Jennifer Jones Biography
Jennifer Jones was an American film actress and mental health advocate. She was known for her performances in roles that alternated between fresh-faced naifs and tempestuous vixens.
During the course of her career that spanned over five decades, Jennifer was nominated for the Academy Award five times, including one win for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe Award win for Best Actress in a Drama. She was among the youngest actresses to receive an Academy Award, having won on her 25th birthday.
Jennifer Jones Age
Jennifer Jones was born with her real birth name as Phylis Lee Isley on March 2nd, 1919 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. She is of American nationality and of white ethnicity. Jennifer passed on on December 17, 2009, in Malibu, California, U.S.A. She was 90 years old when she died.
Jennifer Jones Parents
Jennifer having been born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she was the daughter of Flora Suber Mae (mother) and her father was called Phillip Ross Isle. Her dad was originally from Georgia, while her mom was a native of Sacramento, California.
Being the only child to her parents, she was raised Roman Catholic. Jones’ parents were both aspiring stage actors and toured the Midwest in a travelling tent show that they owned and operated. Jennifer accompanied them, performing on occasion as part of the Isely Stock Company.
Jennifer Jones Married | Jennifer Jones Spouse
During the time of her death, she was a widow. Jones was, however, married three times. Her first marriage was in 1939 to actor Robert Walker. The two had two sons together, both of whom went on to become actors. Jennifer then developed an affair with film producer David O. Selznick while she was still married to Walker. Her marriage with Robert ended in 1945.
In 1949, she got married to David O. Selznick and they together had one daughter. The couple remained married until Selznick’s death in 1965. In 1976, unfortunately, their daughter committed suicide.
Jones’ third marriage was to Norton Simon, a multi-millionaire industrialist, art collector, and philanthropist. They got married in 1971. Simon, unfortunately, died in 1993.
Jennifer Jones Children
Jennifer had three children. She had two sons and one daughter. Her first children were from her first marriage with her first husband Robert Walker. The couple had two sons namely, Robert Walker Jr. and Michael Walker.
Jennifer’s third child was from her second marriage with her husband David Selznick. The girl’s name was Mary Jennifer Selznick.
Jennifer Jones Daughter | Mary Jennifer Selznick
Jennifer’s daughter, Mary Jennifer was born on August 12th, 1954 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA. Mary Jennifer died of suicide, whereby Mary jumped off of a 22nd storey skyscraper, to her death in Los Angelos, California. This sparked interest in her mother for mental health issues.
Mary died on May 11th, 1976 when she was 21 years old. She was laid to rest at Forrest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Glendale, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Jennifer Jones Education
As of education background, not much is known. We only know that she enrolled at Edgemere Public School in Oklahoma City in 1925. She then subsequently attended Monte Cassino, a Catholic girls’ school and junior college in Tulsa.
She attended Monte Cassino, a girls’ school, before proceeding to the Northwestern University in Illinois, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. Then she moved to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1938.
Jones enrolled as a drama major at Northwestern University in Illinois after graduating. It is where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, before transferring to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City on September 1937. It was there that she met and fell in love with fellow acting student Robert Walker, a native of Ogden, Utah. The couple married on January 2, 1939.
Jennifer Jones The Actress
Being married in 1939, she began her career with a 13-week radio program, arranged by her father. Jones soon ventured into Hollywood and found small roles in movies. She auditioned for the lead role in the hit play Claudia during the early 1940s which producer David O. Selznick was making into a movie. Jennifer did not get the role but Selznick recognized her potential and started grooming her for her future career.
Selznick gave her the name Jennifer Jones and helped her sign a seven-year contract. Jones appeared as Bernadette Soubirous in the 1943 drama film ‘The Song of Bernadette’ which was a great success both critically and financially.
She won a Best Actress Oscar Award for her role in the film, The Song of Bernadette. Jones was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Pearl Chavez in Duel in the Sun. She was a Eurasian actress and had a role in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.
Being an ambitious but emotionally vulnerable woman, Jennifer let Selznick control her career and choose the roles she played. She acted in versatile roles that Selznick chose for her throughout the 1940s. Jones appeared in ‘Duel in the Sun’ in 1946 as a bi-racial woman who becomes involved in prejudice and forbidden love.
Jennifer appeared in several other films like Cluny Brown in 1946, Portrait of Jennie in 1948, Madame Bovary in 1949, and We Were Strangers in 1949 in the late 1940s. Jones began the 1950s on a positive note, starring Carrie in 1952, a film version of Theodore Dreiser’s novel ‘Sister Carrie’ co-starring Laurence Olivier.
Achievements
Jones’ career flourished throughout the 1950s, and her 1955 romantic drama film ‘Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing’ was especially successful. Also, she played a Eurasian doctor Han Suyin who falls in love with a married-but-separated American correspondent. Jennifer’s performance earned her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress.
Jones followed up with much-appreciated performances in Good Morning, Miss Dove in 1955, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit in 1956, and A Farewell to Arms in 1957. Her acting career almost ended in the 1960s following the death of her husband David O. Selznick in 1965.
Jennifer made her last big-screen appearance in the disaster film The Towering Inferno in 1974. Her portrayal of Lisolette Mueller in the multi-starrer film earned her the Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.
Jennifer Jones Net worth
As of 2019, she has an estimated net worth of $3 Million Dollars. Further details about her wealth will be updated soon.
Jennifer Jones Movies
| · The Song of Bernadette | · Love Letters 1945 | · The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit |
| · Duel in the Sun | · Good Morning, Miss Dove | · The Idol 1966 |
| · Since You Went Away | · Cluny Brown | · New Frontier 1939 |
| · Portrait of Jennie | · Tender Is The Night 1962 | · Carrie 1952 |
| · Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing | · Madame Bovary 1949 | · We Were Strangers |
| · The Towering Inferno | · Terminal Station | · The Wild Heart |
| · Ruby Gentry | · Angel, Angel, Down We Go | · The Fighting Generation |
| · A Farewell to Arms 1957 | · Gone to Earth | · Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration |
Jennifer Jones Death
During the last six years of her life, she enjoyed a quiet retirement while living with her son Robert Walker Jr. and his family in Malibu. Jones granted no interviews and rarely appeared in public. She participated in Gregory Peck’s AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 1989 and appeared at the 70th in 1998 and 75th in 2003 Academy Awards as part of the shows’ tributes to past Oscar winners.
On 17 December 2009, Jennifer died due to natural causes when she was 90 years old. Her body was cremated and her ashes were interred with her second husband in the Selznick private room at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Jennifer Jones Public image
She suffered from shyness for much of her life and avoided discussing her past and personal life with journalists. Also, Jones was averse to discussing a critical analysis of her work.
Public discussion of her working relationship with her husband, David O. Selznick, has often overshadowed her career. Paul Green, a biography contends that, while Selznick helped facilitate her career and seek roles for her, Jones excelled because she not only possessed outstanding beauty but she also possessed genuine talent.
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