Jennifer Jones

An Academy Award-winning actress whose bright but ultimately stunted career was largely orchestrated by her second husband, famed producer David O. Selznick, Jennifer Jones was born Phylis Lee Isley in Tulsa, Okla., on March 2, 1919. Before arriving in Hollywood and adopting the stage name Selznick created for her, she spent summers with her parents' traveling theater troupe and studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Jones's portrayal of a French girl who has a religious vision in The Song of Bernadette (1943) earned her an Oscar -- and instant stardom. She followed that success with four more Oscar nods for her work in Since You Went Away (1944), Love Letters (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946) and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955).

The actress's final film was the celebrity-studded disaster movie The Towering Inferno (1974). She died Dec. 17, 2009, at the age of 90.

Filmography