SHELLEY WINTERS BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Shelley Winters was born on August 18th, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri with the birth name Shirley Schrift. She spent most of her young childhood being raised in Brooklyn so her father who worked as a tailor could be close to the garment district for his work.

While attending high school, Winters became interested in acting. She participated in a number of school plays and also took acting lessons. To help cover the expense of her lessons, as a teen, Winters was working at Woolworth's store as a model and a cashier.

She found work in Summer Stock and her Broadway debut was on, "The Night Before Christmas (1941) and then was cast in an operetta, "Rosalinda" (1942). It was in both these plays that she took on the stage name Winter, with out the letter 's'.

Winters then decided it was time to take a chance at a film career in Hollywood. She left New York and found small roles for years on various films, but nothing was proving to be her big break.
 
Finally, a role came to her in 1947 on, "A Double Life" starring Ronald Colman, Signe Hasso, Edmond O'Brien, Ray Collins, Millard Mitchell, Joe Sawyer and Whit Bissell, where she portrayed a party waitress who ends up strangled. This film followed with quite a few other lead roles for Winters in films such as, "Cry of the City" (1948) starring with Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Debra Paget and Roland Winters, "The Great Gatsby" (1949) starring Alan Ladd, Ruth Hussey, Macdonald Carey, Betty Field, Barry Sullivan and Howard Da Silva and "South Sea Sinner".

Another classic film in her resume during this time period was "Winchester '73" (1950) starring James Stewart, Stephen McNally, Dan Duryea, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, John McIntire, Jay C. Flippen, Charles Drake, James Best, Steve Brodie and Will Geer.

Shelley Winters was proving herself to be an actress with guts and a straightforward direct attitude. Her most famous roles was in, "A Place in the Sun" (1951) where Winters worked alongside Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Raymond Burr, Ted de Corsia and Fred Clark. For her role in this film, she earned her first Oscar nomination.

It was looking as though her career was finally at an all time high, however, Winters was having such a hard time not being type cast in the typical blonde role, that she seemed to only be getting cast in 'B' type films. She became so frustrated with Hollywood, that she decided to stop acting for a while and return back to studying the art at the Actors Studio.
 
Upon completion, Winters returned back to the industry working back on stage roles such as the roel of Blanche in, "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1955) starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh and soon following "Night of the Hunter" (1955) starring Robert Mitchum, Lillian Gish, Peter Graves and James Gleason. She finally got her chance at winning a Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1959) starring Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Diane Baker and Ed Wynn.

It seemed as though her acting training had finally paid off and Hollywood was taking her serious as an actress. She worked on some amazing films such as, "The Balcony" co-starring Peter Falk, Ruby Dee, Leonard Nimoy and Lee Grant, "Wives and Lovers" starring with Janet Leigh, Van Johnson, Martha Hyer and Ray Walston, (both 1963), "A Patch of Blue" (1965) starring with Sidney Poitier, John Qualen, Elizabeth Hartman, Ivan Dixon and Wallace Ford, for which she earned her second Oscar and "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965) with an ensemble cast including Max von Sydow, Charlton Heston, Dorothy McGuire, Jose Ferrer, Telly Savalas, Claude Rains, Martin Landau, Roddy McDowall and David McCallum just to name a few..

Winters was earning a type cast role, but this time not as your typical blonde, but instead due to her age and slight weight gain, she was being cast as 'the Jewish' motherly role. Winters earned another Oscar nomiation for her role on "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) starring Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Stella Stevens, Arthur O'Connell, Jack Albertson, Pamela Sue Martin, Leslie Nielsen and Roddy McDowall.

Winters also established herself as an author of two autobiographies titled, "Shelly, Also known as Shirley" (1981) and "Shelley II: The Middle of My Century" (1989). She was known for rocky marriages and numerous affairs as well as a woman who was not afraid to voice her opinions about politics and feminism.
 
Her final film role was in, "La Bomba" (1999) and her final television appearances were portraying the grandmother on the television sitcom, "Roseanne".
 
Shelley Winters passed away on January 14th, 2006 in Beverly Hills, California from heart failure after she had suffered for quite a few years with failing health and had spent quite a few years in a wheelchair.

Shelley Winters is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1750 Vine Street. 

Filmography
 
1999  Gideon
1999  La Bomba
1996  The Portrait of a Lady
1995  Heavy
1995  Backfire!
1995  Jury Duty
1995  Mrs. Munck
1995  Raging Angels
1994  A Century of Cinema
1994  The Silence of the Hams
1993  The Pickle
1991  Stepping Out
1990  Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
1990  Touch of a Stranger
1989  An Unremarkable Life
1988  Purple People Eater
1986  Witchfire
1986  Very Close Quarters
1986  The Delta Force
1985  Déjà Vu
1984  Ellie
1984  Over the Brooklyn Bridge
1983  Fanny Hill
1981  S.O.B.
1981  Looping
1979  The Visitor
1979  City on Fire
1979  The Magician of Lublin
1978  King of the Gypsies
1977  Mimì Bluette... Flower of My Garden
1977  Black Journal
1977  Tentacles
1977  A Very Little Man
1977  Pete's Dragon
1976  The Scarlet Dahlia
1976  Next Stop, Greenwich Village
1976  The Tenant
1975  Journey into Fear
1975  Diamonds
1975  That Lucky Touch
1974  Poor Pretty Eddie
1973  Blume in Love
1973  Cleopatra Jones
1972  Something to Hide
1972  The Poseidon Adventure
1971  What's the Matter with Helen?
1971  Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?
1970  Bloody Mama
1970  How Do I Love Thee?
1970  Flap
1969  The Mad Room
1969  Arthur! Arthur!
1968  The Scalphunters
1968  Wild in the Streets
1968  Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
1967  Enter Laughing
1966  The Three Sisters
1966  Harper
1966  Alfie
1965  The Greatest Story Ever Told
1965  A Patch of Blue 
1964  Time of Indifference
1964  A House Is Not a Home
1963  The Balcony
1963  Wives and Lovers
1962  Lolita
1962  The Chapman Report
1961  The Young Savages
1960  Let No Man Write My Epitaph
1959  The Diary of Anne Frank
1959  Odds Against Tomorrow
1955  I Am a Camera
1955  The Big Knife
1955  The Night of the Hunter
1955  The Treasure of Pancho Villa
1955  I Died a Thousand Times
1954  Tennessee Champ
1954  Saskatchewan
1954  Playgirl
1954  Executive Suite
1954  Mambo
1954  Cash on Delivery
1952  Meet Danny Wilson
1952  Phone Call from a Stranger
1952  Untamed Frontier
1952  My Man and I
1951  He Ran All the Way
1951  A Place in the Sun
1951  Behave Yourself!
1951  The Raging Tide
1950  Winchester '73
1950  South Sea Sinner
1950  Frenchie
1949  Take One False Step
1949  The Great Gatsby
1949  Johnny Stool Pigeon
1948  Red River
1948  Larceny
1948  Cry of the City
1947  New Orleans
1947  Living in a Big Way
1947  The Gangster
1947  A Double Life
1947  Killer McCoy
1946  The Fighting Guardsman
1946  Two Smart People 
1946  Susie Steps Out 
1946  Abie's Irish Rose 
1946  Titanic, or Oh What A Big Ship
1945  Tonight and Every Night
1945  Escape in the Fog
1945  A Thousand and One Nights
1944  The Racket Man
1944  Sailor's Holiday
1944  Knickerbocker Holiday
1944  Cover Girl
1944  She's a Soldier Too
1944  Dancing in Manhattan
1944  Together Again
1943  There's Something About a Soldier
1943  What a Woman!