The stunningly beautiful actress Jennifer Jones died yesterday at her Malibu home at age 90. In 1944 she won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Saint Bernadette, but she also took on memorable roles in which she played outrageous sinners and/or quasi-ethnic types in roles that probably wouldn't fly in today's cinema.
These include the vixenish mestiza Pearl Chavez who’s in love with two brothers in Duel in the Sun (aka Lust in the Dust); the ex-patriot bourgeoise Mary Forbes in Indiscretion of an American Wife; and Dr. Han Suyin, a widowed Eurasian doctor whose family disapproves of her romance with an American journalist played by William Holden in Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (a movie for which my sister has a vaguely embarrassed yet nostalgic fondness).
Jones married three times. The first was to actor Robert Walker, perhaps best known as the sublimely sociopathic killer Bruno Anthony in Strangers on a Train. Her second marriage was to producer David O. Selznick, whose bad advice was thought to have wrecked her career. Her third marriage was to magnate Norton Simon, and after his death she served as chair of the Board of Directors of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Jones married three times. The first was to actor Robert Walker, perhaps best known as the sublimely sociopathic killer Bruno Anthony in Strangers on a Train. Her second marriage was to producer David O. Selznick, whose bad advice was thought to have wrecked her career. Her third marriage was to magnate Norton Simon, and after his death she served as chair of the Board of Directors of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.Read more at USA Today or the Seattle Times.
Update: a Los Angeles Times appreciation of Jennifer Jones and her work on behalf of the Norton Simon Museum.
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