Jennifer Jones

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Phylis Lee Isley (March 2, 1919 – December 17, 2009), better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette (1943).

Early life

Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae and Phillip Ross Isley. An only child, she was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school. Her parents toured the Midwest in a traveling tent show that 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 there that she met and fell in love with fellow acting student Robert Walker. The couple married on January 2, 1939.

Jones and Walker returned to Tulsa for a 13-week radio program, arranged by Jones' father, and then made their way to Hollywood. Jones 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 Ls). However, she failed a screen test for Paramount Pictures and decided to return to New York City.

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 in Claudia, Rose Franken’s hit play, 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 (1943) and she won the coveted role over hundreds of applicants. In 1944, on her 25th birthday, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Bernadette Soubirous. 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

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 bi-racial woman in Selznick’s controversial film Duel in the Sun (1946). Other notable films included Since You Went Away (1944), Love Letters (1945), Cluny Brown (1946), Portrait of Jennie (1948), Madame Bovary (1949), We Were Strangers (1949), Gone to Earth (1950), Carrie (1952), Ruby Gentry (also 1952), Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953), Beat the Devil (1953), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), Good Morning Miss Dove (also 1955), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) starring opposite Gregory Peck and A Farewell to Arms (1957). Her leading men during this period included Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, John Garfield, Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Robert Stack, John Gielgud, Rock Hudson, and Jason Robards. The portrait of Jones for the film Portrait of Jennie was painted by Robert Brackman.

Her last big-screen appearance came in the spectacular disaster film The Towering Inferno (1974), in which she danced with Fred Astaire before a fire threatened partygoers in a new San Francisco skyscraper who were celebrating its official opening as tallest building in the world. Her exit from the picture was also the most sympathetic when, after helping to assist two children to escape the disaster, her character fell 110 stories to her death from a scenic elevator on the outside of the building which was derailed following an explosion. Her touching performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Scenes from early on in the movie showed paintings lent to the production from the Norton Simon art gallery. Simon was her husband at the time the movie was produced.

Personal life

Jones's first marriage produced two sons, Robert Walker, Jr. (born April 15, 1940; Jones's only child who would not predecease her), and Michael Walker (March 13, 1941 – December 27, 2007). Both later became actors. Jones had an affair with film producer David O. Selznick, which eventually led to her separation from Walker in November 1943 and divorce in June 1945.

Jones married Selznick on July 13, 1949, a union which lasted until his death on June 22, 1965. After his death, she semi-retired from acting. According to media reports, Jones attempted suicide in November 1967 after hearing of the death of close friend Charles Bickford. She was found unconscious at the base of a cliff overlooking Malibu Beach; she was hospitalized in a coma before eventually recovering. Her daughter, Mary Jennifer Selznick (1954–1976), committed suicide by jumping from a 20th-floor window in Los Angeles on May 11, 1976. This led to Jones's interest in mental health issues. In 1980, she founded the Jennifer Jones Simon Foundation For Mental Health And Education. The Foundation pledged $400,000 to be used exclusively for the world renowned Mary Jennifer Selznick Workshop Program, named in honor of Jones's late daughter.

On May 29, 1971, Jones married multi-millionaire industrialist, art collector and philanthropist Norton Simon, whose son Robert had committed suicide in 1969. Years before, Simon had attempted to buy the portrait of her used in the film Portrait of Jennie. Simon later met Jones at a party hosted by fellow industrialist and art collector Walter Annenberg. Norton Simon died in June 1993. Four years before his death, Simon resigned as President of Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and Jennifer Jones-Simon was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees, President and Executive Officer. In 1996, she began working with architect Frank Gehry and landscape designer Nancy Goslee Power on renovating the museum and gardens. She remained active as the director of the Norton Simon Museum until 2003 when she was given emeritus status.

Jones was a breast cancer survivor. Actress Susan Strasberg, who would die of the disease in 1999 and was then married to actor Christopher Jones, named her own daughter Jennifer Robin Jones in the older actress's honor.

Death

Jones enjoyed a quiet retirement, living with her son Robert Walker Jr. and his family in Malibu, for the last six years of her life. She granted no interviews and rarely appeared in public. She died of natural causes on Thursday, December 17, 2009, aged 90. She was cremated, at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Glendale.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes

Film

1939 New Frontier Celia Braddock as Phyllis Isley

1939 Dick Tracy's G-Men Gwen Andrews as Phyllis Isley

1943 The Song of Bernadette Bernadette Soubirous Academy Award for Best Actress

Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama

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

1946 Duel in the Sun Pearl Chavez Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress

1948 Portrait of Jennie Jennie Appleton

1949 We Were Strangers China Valdés

1949 Madame Bovary Emma Bovary

1949 Gone to Earth Hazel Woodus

1952 Carrie Carrie Meeber

1952 Ruby Gentry Ruby Gentry

1953 Beat the Devil Mrs. Gwendolen Chelm

1953 Terminal Station Mary Forbes

1955 Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing Dr. Han Suyin Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress

1953 Good Morning Miss Dove Miss Dove

1956 The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Betsy Rath

1957 The Barretts of Wimpole Street Elizabeth Barrett

1957 A Farewell to Arms Catherine Barkley

1962 Tender Is the Night Nicole Diver

1966 The Idol Carol

1969 Angel, Angel, Down We Go Astrid Steele a.k.a Cult of the Damned

1974 The Towering Inferno Lisolette Mueller Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture

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