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| Birth Name(s) : Jennifer Jones |
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Full Jennifer Jones Biography
Jennifer Jones (born as Phylis Lee Isley on March 2, 1919) is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American actress.
Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Phillip R. 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 American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1938. There she met and fell in love with fellow acting student Robert Walker. The two 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. Isley landed two small roles, first in a 1939 John Wayne western titled New Frontier, followed by a serial entitled, Dick Tracy's G-Men. In these two films, she was billed as "Phyllis Isley" (Phyllis now spelled with two L's). However, when she and Walker failed a screen test for Paramount Pictures, they decided to return to New York City.
While Walker found steady work in radio programs, Isley worked part-time modeling hats for the Powers Agency while looking 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.William Holden and Jennifer Jones in a scene from Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.
She was carefully groomed for stardom and given a new name: Jennifer Jones. Director Henry King 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, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as St. Bernadette. That year, Jones' friend, Ingrid Bergman was also a Best Actress nominee for her work in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Jones apologized to Bergman, who replied, "No, Jennifer, your Bernadette was better than my Maria." Jones presented the Best Actress Oscar the following year to Bergman for Gaslight.
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 biracial woman in Selznick’s controversial Duel in the Sun . Other notable films included Since You Went Away, Love Letters, Cluny Brown, Portrait of Jennie, Madame Bovary, We Were Strangers , Carrie, Ruby Gentry, Indiscretion of an American Wife, Beat the Devil, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Good Morning Miss Dove, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and A Farewell to Arms. Her leading men during this period included Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, James Mason, John Garfield, Charlton Heston, Lord Laurence Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Robert Stack, Sir John Gielgud, Rock Hudson and Jason Robards.
Jones' first marriage to Robert Walker produced two sons, Robert Walker Jr. born April 15, 1940, and Michael Walker, born March 13, 1941. Both later became actors. She left Walker for producer David O. Selznick and in 1944, divorced the actor.
Jones married Selznick on July 13, 1949, a marriage which lasted until his death on June 22, 1965. Afterward she semi-retired from acting; her last appearance was a strong supporting role in the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno playing the ill-fated Lisolette Mueller.
Jones' only child with Selznick, Mary Jennifer Selznick, born August 12, 1954, committed suicide in 1976 by jumping from a 20th floor window. This led to Jones' interest in mental health issues.
Jones married multi-millionaire industrialist, art collector and philanthropist Norton Simon on May 29, 1971. The couple remained married until Simon's 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 actor Christopher Jones, and named her only child Jennifer Robin Jones, in the actress' honor. |
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