Shelley Winters exemplified lifetime achievement, not only as a remarkably talented and versatile actress, but also as a highly respected teacher who helped many others to achieve their dreams as she had achieved hers. Ms. Winters overcame adversity with determination and effort to prove her ability as a performer, while sharing her knowledge with newcomers and dedicating her time to teaching the craft of acting. A long-standing member of The Actors Studio, she was considered to be one of the industry's most respected coaches and was instrumental in molding the careers of many of today's finest film and stage actors. Her professional body of work in more than 100 films, as well as her noteworthy work on stage, was a great achievement and an example for emerging talent to follow.
Shelley Winters' distinguished professional career spanned six decades in film and theater in a wide range of roles demonstrating her ability, which was recognized with 2 Academy Awards, the first for her performance as Mrs. Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), the second for her performance in A Patch of Blue (1965), as well as Oscar nominations for her work in A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972), in addition to many other awards.
Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift in St. Louis, Missouri. She appeared on stage at the age of 4 in St. Louis before her family moved to Brooklyn, New York. With great determination she triumphed over the poverty and unfairness of life in the slums. Ms. Winters appeared in beauty pageants and high school plays and worked as a store clerk and a model in order to finance her dramatic studies. She performed in summer stock and worked as a chorus girl, went on national tour with Meet the People, and then achieved her goal of breaking into the legitimate theater. She made her Broadway debut in the S. J. Perelman comedy The Night Before Christmas in 1941 and after a number of roles on stage, she was brought to Hollywood by Columbia Pictures. Harry Cohn put her under contract to Columbia after seeing her perform in the hit show Rosalinda. Ms. Winters made her film debut in 1943 in What A Woman!, followed by such films as She's a Soldier, Too (1944), Knickerbocker Holiday (1944), Nine Girls (1944), A Thousand and One Nights (1945), and Tonight and Every Night (1945). In 1947 she received significant attention for her role in A Double Life, directed by George Cukor, as the waitress strangled by a deranged actor, played by Ronald Colman.
Ms. Winters' reputation as an actress was firmly established in the film A Place in the Sun (1951), directed by George Stevens, and she received an Academy Award nomination for her performance as the factory girl drowned by her seducer, played by Montgomery Clift. Some of the films that followed included Phone Call from a Stranger (1952), Executive Suite (1954), I Am a Camera (1955), and The Night of the Hunter (1955).
In 1955 Ms. Winters went back to the Broadway stage for several years, including performing in the hit A Hatful of Rain, then returned to film in 1959, determined to shed the "glamour girl" image she had at the outset of her film career and to fully demonstrate her abilities as an actress. To do so she worked at the film studio during the day and studied with Charles Laughton at night and on weekends. She won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for her roles as Mrs. Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and Rose-Ann D'Arcey in the film A Patch of Blue (1965). Ms. Winters donated her first Oscar to the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam, presenting it personally to Anne Frank's father, Otto Frank.
Ms. Winters' film credits include The Great Gatsby (1949), Winchester '73 (1950), Mambo (1954), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Lolita (1962), The Chapman Report (1962), A House Is Not A Home (1964), Alfie (1966), Harper (1966), Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968), Bloody Mama (1970), Who Slew Auntie Roo (1971), Blume in Love (1973), Journey Into Fear (1975), Next Stop Greenwich Village (1976), Pete's Dragon (1977), King of the Gypsies (1978), City on Fire (1979), S.O.B. (1981), Over the Brooklyn Bridge (1984), Jury Duty (1995), and The Portrait of a Lady (1996), among many others.
In the early '70s, Ms. Winters successfully returned to Broadway, and in addition to her nonstop work in film, she appeared frequently on television, from the early days of live television to her work between 1991 and 1996 on the TV show Roseanne, and she was an Emmy Award winner.
Ms. Winters was also a writer and the author of two bestselling autobiographies, Shelley, Also Known As Shirley (1981), and Shelley II: The Middle of My Century (1989).
Ms. Winters passed away January 14, 2006.
