Tribute: Shelley Winters

Categories: Film

143212__winters_l Oscar winner Shelley Winters, who sustained a multi-decade career playing everything from blonde sexpots to cantankerous grandmothers, died Saturday of heart failure. She was 85. Winters landed her earliest roles playing saucy dames in the late 1940s, but went brunette to portray a pregnant blue-collar worker in 1951’s A Place in the Sun, scoring the first of four Academy Award nominations. She went on to win the Best Supporting Actress statuette for 1959’s The Diary of Anne Frank and 1965’s A Patch of Blue, and was also nominated for 1972’s disaster flick The Poseidon Adventure, in which she played a zaftig, former champion swimmer who strips to her skivvies and plunges underwater to save her fellow passengers. A sought-after talk-show guest who wrote two tell-all autobiographies (Shelley, Also Known as Shirley, and Shelley II: In the Middle of My Century), Winters worked well into the late 1990s, including a recurring role as Nana Mary on the hit sitcom Roseanne.

Previous Post Live-blogging the Golden Globes

Next Post 'The Bachelor': And the award goes to Moana!

Comments (1-5) of 5 Add your comment

Gus Curran
Tue 01/17/06 8:32 PM

As a kid my only exposure to Shelly Winters was in the Poseidon Adventure- I cried when her character died, probably one of the first (fictional) deaths I was ever moved by. As an adult I discovered her earlier work, particularly thinking of A Place In the Sun, and my favorite movie she’s in, Night of the Hunter, and if you haven’t seen that one, rent it today! She is amazing in that. What a career- what a lady- good bye Shelly, we will miss you.

Reply

Report this
Tim
Tue 01/17/06 8:33 PM

The Poseidon Adventure has a special meaning with me. It’s one of those movies I remember staying up and watching on the late-late-late show when I was in junior high back in the early 1980s. Goodbye, Mrs. Rosen.

Reply

Report this
Frank
Wed 01/18/06 6:31 AM

I to was a kid in the 70’s who first came to see the amazing talents of Shelley Winters in Poseidon Adventure and remember crying for the first time at a death on screen by a fictional character. It stayed with me for a long time. She will be missed and has done many wonderful films and television work that hopefully others will take a chance to see. Hope to see Entertainment Weekly give a wonderful tribute to one of Hollywoods finest!

Reply

Report this
Bobbi
Wed 01/18/06 1:00 PM

A true movie star. She was fantastic. For those too young to have seen some of her other movies, I strongly recommend watching them now. She was terrific!

Reply

Report this
Stephanie
Wed 01/18/06 8:24 PM

For any retro freaks out there, she played Ma Barker on Batman. Awesome actress.

Reply

Report this

Add your comment

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject - or we may delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. An asterisk (*) indicates a required field.