Damn it !!! Shelley Winters has died.

[ronnykmarshall]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060115/ap_en_mo/obit_winters

:cry:

This one hits me on a personal level. I had the pleasure of meeting Shelley last year at a resturant here in West Hollywood. She was a real person. Funny, charming and she didn't pull any DIVA bullshit. She was in a wheel chair and had suffer a stroke. But she still was a "star" and she fucking loved meeting fans. She told me when I mentioned "The Poseidon Adventure" .... "I swam pretty damn good in that didn't I?" and she added "I had the biggest crush on Gene Hackman in that film too" ...!

What a dame! What a gal! What a broad! What a woman!!

God bless you Shelley. I'll miss seeing you at "The Silver Spoon" in WeHo. Thanks for being a you!

xoxo

Ronny

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

1. awwww

:hug:

thats such a nice story about her ronny...Im sorry this is hitting you hard....

[ronnykmarshall]

4. Thanks baby.

We just went to have breakfast at the resturant where I met her.

[speedoo]

2. 85 years is a pretty good run.

Especially when you have such a full life. RIP, babe. You were a wonderful actress.

[tishaLA]

3. I loved her, too

My favorite story about her is that while casting a film, the director called Ms. Winters into the office to audition for a role. Well, Shelly went to the director's office with a satchel in hand and, after she sat down, she placed the bag upon her ample lap and pulled out one...then another...Oscar from the bag and placed them on the director's desk. She then said, "Here's my audition. You see...some people in this town think I can act" and left the office.

She didn't get the part.

[ronnykmarshall]

5. I love that !!

She later donated her Oscar for "Annie Frank" to the museum in Amsterdam.

[brook]

6. She certainly was heads

above the crowd, wasn't she? As you said "a great dame". She had hutspah along with everything else. I hated getting this news...not that I begrudge her the Peace she so richly deserves, but because they don't make 'em like her anymore. She had a sister -a nurse - at Cedars, I think. Also a pretty spunky dame.

RIP, Shelley. Save me a seat at the bar.

[ronnykmarshall]

11. You said it!

When I met her it was like hangin' out with a friend. Even in a wheelchair with some limited movement in her left side .... THAT VOICE .... THAT SPIRIT ..... she stil was the type of woman that would have you rolling on the floor laughing and fall in love with her at the same time.

I am so thankful that I got to met her. Even if it was just for a few minutes. She really loved her fans and didn't put on any fronts. She was a real gem.

Order me a martini Shelley .... I'll catch up with ya one day. :loveya:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. One of her memorable roles was the mother of the children in

The Night of the Hunter. She falls in love with and eventually falls victim to Robert Mitchum's creepy sociopathic preacher.

[bleedingheart]

8. I got really teary eyed when I found out...

I read her first biography as a kid, she appeared to be such an honest person...

[supernova]

9. She was very cool!

I'm so glad you got to meet her, Ronny. That's a great story. :toast:


RIP, Shelley.

[jonnyblitz]

10. she was in some great campy b movies too... here are three

for example:

1) What's the Matter with Helen:

Plot Summary for
What's the Matter with Helen? (1971)

In the mid-1930's, Adelle (Debbie Reynolds) and Helen (Shelley Winters) are the mothers of a pair of murderers in What's the Matter with Helen? With their small Midwest town in an uproar over a relaxed sentence on the men and harassing them with breathy phone calls, the two women flock to Hollywood and open a school for young child starlets. Of course the school is a big success, what with Shirley Temple being all the rage. Adelle hooks up with the rich millionaire father (Dennis Weaver) of one of her pupils, while Helen becomes infatuated with a radio evangelist, Sister Alma (Agnes Moorehead in a glorified cameo). With the two womens' lives headed in completely opposite directions, murder and insanity come calling to rain on their parade.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0067975/

2.)Whoever Slew Auntie Roo

Plot Summary for
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971)

This is a retelling of the old tale of Hansel and Gretel, but set in England in the 1920s. To the children and staff at the orphanage, Auntie Roo is a kindly American widow who gives them a lavish Christmas party each year in her mansion, Forrest Grange. In reality, she is a severely disturbed woman, who keeps the mummified remains of her little daughter in a nursery in the attic. One Christmas, her eye falls upon a little girl who reminds her of her daughter and she imprisons her in her attic. Nobody believes her brother, Christopher, when he tells them what has happened, so he goes to rescue her.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0067983/

3.)Poor Pretty Eddy

plot summary for Poor Pretty Eddy(1975): A wrong turn on a jazz singer's road trip results in her car breaking down near an isolated lodge run by a faded starlet and a young, homicidal Elvis impersonator.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0070556/

If you go down her list of films there are shitloads to pick from besides her more acclaimed movies.

[ronnykmarshall]

12. Wow! What's the Matter w/ Helen!!

We saw that at the drive in. It was a second feature (funny that I can't recall the "main" movie) and my whole family was floored by it. She and Debbie Reynolds ..... which is ANOTHER great lady that I've had the pleasure of meeting.

RIP Shelley!! :loveya:

and Debbie ..... don't you be leaving us anytime soon.

[jonnyblitz]

13. i remember when you met Debbie and posted about it..

I thought of that when as i was cutting and pasting the post you responded to...:hi:

I love campy 70's movies!! shelly winters was great!!!

[bigwillq]

14. Shelly was also Nana Harris

in the tv show "Roseanne". That's where I remember Shelly the most from! I know, how sad. I should be checking out her great movie! :hi:

RIP Shelly! :(

[ronnykmarshall]

15. It's really cool ...

I've been really lucky to have met two great legendary actresses. And both of them were so sweet and nice to me.

[jonnyblitz]

16. it's funny you mention her commenting on her swimming

in the Poseidon Adventure because when I think of her, what pops into my head is a scene from that movie where she just dives into the water, which was quite a feat for a woman her size. I can still picture it in my head...

[terrya]

24. Not to mention "Wild in the Streets"

with Christopher Jones, Ed Begley, Hal Holbrook and a young Richard Pryor.

[ronnykmarshall]

25. Damn!

I didn't know about that one.

I sent Sally Kirkland an e-mail. She was a very close friend of Shelley and in fact per the LA Times performed the last rites for her. Here's the article ....

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-winters15jan15,1,660337.story?ctrack=1&cset=true


OBITUARIES
Shelley Winters, 85; Oscar Winner Went From Bombshell to Respected Actress
By Claudia Luther, Special to The Times


Shelley Winters, a blond bombshell of the 1940s who evolved into a character actress best remembered for her roles as victims, shrews and matrons, died Saturday. She was 85.

Winters, the first actress to win two Oscars in the best supporting category, died of heart failure at the Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist, Dale Olson, said. She was hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack.


Actress Sally Kirkland, who was close to Winters, said she was with Winters Friday night as an ordained minister for the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness performed last rites for her.

Kirkland said she also performed a "spiritual wedding ceremony" for Winters and her life partner, Jerry DeFord. Olson said DeFord had been Winters' companion for 19 years.

[PassingFair]

17. Lolita....

I remember the movie mostly for HER. Not Sue Lyon.
Also stole the show in Alfie. Definately.
Blasted stereotypes.
One of the greats.

[ronnykmarshall]

19. Shelley seem to steal every scene she was in.

"Place in the Sun" ..... this was probably when she desided to throw away the glammor girl roles (and if you look back at some early pics of Shelley .... WOW!) and become a serious actress.



Well, it worked. This was her first (and only) Best Actress Oscar nomination. She would go on to win two Best Supporting Actress Oscars (the first woman to win two Oscars in the catigory) and was nominated one more time for "Posiden".

It's funny, the very FIRST letter to a magazine or newspaper I ever had printed was to "Rona Barett's Hollwood". I didn't know how many Oscars Shelley had won or was nominated.

DAMN I'm gonna miss this gal!

[Dervill Crow]

21. A Place in the Sun was on TV today.

She was an amazing example of someone who wasn't afraid to reinvent herself all the way from glamour girl to gifted character actress and yet be true to herself. That's not to say that she was ever just a "personality." She was a great actress.

The first time I remember seeing her in a movie was "The Diary of Anne Frank," and then when I picked up her autobiography and found out what a hottie and about her many adventures, my head just about exploded. I was quite young and thought that it was MY generation that invented sex. :silly:

[ronnykmarshall]

22. They are running a lot of her films.

I missed that one.

I've set Anne Frank on my Tivo to record.

I wish I still had Shelley's two books. I probably gave them away when I moved one time. Those books had to be one of the most honest and up front bio books I've read from an actor. But that again was who Shelley was.

[Beware the Beast Man]

18. She seemed like a very unpretentious type.

RIP Shelly.

[ronnykmarshall]

20. You are so right.

When I met her, I was so impressed. Like I said the effects of her stroke left her with limited movement on her left side. She had on this cute little baseball hat (it had a designer name on ... she wore it on "Roseann" a lot) ... she wore this little simple dress, she speech slurred a bit because of her stroke ... but did she give a shit? Hell no!! Miss Winters rolled herself in that resturant, thanked us for giving her out table (we were getting ready to leave) and just talked to me like I was an old friend. She held my hand and joked and laughed. I could have stayed there all day with her. I'll bet if I pulled up a chair she would have loved it.




This picture of Shelley is with Sally Kirkland and I think it's at The Silver Spoon where I met Shelley.

[brook]

23. That's a nice shot. Thanx,ronnykm.