Shelly Winters: biography, personal life, career

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Hollywood star of the 50s of the last century, Shelley Winters, has won two Oscars, an Emmy and a Golden Globe in her more than half a century of career in Hollywood and on the stage of the theater. The best directors worked with her (Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, Sydney Pollack), her partners on the set were the same stars as her - Burt Lancaster, Kurt Russell, Elizabeth Taylor, and her roommate in the acting studio was Marilyn Monroe.

The actress herself compared her life to a long rocky road from the Brooklyn ghetto to a luxury apartment in New York, two of the most important cinema awards, three houses in California, four successful plays, five Impressionist paintings, six mink coats and 99 movies.

Shelly Winters: biography

The future actress was born on August 18, 1920 in the city of St. Louis (Missouri) in a creative family. Shelley's father was a menswear designer and her mother was a singer. When the girl was three years old, the whole family moved toNew York, and six years later her father was jailed for arson. In her memoirs, the actress later said that it was during this period that she plunged headlong into the world of fantasy, which helped her in the acting profession. She regularly skipped school to attend Broadway productions.

When nationwide auditions were held for the role of Scarlett in Gone with the Wind, she was a teenager. Having borrowed high-heeled shoes from her older sister and enlarged her breasts with down linings, Shelley Winters went to the casting. It was then that director George Cukor advised her to go to acting school and become famous in New York.

After completing her high school education, she started working in a garment factory and attended night acting school, as well as Charles Lawton courses and the legendary acting studio in Manhattan.

Actress career

Shelley Winters made her acting debut at the age of twenty-three in What a Woman! However, fame came to her after the role of the victim in the film of the same George Cukor "Double Life", which was released in 1943. This was followed by the films "Winchester 73" and the drama "The Great Gatsby", which opened her way to Hollywood. Eight years later, in 1951, she starred in A Place in the Sun and received her first Oscar nomination for best actress. The award went to another nominee, but she attracted the attention of directors to her person and firmly established herself in the American film industry.

50s pastcenturies revealed her talent to the fullest, the actress starred a lot, was in sight and in gossip columns. In 1960, she received her first Oscar for her supporting role in the film The Diary of Anne Frank. In parallel with her work in the cinema, Shelley Winters actively performed on Broadway. She received her second Oscar in 1966 and again for her supporting role in the film A Patch of Blue.

In the 70s, her most notable work was the film "The Adventure of Poseidon" (another nomination for a golden statuette, a shot from the film in the photo above) and a theater production - the play "Night of the Iguana". The viewer of the next decade knows the actress mainly from television and autobiographical projects, as well as the book she published. S. Winters has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Private life

Charming, cheerful and never discouraged, this is how the actress is remembered not only by the viewer, but also by colleagues in the shop, numerous interviewers. The men loved her. Articles appeared in the press every now and then about the novels of the actress with the most beautiful actors in Hollywood: Clark Gable, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster. Married Shelley Winters (photo - according to the text) was four times. The first marriage was early and began during the Second World War, and ended in 1948. The chosen one of the beginning actress was a military man - Captain MP Meyer. He wanted a strong family and a "home" wife. The latter was absolutely impossible in light of the successful career of a Hollywood actress. The wedding ring given to them, S. Winters wore until her death. The second husband was the famous Italian actor and director Vittorio Gassman (pictured below). In marriage, the couple had a child. The girl was named Victoria, she received the profession of a doctor and has two children. The third husband of Winters is an American actor Anthony Franciosa, familiar to the audience from the film "A Hat Full of Rain".

With her fourth husband, Jerry Deford, the actress lived together for 19 years, and the marriage was officially registered a few hours before her death at the Beverly Hills Rehabilitation Center. She died at the age of 85 from heart failure.

A place in the sun

The picture "A Place in the Sun" brought the actress the first nomination for a prestigious award and popularity. The film is based on the novel "An American Tragedy" by T. Dreiser and is included in the national register. This is a story about love and cold calculation. A guy brought up in a puritanical style comes to work in the city. His uncle helps him get a job, but sets the condition - no novels with employees. However, relationships happen, and the young man quickly cools down and finds a lady from high society. Fearing publicity and threats from his ex-lover, he decides to kill her.

The Diary of Anne Frank

"The Diary of Anne Frank" is a drama film based on the diary of a girl from a Jewish family, which she kept during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The tragic story of a family and an entire nation through the eyes of a child. S. Winter received an Oscar for her supporting role. Having promised at the presentation ceremony to transfer the figurine to the museum"Anne Frank", she did it 16 years later.

Patch of Blue

Deserves the attention of the audience and the complex character role of Shelley Winters in Guy Greene's drama "Patch of Blue", for which she was awarded a second "Oscar". This is a dramatic story about a blind girl who suffers from domestic violence and her black friend in the person of an adult man.

The three tapes mentioned above are just a fraction of the work and legacy of Shelley Winters, films that have become key episodes of her career, but there are others that are no less interesting. She played deep roles, avoiding flatness and primitiveness on the screen. The brilliant talent and bright personality of the actress remained forever in the history of world cinema.