Shelley Winters Remembered

One of the most respected actresses of the golden age of Hollywood. Although she didn't have stunning looks, she competed against the best of them. She proved to everyone that great work would never go unnoticed. She wrote several "tell all" biographies that ruffled a few feathers throughout the industry. She was known for being very vocal about her opinions, even if that means offending a few people. She studied at The Actor's Studio in New York.

Father's name - Jonas Schrift, Mother's name - Rose Schrift Sister - Blanche Schrift.

Her early acting training was under the tutelage of actor Charles Laughton.

Was roommates with Marilyn Monroe when they were both starting out in Hollywood.

Taught Marilyn Monroe how to "act" pretty by tilting her head back, keeping her eyes lowered and her mouth partly opened

Born at 12:05am-CST

Godmother of Sally Kirkland.

Made her Broadway debut as Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!" - five years into its run.

Used her mother's maiden name as her professional name

Has the distinction of currently being the highest ranked female performer on The Oracle of Bacon's list of the top 1000 performers based upon their "center of the film universe" average number. Winter's average link number is 2.696842, placing seventeenth on the list. The places her well above Kevin Bacon, who is currently ranked 1161st, despite being the original focus of the quirky game of linking actors through their co-stars.

Measurements: 37-26 1/2 -36 (as a pin-up starlet in the 1950s)

Godmother of Laura Dern.

She donated her Oscar for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959/I) to the Anne Frank museum.

In The Poseidon Adventure (1972), she plays an award winning swimmer and in A Place in the Sun (1951), she can't swim and drowns.

Daughter with Vittorio Gassman, Vittoria-Gina.

Played the Marx Brothers' mother Minnie in the Broadway musical "Minnie's Boys," which ran at the Imperial Theatre for 80 Performances from Mar 26 to May 30, 1970. It was the penultimate performance of her eight Broadway appearances. She appeared in only one more Broadway show, "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds," which ran at the Biltmore Theatre for 16 performances March 14-26, 1978.

In her most important films such as A Place in the Sun (1951), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Lolita (1962), A Double Life (1947), The Diary of Anne Frank (1959/I) and many others, her character is often murdered.

Fan of the TV show "Babylon 5" (1994).

Suffered a heart attack on October 14, 2005.

On the 6 July, 1972 episode of "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", she grew tired of Oliver Reed's attitude towards women. They had a heated conversation and after Shelley told Reed what she thought of his opinions, left the set. The show continued with Oliver Reed still going on about women while Johnny Carson looked at him in a daze. Shortly afterwards, Winters appeared from Stage left, unannounced to Reed and to the shock of Carson. She was carrying a champagne bucket of ice and water with which she surprised Reed by dumping it over his head. Reed was furious over this and tried to attack her but set personal intervened. The show broke for commercial break. When the show resumed both actors were gone.

"In Hollywood, all the marriages are happy. It's trying to live together afterwards that causes all the problems."

"I did a picture in England one winter and it was so cold I almost got married."

'The best way to find out about a man is to have lunch with his ex-wife'

"I had to gain forty pounds for this movie."

"I have bursts of being a lady, but it doesn't last long."

(her career-longevity advice) "You gotta play mothers. If you don't you won't get a long career in Hollywood."

[on Fredric March] "He was able to do a very emotional scene with tears in his eyes, and pinch my fanny at the same time."

"Anna Magnani could act anybody off the stage or screen."

"My face was always so made up, it looked as though it had the decorators in."

In her heyday a sultry, svelte, blond leading lady, Shelley Winters is more firmly ensconced in memory as a blowsy, loudmouthed, colorful character type. There is a temptation to confuse the rambling, raucous talk-show guest of past years with the talented actress, so one should keep in mind that this former store clerk has won Oscars for her supporting stints in The Di ary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and has earned nominations for A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Winters' first film credits were decorative bit parts in such 1940s movies as Knickerbocker Holiday (1944) and Tonight and Every Night (1945). Her first big break was landing a costarring role with Ronald Colman in A Double Life (1947), as the mistress and unfortunate victim of the actor-gone-mad. In the aftermath of that film she was often cast as vulnerable victim types, such as Myrtle in The Great Gatsby (1949) and Alice Tripp in A Place in the Sun (1951), but she also played her share of sexpots, including the title role in Frenchie (1950), a reworking of Destry Rides Again that cast her in the Marlene Dietrich part. She was a standout in the searing Hollywood tale The Big Knife (1955), and the murdered mother in The Night of the Hunter that same year. She was memorable as the nymphet's mother in Lolita (1962), notorious madam Polly Adler in A House Is Not a Home (1964), and one of Alfie's conquests in Alfie (1966), but by the 1970s she was often playing caricatures, like the machine gun-toting Bloody Mama (1970). Paul Mazursky fleshed out potentialcaricature roles for her in Blume in Love (1973) and Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), and she had fun (over)playing a hag in Disney's Pete's Dragon (1977), the Queen of the gypsies in King of the Gypsies (1978), and a super-agent in Blake Edwards' Hollywood saga S.O.B (1981).

Busy on television when not in films (and seen in recent years in a recurring role as Roseanne's grandmother on the hit sitcom "Roseanne"), she has also taught at Lee Strasberg's Actors' Studio, and enjoyed success with her tell-all autobiographies "Shelley" (1980) and "Shelley II" (1989).

OTHER FILMS INCLUDE: 1943:What a Woman! 1944:Sailor's Holiday, She's a Soldier Too 1945:A Thousand and One Nights 1948:Cry of the City 1950: South Sea Sinner, Winchester '73 1951:The Raging Tide 1952:Meet Danny Wilson, Phone Call From a Stranger 1954:Executive Suite, Playgirl 1955:I Am a Camera, I Died a Thousand Times 1960:Let No Man Write My Epitaph 1961:The Young Savages 1962:The Chapman Report 1963:Wives and Lovers, The Balcony 1965:The Greatest Story Ever Told 1966:Harper 1967: Enter Laughing 1968:The Scalphunters, Wild in the Streets 1969:Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, The Mad Room 1970:How Do I Love Thee?, Flap 1971:What's the Matter With Helen?, Who Slew Auntie Roo? 1973: Cleopatra Jones 1975:Diamonds, Journey Into Fear, That Lucky Touch 1979:The Magician of Lublin, The Visitor 1983:Fanny Hill, Over the Brooklyn Bridge 1984:Déjê Vu, Ellie, Witchfire 1986:The Delta Force 1989:An Unremarkable Life 1991:Touch of a Stranger, Stepping Out 1993: The Pickle

Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin, used by arrangement with Signet, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.