Phylis Lee (Isley) Simon (1919 - 2009)

Born 2 Mar 1919 in Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Robert Hudson Walker — married 2 Jan 1939 (to Apr 1945) in New York, United States

Wife of David Oliver Selznick — married 13 Jul 1949 in At Sea

Wife of Norton Winfred Simon — married 30 May 1971 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Died 17 Dec 2009 at age 90 in Malibu, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

Phylis (Isley) Simon is Notable.

Phylis (Isley) Simon was an Oklahoman.

American actress during the Hollywood golden years. Jones, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette (1943), was also Academy Award-nominated for her performances in four other films. She also won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. She was among the youngest actresses to receive an Academy Ward, having won this award on her 25th birthday.^[1]

Jennifer Jones was born as Phylis Lee Isley 2 March 1919 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

She was married to the stage and film actor Robert Hudson Walker on 2 January 1939 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.^[2] They were the parents of two sons, Robert Jr. and Michael, both of whom later became film actors in their own right.

She was married to the Hollywood film producer David O. Selznick 13 July 1949 at sea just off the coast of Portofino, Italy. "Jennifer Jones, David Selznick, Wed on Yacht Off Italian Riviera. Portofino, Italy--AP--Hollywood's Cinderella star, Jennifer Jones, married her producer-boss, David Selznick, today on a yacht off the Italian Riviera. The mayor of Portofino announced the marriage of the 30-year-old actress and the 47-year-ld executive was performed by Ernest J. Stroud, British captain of the yacht, Manona."^[3]. They were the parents of a daughter, Mary Jennifer Selznick, in 1954.

She was married to wealthy industrialist Norton Winfred Simon 30 July 1971 in Los Angeles, California. ^[4]

Jennifer Jones died 17 December 2009 in Malibu, California at the age of 90.^[5]

Obituary:^[6]

Oscar winner Jennifer Jones dead at 90

Associated Press Archive - Thursday, December 17, 2009 Jennifer Jones, the beautiful, raven-haired actress who was nominated for Academy Awards five times, winning in 1943 for her portrayal of a saintly nun in "The Song of Bernadette," died Thursday. She was 90.

Jones, who in later years was a leader of the Norton Simon Museum, died at her home in Malibu of natural causes, museum spokeswoman Leslie Denk told The Associated Press. Jones was the widow of the museum's founder, wealthy industrialist Norton Simon, and served as chair of the museum's board of directors after his death.

Known for her intense performances, Jones was one of Hollywood's biggest stars of the 1940s and '50s.

Among her most memorable roles were the vixen who vamps rowdy cowboy Gregory Peck in "Duel in the Sun," and the Eurasian doctor who falls for Korean War correspondent William Holden in "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing."

Despite her heavily dramatic screen roles, Jones conveyed an aura of shyness, even aloofness offstage. She rarely gave interviews, explaining to a reporter in 1957: "Most interviewers probe and pry into your personal life, and I just don't like it. I respect everyone's right to privacy, and I feel mine should be respected, too."

Early in her career, Jones had become nearly as famous for her high-profile marriages as for her movie work. She met actor Robert Walker when both studied acting in New York, and they married and came to Hollywood, where her stardom ascended more rapidly than his.

Jones' boss, David O. Selznick, became obsessed with his star and spent much of his time promoting her career. They married four years after she divorced Walker in 1945. Selznick died in 1965, and in 1973 Jones married Simon. After his death in 1993, she assumed a major role in leading the Pasadena-based museum.

She initiated the museum's celebrated gallery renovation by architect Frank Gehry and spearheaded the development of its public programming and outreach initiatives.

She was born Phylis Isley on March 2, 1919, in Tulsa, Okla., to parents who operated a touring stock company that presented melodramas in tent theaters in the Southwest. She began doing roles in their plays at the age of 6.

After graduating from a Catholic high school, she toured with another stock company, studied drama at Northwestern University for a year, then persuaded her father to support her for a year at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.

She married Walker in 1939 and they spent their honeymoon traveling to Hollywood. They could find only bit roles in small pictures, she in a western, "New Frontier," and a serial, "Dick Tracy's G-Men."

The pair retreated to New York before Jones was selected for the prize role in "The Song of Bernadette" about a French peasant girl who claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in 1858.

Her performance and the Oscar for best actress helped make her one of Hollywood's most popular leading ladies. Director Henry King recalled testing the six finalists for the role of Bernadette: "A man held a stick behind the camera; the girls focused their rapt attention on that stick. The other five did very well. But only Jennifer looked as if she saw the vision."

Among her other films were "Love Letters" (with Joseph Cotten), "We Were Strangers" (with John Garfield), "Madame Bovary" (with Louis Jourdan) and "A Farewell to Arms" (with Rock Hudson).

She received a supporting actress Oscar nomination for "Since You Went Away," and lead actress nominations for "Love Letters," "Duel in the Sun" and "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing."

While in Rome filming "A Farewell to Arms," Hudson told a reporter, "I heard fantastic stories about this girl, that she was neurotic, temperamental, under hypnosis by Selznick. Not a word of truth in any of it. From the first take, she's been cooperative with everyone -- except reporters." Her last film under Selznick's guidance came in 1962 with F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night," a failure.

Several months after Selznick's death in 1965, she went to England to film "The Idol." As it turned out, she made only two more film appearances, in 1969's "Angel, Angel, Down We Go" and 1974's "The Towering Inferno."

Two years after she filmed "The Idol," a sheriff's deputy found Jones in the surf at Malibu. She was not breathing but still had a heartbeat and he was able to revive her.

She had earlier called her physician to say she was taking pills, and it appeared she had fallen from a cliff into the ocean. Her daughter plunged to her death from the 22nd floor of a hotel in west Los Angeles in 1976, and tests showed traces of morphine, barbiturates and alcohol in her system. The death was ruled a suicide.

After retiring from acting after "The Towering Inferno," Jones avoided the limelight as much as possible.

She is survived by her son, Robert, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Sources

1. ↑ Jennifer Jones Biography on Wikipedia.
2. ↑ "Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995." Database with images. FamilySearch. "Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29M-9HDN : 23 March 2020), Robert H Walker and Phylis Lee Isley, 02 Jan 1939; citing Oklahoma, various county courthouses, Oklahoma; FHL microfilm.
3. ↑ Flint Journal Wednesday, Jul 13, 1949 Flint, MI Page: 15.
4. ↑ "California Marriage Index, 1960-1985," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V66Q-PZX : 27 November 2014), Norton W Simon and Jennifer J Selznick, 30 Jul 1971; from "California, Marriage Index, 1960-1985," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2007); citing Los Angeles City, California, Center of Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento.
5. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JBXQ-Z43 : 12 January 2021), Jennifer Jones Simon, 17 Dec 2009; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
6. ↑ () , obit for Oscar winner Jennifer Jones dead at 90, GenealogyBank.com (https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/obituaries/obit/12CF7DB8F406DCE8 : accessed 27 January 2022)