Marlon Brando, and Burt Lancaster. She held very little back as she told her story in her
own words and the book was on the bestseller lists for several months after its release.

Living such an exciting and successful life was something Shelley Winters seemed to enjoy very much
and her affair with her public never waned. She kept making movies throughout the nineties with her
final films being Giddeon and The Portrait of A Lady. She died of heart failure on January 6, 2006,
at the age of 85 at the Rehabilitation Center of Beverly Hills, where she had lived for four months,
having moved there after suffering a heart attack in the fall of 2005. When she decided to marry
Deford, just hours before her death, her god-daughter objected to the decision but Shelley pressed
on anyway and actress Sally Kirkland, a minister of the Movement for Spiritual Awareness,
performed the wedding ceremony at Shelley’s bedside. Later she would also give Shelley her last
rites.

Shelley Winters is easily one of the best remembered stars in Hollywood history. Whether she was
playing for laughs as Roseanne’s grandmother or delivering a captivating dramatic performance, as
she did in Night of The Hunter, she was mesmerizing and she also had a very approachable quality
about her. Fans always felt as if they could just go up to her and invite her over for coffee. Nothing
slowed her down either. Not film roles or weight gain in later life or even the infirmities of old age.
Shelley always did whatever she wanted, and she did it with style and flair too. Just like any real
movie star would.

"Whatever She Wanted"
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Reflections Of Shelley Winters

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Photo Credit:
The Associated Press