Shelley Winters, 85
Posted: Saturday, January 14th, 2006 4:27 pm
Shelley Winters, the forceful, outspoken star who graduated from blond bombshell parts to dramas, winning Academy Awards as supporting actress in The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue, has died. She was 85.
Winters died of heart failure at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She was hospitalised in October after suffering a heart attack. …
Ever vocal on social and political matters, Winters was a favoured 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).
She wrote openly in them of her romances with Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and other leading men. …
She received her final Oscar nomination, for 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure…
During her 50 years as a widely known personality, Winters was rarely out of the news. Her stormy marriages, her romances with famous stars, her forays into politics and feminist causes kept her name before the public. She delighted in giving provocative interviews and seemed to have an opinion on everything. …
During the Detroit run of a musical revue, she married a businessman, Paul “Mack” Mayer on January 1, 1942. … They divorced in 1948.
Winters’ 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. … Read full obituary
