Jennifer Jones
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- for others with this name see Jennifer Jones (disambiguation)
| Jennifer Jones | ||||||||||
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| Image:Jennifer Jones in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing trailer.jpg Jennifer Jones as a Eurasian doctor in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955). | ||||||||||
| Birth name | Phylis Lee Isley | |||||||||
| Born | March 2 1919 Tulsa, Oklahoma | |||||||||
| Years active | 1939 - 1974 | |||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Robert Walker (1939-1944) David O. Selznick (1949-1965) Norton Simon (1971-1993) | |||||||||
| Children | Robert Walker Jr. (b.1940) Michael Walker (b.1941) Mary Jennifer Selznick (1954-1976) | |||||||||
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Phylis Lee Isley - a.k.a Jennifer Jones - (born March 2, 1919 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American actress.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Jones was born to Phillip R. Isley and Flora Mae Suber,[1] who toured the Midwest in a traveling tent show they owned and operated. Jones attended Monte Cassino Junior College in Tulsa and Northwestern University, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, before transferring to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1938. It was here she met and fell in love with fellow acting student Robert Walker. The two were married on January 2, 1939, when Jones was just 19 years old.
They returned to Tulsa for a 13-week radio programme arranged by her father, and then headed for Hollywood. Isley landed two small roles, first in a 1939 John Wayne western titled New Frontier, followed by a serial entitled, Dick Tracy's G-Men. In these two films, she was billed as "Phyllis Isley" (Phyllis now spelled with two L's). However, when she and Walker failed a screen test for Paramount Pictures, they decided to return to New York City.
[edit] Career
While Walker found steady work in radio programs, Isley worked part-time modeling hats for the Powers Agency while looking for possible acting jobs. When she learned of auditions for the lead role of Claudia in Rose Franken’s hit play of the same name, she presented herself to David O. Selznick’s New York office, but fled in tears after what she thought was a bad reading. Selznick, however, overheard her audition and was impressed enough to have his secretary call her back. Following an interview, she was signed to a seven-year contract. She was carefully groomed for stardom and given a new name: Jennifer Jones. Director Henry King was impressed by her screen test as Bernadette Soubirous for The Song of Bernadette, and she won the coveted role over hundreds of applicants. In 1944, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as St. Bernadette. That year, Jones' friend, Ingrid Bergman, was also a Best Actress nominee for her work in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Jones apologized to Bergman, who replied, "No, Jennifer, your Bernadette was better than my Maria." Jones presented the Best Actress Oscar the following year to Bergman for Gaslight.[2]
Over the next two decades, Jones appeared in a wide range of roles selected by Selznick. Her dark beauty and sensitive nature appealed to audiences and she projected a variable range. Her initial saintly image - as shown in her first starring role - was a stark contrast three years later when she was cast as a provocative biracial woman in Selznick’s controversial film Duel in the Sun. Other notable films included Since You Went Away, Love Letters, Cluny Brown, Portrait of Jennie, Madame Bovary, We Were Strangers, Carrie, Ruby Gentry, Indiscretion of an American Wife, Beat the Devil, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Good Morning Miss Dove, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and A Farewell to Arms. Her leading men during this period included Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, John Garfield, Charlton Heston, Lord Laurence Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Robert Stack, Sir John Gielgud, Rock Hudson and Jason Robards.
The portrait of Jones for the film Portrait of Jennie, was painted by Robert Brackman.
[edit] Private life
Jones' first marriage to Robert Walker produced two sons, Robert Walker Jr. (born April 15, 1940), and Michael Walker (born March 13, 1941). Both later became actors. Jones later left Walker for producer David O. Selznick.
Jones married Selznick on July 13, 1949, a marriage which lasted until his death on June 22, 1965. After his death, she semi-retired from acting; her last appearance was a strong supporting role in the 1974 film The Towering Inferno, playing the ill-fated Lisolette Mueller.
Jones' only child with Selznick, Mary Jennifer Selznick (born August 12, 1954), committed suicide in 1976 by jumping from a 20th floor window. This led to Jones' interest in mental health issues.
Jones married multi-millionaire industrialist, art collector and philanthropist Norton Simon on May 29, 1971. The couple remained married until Simon's death in June 1993. She is currently on the board of directors of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Jennifer Jones is a breast cancer survivor. The late actress Susan Strasberg, who died of breast cancer, was married to actor Christopher Jones, and named her only child Jennifer Robin Jones, in the actress' honor.
[edit] Awards and Nominations
[edit] Academy Awards
- Won: Best Actress, The Song of Bernadette (1943)
- Nominated: Best Supporting Actress, Since You Went Away (1944)
- Nominated: Best Actress, Love Letters (1945)
- Nominated: Best Actress, Duel in the Sun (1946)
- Nominated: Best Actress, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
[edit] Golden Globe Awards
- Won: Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, The Song of Bernadette (1944)
- Nominated: Best Supporting Actress, The Towering Inferno (1975)
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | New Frontier | Celia Braddock | |
| Dick Tracy's G-Men | Gwen Andrews | ||
| 1943 | The Song of Bernadette | Bernadette | Academy Award for Best Actress; Golden Globe |
| 1944 | Since You Went Away | Jane Deborah Hilton | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1945 | Love Letters | Singleton/Victoria Morland | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress |
| 1946 | Cluny Brown | Cluny Brown | |
| Duel in the Sun | Pearl Chavez | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress | |
| 1948 | Portrait of Jennie | Jennie Appleton | |
| 1949 | We Were Strangers | China Valdés | |
| Madame Bovary | Emma Bovary | ||
| Gone to Earth | Hazel Woodus | ||
| 1952 | Carrie | Carrie Meeber | |
| Ruby Gentry | Ruby Gentry | ||
| 1953 | Beat the Devil | Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm | |
| 1954 | Indiscretion of an American Wife | Mary Forbes | |
| 1955 | Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing | Dr. Han Suyin | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress |
| Good Morning Miss Dove | Miss Dove | ||
| 1956 | The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit | Betsy Rath | |
| 1957 | The Barretts of Wimpole Street | Elizabeth Barrett | |
| A Farewell to Arms | Catherine Barkley | ||
| 1962 | Tender Is the Night | Nicole Diver | |
| 1965 | The Idol | Carol | |
| 1969 | Cult of the Damned | Astrid Steele | |
| 1974 | The Towering Inferno | Lisolette Mueller | Nominated - Golden Globe |
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/celeb/jenjones.htm
- ^ Gary Moody. All the Oscars: 1943. the OscarSite.com - A celebration of all things Oscar. Retrieved on 2006-12-10.
[edit] Further reading
- Epstein, Edward (1995). Portrait of Jennifer. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-74056-3.
[edit] External links
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver | Academy Award for Best Actress 1943 for The Song of Bernadette | Succeeded by Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight |
| Preceded by None | Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama 1944 for The Song of Bernadette | Succeeded by Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight |
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