Trivia of Jennifer Jones

Trivia of Jennifer Jones (2 March 1919 - 17 December 2009)

*Her parents, both aspiring stage actors, toured the Midwest in a traveling tent show they owned and operated. Jones accompanied them, performing on occasion as part of the Isley Stock Company.It was her father who arranged her to Hollywood.She landed two small roles, first in the 1939 John Wayne Western New Frontier, which she filmed in the summer of 1939 for Republic Pictures and the serial titled Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939), also for Republic. In both films, she was credited as Phylis Isley.

*When she learned of auditions for the lead role in Rose Franken's hit play Claudia in the summer of 1941, she presented herself to David O. Selznick's New York office but fled in tears after what she thought was a bad reading.However, Selznick had overheard her audition and was impressed enough to have his secretary call her back. Following an interview, she was signed to a seven-year contract.She was carefully groomed for stardom and given a new name: Jennifer Jones.

*Jennifer Jones played the saintly Bernadette Soubirous in the movie The Song of Bernadette (1943) which became one of her best known roles. Her wholesome, innocent image as a pious young girl in the film captured the audience’s hearts and impressed the film critics as well. Her performance was much lauded and she won an Academy Award.

*She portrayed a flirtatious bi-racial young woman Pearl Chavez in the western film Duel in the Sun (1946) opposite Joseph Cotten and Gregory Pec.The movie though highly controversial due to its sexual content was a box-office hit and earned Jones a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

*Jones began an affair with producer Selznick and married him at sea on July 13, 1949, in route to Europe, after having carried on a relationship for five years.Over the following two decades, she appeared in numerous films he produced such : Since You Went Away (1944), Portrait of Jenny (1948), Terminal Station (1953), and A Farewell to Arms (1957).

*Her acting career almost ended in the 1960s following the death of her husband David O. Selznick in 1965.She made her last big-screen appearance in the disaster film ‘The Towering Inferno’ (1974).

*Jones suffered from mental-health problems during her life and survived a 1967 suicide attempt in which she jumped from a cliff in Malibu Beach. After her daughter took her own life in 1976, Jones became profoundly interested in mental-health education. In 1980, she founded the Jennifer Jones Simon Foundation for Mental Health and Education.