Winters, Shelley (1920–2006)

American actress. Born Shirley Schrift, Aug 18, 1920, in East St. Louis, Illinois; died Jan 14, 2006, in Beverly Hills, California; dau. of Johan Schrift (clothing retailer) and Rose (Winter) Schrift (singer); studied acting at New Theater School and Actors Studio; m. Mack Mayer (textile merchant), Jan 1, 1943 (div. 1948); m. Vittorio Gassman (actor), April 28, 1952 (div. 1954); m. Anthony Franciosa (actor), May 4, 1957 (div. 1960); children: (2nd m.) Vittoria Gassman.

On Broadway, appeared as Fifi in Rosalinda (1942), which led to contract with Columbia; played series of bit parts in some 10 films without gaining attention (1942–44), including Knickerbocker Holiday and Cover Girl; came to prominence as the murder victim in A Double Life (1948), which brought her Academy Award Best Supporting nomination; followed with such films as Cry of the City (1948), The Great Gatsby (1949) and South Sea Sinner (1950); abandoned all trappings of glamour for role as the pregnant factory worker who is murdered in A Place in the Sun (1951), for which she earned a 2nd Academy Award nomination (as Best Actress) and established her reputation; won a pair of Oscars for work in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and electrified Broadway with performance in A Hatful of Rain (1955); won acclaim as mother of Marx Brothers in Broadway production of Minnie's Boys (1970); had recurring role as the dotty mother on tv's "Roseanne"; other films include Red River (1948), Frenchie (1951),Phone Call From a Stranger (1952), Meet Danny Wilson (1952), Executive Suite (1954), I Am a Camera (1955), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Lolita (1962), The Balcony (1963), Alfie (1966), Harper (1966), Enter Laughing (1967), Bloody Mama (1970), What's the Matter with Helen? (1971), Who Slew Auntie Roo? (1971), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Next Stop Greenwich Village (1976), Pete's Dragon (1977), The Three Sisters (1977), King of the Gypsies (1979), The Visitor (1979), Fanny Hill (1983), Touch of a Stranger (1990) and La Bomba (1999).

See also autobiographies, Shelley: Also Known as Shirley (Morrow, 1980) and Shelley II: The Middle of My Century (Simon & Schuster, 1989); and Women in World History.