Jennifer Jones (1919-2009) is on the left in the above photo, where she and Ingrid Bergman (the two were good friends) are sharing a moment at the 17th Academy Awards. Jones, the previous year’s winner in the category, had presented Bergman with the statuette for Best Actress, for Gaslight.
Jones was born in Oklahoma. She studied at Northwestern University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for a time. Under her given name, Phyllis Isley, she had roles in two 1939 Republic productions, New Frontier, a B-Western, and the serial Dick Tracy’s G-Men.
Jones then returned to New York. A theater audition led to her meeting with producer David Selznick, who signed her to a contract, and gave her the name that millions of moviegoers would soon recognize. In 1943, she starred in the title role of the religious drama The Song of Bernadette.
Jones won Best Actress for The Song of Bernadette. She was then nominated for Oscars for the next three years in a row. She was a Best Supporting Actress nominee for the 1944 World War 2 home front drama Since You Went Away. She then received two more Best Actress nominations, for the film noir Love Letters, and then the Western melodrama Duel in the Sun.
While Jones did not sustain that level of success thereafter–it would have been very hard to–she remained a major actress for another decade or so. She starred in some high-profile literary adaptations, such as Madame Bovary, Carrie (adapted from Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie), and A Farewell to Arms (as Catherine Barkley). She also starred in Portrait of Jennie, Beat the Devil, and The Barretts of Wimpole Street (as Elizabeth Barrett). She received a fourth Best Actress nomination for the 1955 drama Love is a Many-Splendored Thing.
After 1957, Jones made only a handful of films. She starred in a 1962 adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. In her final film role, Irwin Allen’s 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno, she was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actress.
Jones was also known for her high-profile marriages. Her first husband was Robert Walker, famous for starring in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. Selznick became her second husband. After his death, she married industrialist Norton Simon, and in her later years, she was heavily involved in philanthropic activities, particularly the Norton Simon museum.
Martin Ritt was last year’s headliner for this date.
Today is Rebel Wilson’s 42nd birthday. She will star with Angourie Rice in the upcoming Netflix comedy Senior Year.
Bryce Dallas Howard is turning 41. She returns as Claire Dearing for Jurassic World: Dominion. Howard also recently directed an episode of The Book of Boba Fett.
Daniel Craig celebrates his 54th today. He is returning as Benoit Blanc for Knives Out 2. Last fall, Craig made his final appearance as James Bond in No Time to Die.
Chris Martin is 45; he and Coldplay released their latest album, Music of the Spheres, last fall. Luke Combs, who won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award last November, turns 32.
Pilou Asbæk, who is 40, starred in last year’s Outside the Wire. Ethan Peck, who will star as Spock on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, is celebrating his 36th.
Nathalie Emmanuel, who is turning 33, costarred in F9 and Army of Thieves. Maisie Richardson-Sellers, who will be a regular on the Peacock series The Undeclared War, is 30 today.
Our latest March 1 headliner was Lupita Nyong’o.
Yesterday was Lupita Nyong’o’s 39th birthday. She stars in the recent release The 355. Nyong’o will return as Nakia in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Javier Bardem turned 53. He is a pending Oscar nominee for Best Actor as Desi Arnaz in Being the Ricardos, and was also a Golden Globe and SAG Award nominee. Bardem also won a Goya Award for starring in the Spanish film The Good Boss, and appeared as Stilgar in Dune.
It’s Justin Bieber’s 28th birthday. He has a bunch of pending Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year for Justice, and Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Peaches.”
Ron Howard is 68. His newest directing project is the survival drama Thirteen Lives.
We wish the great Harry Belafonte a happy, day-late 95th birthday.
Cara Buono, who turned 51 yesterday, remains a regular on Stranger Things. Jensen Ackles, who joins the season 3 cast of Amazon’s The Boys, is 44.
Lindsay Mendez, who is 39, will return for season 3 of All Rise as it moves to the Oprah Winfrey Network. Dominic Rains, who remains a regular on Chicago Med, celebrated his 40th.
William Wellman was the most recent headliner for February 28.
Bernadette Peters turned 74 on Monday. She appeared on the Roku Channel TV movie Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas.
John Turturro is 64. He will be seen on movie screens beginning this weekend in The Batman, as Carmine Falcone.
Denise Gough, who was a regular on the British miniseries Too Close, turned 42. Amanda Abbington, who is 48, is a regular on the British crime drama Wolfe.
Sarah Bolger, who celebrated her 31st, remains a regular on Mayans M.C.
Playwright and screenwriter Ketti Frings (1909-1981) was best known for her stage adaptation of Thomas Wolfe’s novel, Look Homeward Angel. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for 1958. Her screenplays included The File on Thelma Jordon and Come Back, Little Sheba. She also wrote the novel Hold Back the Dawn.
Let’s turn to Harry Belafonte for a musical closer, from his appearance on The Muppet Show.
If today is your birthday, congratulations on sharing your big day with these notable names. Birthday wishes to everyone celebrating a big day today. Come back tomorrow for more celebrity birthdays.
The post March 2: Happy Birthday Jennifer Jones appeared first on Lebeau's Le Blog.
