Jennifer Jones

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Jennifer Jones (born March 2, 1919 in Tulsa , † December 17, 2009 in Malibu, California ; actually Phyllis Flora Isley ) was an American actress . She experienced the peak of her career in the 1940s when she was awarded an Oscar and the Golden Globe .

Life

As the daughter of vaudeville artists, she toured across the United States with her parents as a child. She later studied at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she met her colleague Robert Walker . After getting married in 1939, they both moved to Hollywood . In 1940 their son Robert Walker Jr. , who later also became an actor, was born. Under her name Phyllis Isley , she took on a few supporting roles in westerns and B-films , without making a big impression on the press and audience. The turning point in her career came in 1941 when she caught the attention of producer David O. Selznick , who put her under a long-term contract and at the same time gave her the stage name Jennifer Jones . After three years of intensive preparation, Jones finally took on the leading role of Saint Bernadette Soubirous in Henry King's film adaptation of the bestseller The Song of Bernadette based on Franz Werfel against the competition from Linda Darnell . Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance .

In the period that followed, she rose to become a popular star as an actress in romantic women's fates. In the home front drama When You Said Farewell , she was seen in 1944 as the daughter of Claudette Colbert . In the following year she received another Oscar nomination for best leading actress for her soulful portrayal of a young war widow in love letters , which she showed under the direction of William Dieterle at the side of Joseph Cotten , who also played her film mother's admirer in As you said goodbye . Ernst Lubitsch brought her in front of the camera for Cluny Brown , after Gene Tierney was indispensable. The shooting was overshadowed by Lubitsch's dramatically deteriorating health.

Jones finally played a completely different role as a half-blood in the western Duel in der Sonne , which came to the national distributor at the end of 1946 after seemingly endless filming, numerous changes of direction and bitter quarrels with the censors. Jennifer Jones played a young woman who moves beyond the usual notions of morality and virtue and embarks on a fateful affair with her adoptive brother, played by Gregory Peck . It wasn't until a few years later that Jones reappeared in front of the camera, but neither the film adaptation of Madame Bovary nor the appearance alongside John Garfield in We Were Strangers were accepted by the audience. Her appearance in Jenny should, according to Selznick's will, bring her name back to the top of the popularity lists. But the story, which took place on different time levels and brought them back together with Joseph Cotten and William Dieterle, was a financial failure. Only William Wyler managed to help Jones make a comeback. Carrie , his film adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's sister Carrie , showed Jones as a pathologically ambitious stage actress who, on her way to the top , drives her loyal admirer and supporter, played by Laurence Olivier , to ruin and suicide. Critics praised the star's intense play and predicted a successful second career, but subsequent films did not reach the level of Wyler's work. However, Jones had another comeback in 1955 when she took on the female lead in All Glory on Earth , the film adaptation of a popular book. The film was the financially most successful film of the year.

Her marriage to Robert Walker divorced in 1945. Jennifer Jones married David O. Selznick in 1949 . She was married to Selznick until his death in 1965. In 1971 she married the industrialist and art collector Norton Simon and only sporadically accepted roles as an actress. Her last film role was in 1974 in the disaster film Flaming Inferno . Her husband appointed her chairman of the Norton Simon Museum in 1977 , an office which she continued after his death in 1993. In 1987 Jones presented the Oscar for best camera at the 59th Academy Awards . The Academy honored the actress with a short cut of her best-known film roles.

On December 17, 2009, Jones died of natural causes in Malibu at the age of 90 and she was cremated.

Filmography

Awards (selection)

Jennifer Jones star on the Walk of Fame

Web links

Commons : Jennifer Jones  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files