MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Shelley Winters brought both of her Academy Awards to an audition late in life as a sort of protest over the idea that she still had to audition for a role.

One of the most fascinating personalities in an industry that is, inherently, filled with fascinating personalities was, without a doubt, the great Shelley Winters, who passed away 16 years ago and yet routinely goes viral on social media as people share stories about her life. Winters was a beauty queen when she was a young woman and when she first became an actor in Hollywood, she was signed by Universal Pictures in the late 1940s to be their in house "blonde bombshell." However, while she was initially a star because of her looks, Winters was constantly working on her craft behind the scenes, and soon it became apparent that she was essentially a character actor "trapped" in the mold of a blonde bombshell.

As he got older, she was able to broaden her opportunities as an actor and began to win great critical acclaim. Even during her time at Universal, Winters would occasionally get the chance to play against type, netting her first (and only) Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Paramount Pictures' A Place in the Sun in 1951 where she played one third of a love triangle as a man (played by Montgomery Clift) is torn between his feelings for a down to Earth factory worker (Winters) and a fabulous socialite (Elizabeth Taylor). Things end tragically for everyone involved.

Later in the decade, she was nominated for, and won, the Oscar in 1959 for Best Supporting Actress for The Diary of Anne Frank, for a role she had to gain 25 pounds to pay. Winters had always struggled with her weight in her "blonde bombshell" days, but now that she was becoming a character actor, she had a more normal weight for the rest of her career. She won another Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1965 for A Patch of Blue. She was then nominated for Best Supporting Actress one last time in 1972 for her standout performance in the blockbuster disaster film, The Poseidon Adventure. That movie was such a big hit that it is probably Winters' best remembered role today, which is why people are probably surprised to learn that she used to star in very different types of movies in her early days in Hollywood.

In any event, Winters continued acting until she passed away, including a memorable recurring role on Roseanne as Roseanne Conner's fun-loving grandmother. However, her career was obviously much different in those later years, which has led to a notable story that often goes viral on social media.

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WHAT IS THE SHELLEY WINTERS 'OSCARS STORY'?

The version that is being shared right now, which was sent to me by reader Michael O. to see if I could cover it, is as follows:

shelley-winters-meme

The great Mark Evanier shared a version of the story that he had heard back in 2006, when Winters passed away:

It took place late in her career, about the time she hit age seventy. She had a string of auditions with directors and casting directors who looked like children to her and who, she felt, were not showing her the proper respect. She was, after all, Shelley Winters. So when her agent sent her to meet one particular gentleman who was casting a new feature film, she went prepared. She sat down in the casting director's office, right in front of his desk. After some pleasantries, the man said to her, "Now, Ms. Winters…remind me what you've done." Shelley Winters reached into a big bag she'd brought with her, pulled out an Academy Award statuette and slammed it down on the man's desk. "That was for The Diary of Anne Frank," she announced. Then she pulled out another Oscar and put it next to the first one. "And that one was for A Patch of Blue. Now, why don't you remind me what you've done?"

It's a wonderful story, but is it true?

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IS THE SHELLEY WINTERS OSCARS STORY TRUE?

First off, let me note that the meme is correct in that it certainly is a "true story," in the sense that it is a story that has been told MANY times over the years, as Evanier alludes to in his post, too. It's a very popular story shared by actors. So it is "true" in that sense, it is not something someone just made up years later, it is a story that people have told many times over the years. Now, is it TECHNICALLY true?

At the end of her first autobiography, Winters noted, "All the things I've written about are exactly as they happened. Some things are even exactly as I wish they HADN'T happened. Perhaps a few things are exactly as I WISHED they had happened. However, I will never know the difference...not will you."

In the introduction to HIS own autobiography, Tony Curtis noted, "I am determined to make this book different. I'm not interested in the Shelley Winters approach. There's already enough bull**** around to provide fertilizer into the twenty-first century. I want to try not to bend everything in my life to suit my own purposes, even though we all do that."

Thus, it certainly seems very possible that it was a story that Winters told based on her legit frustrations. Something that she WISHED she had done. It is such a great story because it speaks to the very real problems that actors run into as they get older and people don't understand their amazing backgrounds. I imagine that that is precisely why it has become such a beloved story.

Of course, I wasn't there, and it's hard for me to definitively say it didn't happen, but here's another notable piece of evidence. In 1975, Winters donated her first Oscar to the Anne Frank House. It is there still. In 1975, Winters was still famous, having just had a big hit film a few years earlier, so the story doesn't make sense for having occurred in the 1970s, so the fact that she didn't have two Oscars seems to factor in there in a big way.

Now, you could argue that she had a replica made, and that's reasonable enough, I suppose, but it is important to note that in a 1996 look at the actor's home, Winters notably had just a single Oscar displayed.

When you combine the fact that the story has had many variations over the years, Winters' admitted tendency to occasionally embellish her stories and the fact that she donated her first Oscar in 1975, I am going to go with the legend as...

STATUS: I'm Going With False, But Shelley Winters Was Still Amazing

Thanks to Michael for the suggestion, and thanks to Shannon of Vanguard Hollywood for the Winters and Curtis quotes and thanks to Mark Evanier for the version of the story that he had heard, as well as his follow-up, where he noted the story of the donated Oscar, as well.

Be sure to check out my archive of Movie Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of film.

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.