Jennifer Jones, March 2, 1919 – Dec. 17, 2009, considered one of the least known Academy award winning actresses of the times, has died at her home in Malibu of natural causes. She was 90.
She won an Academy Award for her role as a peasant girl who had a vision of the Virgin Mary in the 1943 drama “The Song of Bernadette.”
Heralded as an overnight discovery, Jennifer Jones went head-to-head for top award nominations against some of the most well-known actresses of her day. Her Academy Award win for that of Best Actress (at the age of 25) was against such acting greats as Ingrid Bergman. For her role in the 1944 “Since You Went Away,” Jones narrowly lost the Best Supporting Actress award to Ethel Barrymore and for the 1945 “Love Letters,” Jennifer Jones lost to none other than Joan Crawford. Jennifer Jones was also nominated in good company for an Oscar for her role in “Duel in the Sun.”
But her career as an actress is somewhat spotty with one project sinking followed by a success, then failure again. The ill-fated “Terminal Station” about a love affair that develops in Rome’s railway station was a widespread flop, re-cut and rereleased as “Indiscretions of an American Wife.”
Unfortunately in 1967 she had a suicide attempt and subsequently spent some time in a sanatorium. Always quiet, she stayed more and more out of the limelight. By 1974, she was offered only a bit part in “The Towering Inferno” and retired quietly out of the business.
She leaves behind a son from her first marriage, Robert Walker of Malibu; a stepson, Donald Simon of Los Angeles; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. A son from her first marriage, Michael Walker, died in 2007.
