Shelley Winters @ 100: The Middle of Her Century
Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 9:00AM We're celebrating the centennial of Shelley Winters. Here's Glenn...
That Shelley Winters has an autobiography isn’t surprising. But that book also had a sequel, Shelley II: The Middle of My Century. Hollywood loves a sequel, after all. And what a title! These 474 pages have been sitting on my shelf for a few years now since I picked it up in a secondhand book shop and unfortunately, like many books on my shelf, I have never finished it. No slight on Shelley, of course. I’m just slack.
For Shelley’s centennial, I thought it would be fun to pick quotes from random passages based on completely arbitrary rules...
Page 13 (That's the number of feature films directed by Stanley Kubrick who cast her in Lolita)
Shirley with her third husband, the Italian star Victorio Gassman
I had done a film called Mambo with my about-to-be-ex-husband, Vittorio. For God’s sake, it’s bad enough to live through a divorce without having to act with the man during the rough separation discussions. Why couldn’t he at least have left me for an older girl? Anna Maria Ferrero—sixteen, gorgeous, and a fine actress . . . It would ruin my career, destroy my self-esteem . . . and I couldn’t get into any of my clothes of all the pasta I had cried into for the last three months.
Page 51 (That's the year of her first Oscar nomination, 1951)
I left the Studio that afternoon knowing the Actors Studio would be a cornerstone of my life. And, like a pianist or painter, I would be able to practice my craft all of my life and not have to wait for an audience or a camera. While I was waiting for the elevator, [Elia] Kazan came up to me, put his arm around my shoulders, and asked if I had understood the session. I said I thought I had and added that it was very valuable. And I thanked him. Then he asked when I going to audition for the Actors Studio, since I had been attending sessions since 1948. I hemmed and hawed and said, “You know, Gadge, I live in California and although I’m trying to get permission to do a play on Broadway, Universal suspends me every time I go to Malibu for brunch, let alone fly to New York!”
Page 73 (For Winchester ’73)
Universal’s publicity department was aghast when they read in The New York Times that their hot blonde property was going to leave Hollywood, live in New York, and do a hit play on the New York stage. At that time, I didn’t realize there was any other kind.
Page 180 (That's the runtime of the film that won her her first Oscar, The Diary of Anne Frank)
Sitting that evening with George Stevens in Sardi’s, all I knew was that I was too old to play Anne [Frank] and too young to play her mother or the other lady in it, and I had no idea why George had asked me to go see the play with him, but he finally said, “Shelley, when you were in your middle twenties, you convinced me you were seventeen, and almost won the Best Actress Oscar for A Place in the Sun. Do you think you could extend your acting magic further and convince me that you’re fifty and able to play Mrs. Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank? In the film it will be a much more powerful role than it was in the play.”
Page 235 (2 minutes and 35 seconds, is the length of the song“The Morning After” from The Poseidon Adventure)
Shelley in her best remembered role in "The Poseidon Adventure"
I was able to handle this occupational disease. I call it traumatitis. This disease of acting is one of the main reasons so many artists become alcoholics or drug addicts. I think this psychiatric knowledge prevented me from following either of those routes. The only addiction I have is food, and I think I more or less have this under control.
Page 322 (Chosen for no reason, it’s just a good political anecdote)
When the polling of the delegates started later that day, I glanced over to Mrs. Roosevelt. She was quietly weeping. I could not believe it. The times I had seen her in person and on newsreels or on television she had always been the most reserved, dignified, and composed woman I had ever seen. As the state roll was called, I became aware that Senator Kennedy was winning. I sat there most of the night and I slowly realized that John F. Kennedy had managed to win the nomination… I left the convention hall, drove back to my Beverley Hills duplex, and ate two tuna-fish sandwiches, drank three chocolate milk shakes, and took two sleeping pills, my standard tranquilizer. It didn’t work.”
Page 474 (the final page)
To be continued. I HOPE!
Thank you for attending TFE's Shelley Winters Centennial!
Nathaniel on The Starlet in A Double Life (1947)
Eric on The Pro in Lolita (1962)
Nathaniel on The Champ in A Patch of Blue (1965)
Claudio on The Actor's Actor Bloody Mama (1970)
Baby Clyde on The Old Crone Pete's Dragon (1977)
Glenn Dunks on The Memoirist "Shelley II" (1989)
Reader Comments (12)
This might just be my all-time favorite celebrity memoir, though it's a close call w/ Bacall's BY MYSELF. The best part is when Winters (incorrectly) jabs then-husband Anthony Franciosa for "only" netting a Best Supporting Actor nom for A HATFUL OF RAIN (he was, of course, actually nominated for Best Lead Actor) when she was a Lead nominee for A PLACE IN THE SUN.
Glenn you ignored reader engagement and interaction on your Criterion Australian films list, will this persist or are you open to comments and questions, like a Claudio for one example.
Both her books were compulsive page turners. From everything I've read in real life she was a LOT to handle but she was a compelling presence and she held the screen whenever she was on it.
One thing Gassman was her second husband.
I love Shelley Winters to pieces. A couple years ago I read Farley Granger's autobiography and he talked about how they were the best of friends, even though she often drove him nuts with her antics! I really want to read her two books, they sound like they're just about as much fun as she was in person.
Fun selection of quotations. I don't usually read this kind of book, but I'm tempted.
This must be a very entertaining book. Gassman’s daughter, Paola, several years ago remembered that Winters was very in love with Italian thespian. Anna Maria Ferrero, an Italian Actress definitely should be remembered more often, then married french heartthrob Jean Sorel
Never read her biographic books but they must be entertaining. I watched a tv show here in Italy many years ago where Gassman’a daughter, Paola, remembered how much Winters was in love with her father. Anna Maria Ferrero, an Italian thespian who should be remembered more often, then married french heartthrob Jean Sorel
Bought it.
I noticed Glenn's coldness, aloofness at best. Hopefully he at least passed on Jackie Weaver's AVClub interview for the next link roundup. Good stuff, if he doesn't want engagement at least we can get some good Aussie content included.
I bought both Shelley Winters memoirs and enjoyed them. Having seen her for decades on TV talk shows telling anecdotes, I also took her stories with more than a grain of salt!
Best Movie Star autobiographies OF ALL TIME!!!
I've been laughing about her GWTW audition for 30 years now.
Such a shame that there's only 2. By the end of the second one she's only made it to 1963 so have always been pissed off that we didn't get at least 3 more.
"Judy" and "Nicole", whatever panto act this is I can guarantee I have *very little time for it*. For starters it's 8am and this was posted while I was asleep.