BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - A plain-looking former chorus girl, Shelley Winters was glamorized by her movie company and starred in seductive roles. But she wouldn't be defined by a stereotype
Winters shed the temptress image to become a polished dramatic actress, claiming two Academy Awards in a career that spanned more than 100 films.
"This was no dumb blonde, believe me," said longtime friend and actress Diane Ladd, who praised Winters for her writing talent as well as her award-winning acting. Winters died of heart failure Saturday at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She was 85. Winters had been hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack.
Winters won Academy Awards as supporting actress in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue." She sustained her long career by repeatedly reinventing herself.
Starting as a nightclub chorus girl, Winters advanced to supporting roles in New York plays, then became famous as a Hollywood sexpot.
A devotee of the Actors Studio, she switched to serious roles as she matured. Her Oscars were for her portrayal of mothers. Still working well into her 70s, she had a recurring role as Roseanne's grandmother on the 1990s TV show "Roseanne."
"I am so sad. She was a great person and a genius to work with," Roseanne Barr said in a statement. "We will all miss her."
In 1959's "The Diary of Anne Frank," she was Petronella Van Daan, mother of Peter Van Daan and one of eight real-life Jewish refugees in World War II Holland who hid for more than a year in cramped quarters until they were betrayed and sent to Nazi death camps. The socially conscious Winters donated her Oscar statuette to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
In 1965's "Patch of Blue," she portrayed a hateful, foul-mouthed mother who tries to keep her blind daughter, who is white, apart from the kind black man who has befriended her.
Ever vocal on social and political matters, Winters was a favored guest on television talk shows, and she demonstrated her frankness in two autobiographies: "Shelley, Also Known as Shirley" (1980) and "Shelley II: The Middle of My Century" (1989).
Winters wrote openly in them of her romances with Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and other leading men. She also said after she came to Hollywood in the mid-1940s she was roommates with another rising starlet - Marilyn Monroe.
"I've had it all," she exulted after her first book became a best seller. "I'm excited about the literary aspects of my career. My concentration is there now."
Winters also served as an inspiration for fellow female actors. She shrugged off the notion that women were just sex symbols and couldn't act as well as their male counterparts. Winters also believed in staying grounded and connecting with fans.
"She really cared about equality and helping out the little guy," said actress and goddaughter Sally Kirkland. "She never wanted to act rich and famous. She said you do this kind of work because you want to reach people."
Winters, whose given name was Shirley Schrift, was appearing in the Broadway hit "Rosalinda" when Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn offered her a screen test. A Columbia contact and a new name - Shelley Winters - followed, but all the good roles at the studio were going to Jean Arthur in those days.
Winters' early films included such light fare as "Knickerbocker Holiday," "Sailor's Holiday," "Cover Girl," "Tonight and Every Night" and "Red River."
When her contract ended, Winters returned to New York as Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!"
The only hint of her future as an actress came in 1948's "A Double Life" as a trashy waitress strangled by a Shakespearian actor, Ronald Colman. The role won Colman an Oscar.
"A Place in the Sun" in 1951 brought her first Oscar nomination and established her as a serious actress. She desperately sought the role of the pregnant factory girl drowned by Montgomery Clift so he could marry Elizabeth Taylor. The director, George Stevens, rejected her at first for being too sexy.
Winters received her final Oscar nomination, for 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure," in which she was one of a handful of passengers scrambling desperately to survive aboard an ocean liner turned upside down by a tidal wave. By then she had put on a good deal of weight, and following a scene in which her character must swim frantically she charmed audiences with the line: "In the water I'm a very skinny lady."
Among her other notable films: "Night of the Hunter," "Executive Suite," "I Am a Camera," "The Big Knife," "Odds Against Tomorrow," "The Young Savages," "Lolita," "The Chapman Report," "The Greatest Story Ever Told," "A House Is Not a Home," "Alfie," "Harper," "Pete's Dragon," "Stepping Out" and "Over the Brooklyn Bridge."
Winters' first husband was Paul "Mack" Mayer. Her second and third marriages were brief and tempestuous: to Vittorio Gassman (1952-1954) and Anthony Franciosa (1957-1960). The combination of a Jewish Brooklynite and Italian actors seemed destined to produce fireworks, and both unions resulted in headlines. She is survived by her daughter with Gassman, Vittoria.
