Shelley Winters ~ Diary of Anne Frank

Shelley Winters borrowed her stage name from her favorite poet, Percy Blyhte Shelley, and her mother’s maiden name, Winter. The first studio she signed with reportedly added the final “s,” but it has also been said that she added the “s” herself when she heard that she was being referred to as “Chilly Winter”.

She left school at 15 to work as a counter clerk and model while studying drama and entering beauty pageants, determined to make it as an actress. For her first appearance on Broadway, a 1941 play called The Night Before Christmas, she needed to join the union, Actors Equity, and had to borrow $25 from her sister for dues — a fortune in those days. Winters has since speculated that her sister, then a student nurse, may have sold blood to come up with the cash. Winters headed west in the early 1940s, and first signed with Columbia studios, but was stuck with bit parts. She shared an apartment with Marilyn Monroe; they shared a bathing suit for cheesecake shots and a mink coat for dates. Legend has it that Winters taught Monroe how to “act pretty”, by tilting her head back, lowering her eyes, and ever-so-slightly opening her mouth.

By the 1950’s Shelley was soon tired of the limited roles and began to turn heads with her “serious” roles and in 1959 was cast as Mrs. Petronella Van Daan, Anne Frank’s neighbor with whom they shared a secret home for two years hiding from the Nazi’s.  Her role in this film gave Hollywood a whole new look at who Shelley Winters was and her powerful abilities as an actress.  In one scene she brought the pain of war and the pain of depression to the screen, when milk is spilt on her fur coat.

Shelley would go on to star in at least 25 more films and TV roles and won a second Oscar a few years later.  Even though most remember her in her role in The Poseidon Adventure, this role was a career changing move for Shelley Winters.