Jennifer Jones
for others with this name see Jennifer Jones (disambiguation)Jennifer Jones (born
March 2,
1919) is an
Academy Award-winning
American actress.
Jones was born
Phylis Lee Isley in
Tulsa,
Oklahoma to Phil Isley and Flora Mae Suber, who toured the
Midwest in a traveling tent show 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 Academy of Dramatic Arts in
New York in 1938. There she met and fell in love with fellow acting student
Robert Walker and they were married on
January 2 1939 when Jones was 19 years old.
They returned to Tulsa for a 13 week radio program arranged by her father, and then headed for Hollywood. Phylis landed two small roles, first in a
John Wayne western titled
New Frontier (1939) and later a serial,
Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939) but when she and her husband failed a screen test for
Paramount Pictures, they decided to return to New York.
While Walker found steady work in radio programs Phylis worked part-time work modeling hats for the
Powers Agency and looked for possible acting jobs. When she learned of auditions for the lead role of
Claudia in
Rose Franken's hit play of the same name, 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 her new name - Jennifer Jones. Director
King Vidor was impressed by her screen test as
Bernadette Soubirous for
The Song of Bernadette and she won the coveted role over hundreds of applicants. In 1944, on her 25th birthday, she won the
Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as St. Bernadette. That year, Jones' new best friend
Ingrid Bergman was also a Best Actress nominee for her work in
For Whom the Bell Tolls. After Jones won the award, she tried to apologize to her friend, but Bergman classily replied "Your Bernadette was better than my Maria."
Selznick was a suffocating and dominating lover who became obsessed with grooming and molding Jones' career. It is suggested that Selznick's domination lead to her many suicide attempts and an increasing nervousness. During her tenure with Selznick, Jones was cast in multiple inapproriate roles in his effort to get her a second Oscar.
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 half-breed in Selznick's controversial
Duel in the Sun (1946). Other notable films included
Since You Went Away (1944),
Cluny Brown (1946),
Portrait of Jennie (1948),
Madame Bovary (1949),
Ruby Gentry (1952),
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing and
Good Morning Miss Dove (1955).
The
portrait of her for the film Portrait of Jennie was painted by
Robert Brackman.
Jones's first marriage to
Robert Walker produced two sons,
Robert Walker Jr. born
April 15 1940, and Michael Walker, born
March 13 1941. Both of them became actors. The couple divorced in 1944.
Jones married Selznick on
July 13 1949, staying with him until his death on
June 22 1965. Following Selznick's death, she semi-retired from acting and appeared in only a few films. Her last appearance was a strong supporting role in
The Towering Inferno (1974). Her only child with Selznick, Mary Jennifer Selznick, born
August 12 1954, committed suicide in 1976. This led to Jones' interest in mental health issues.
She married multi-millionaire industrialist, art collector and philanthropist
Norton Simon on
May 29 1971, and remained married to him until his death on
June 1 1993. She is currently on the board of directors of the Norton Simon Museum in
Pasadena.
Jennifer Jones is a
breast cancer survivor. The late actress
Susan Strasberg, who died of breast cancer, was married to a fellow actor surnamed
Jones, and named her only child, a daughter,
Jennifer Jane Jones, after the esteemed older actress.
*
1939 New Frontier*
1939 Dick Tracy's G-Men*
1943 The Song of Bernadette*
1944 Since You Went Away*
1945 Love Letters*
1946 Cluny Brown*
1946 Duel in the Sun*
1948 Portrait of Jennie*
1949 We Were Strangers*
1949 Madame Bovary*
1949 Gone to Earth (released in the U.S. in 1952 in a heavily edited form as
The Wild Heart)
*
1952 Carrie*
1952 Ruby Gentry*
1953 Beat the Devil*
1954 Indiscretion of an American Wife*
1955 Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing*
1955 Good Morning Miss Dove*
1956 The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit*
1957 The Barretts of Wimpole Street*
1957 A Farewell To Arms*
1962 Tender is the Night*
1965 The Idol*
1969 Cult of the Damned*
1974 The Towering Inferno*Oliver, Phillip. Jennifer Jones. [
1] Retrieved
February 3 2005.
*Epstein, Edward. Portrait of Jennifer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0671740563
*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Jennifer Jones
