Shelley Winters, 1920 or 1922-2006
From Interview magazine, May 1996:
Graham Fuller: [Charles] Laughton directed you in The Night of the Hunter. How did he film you in that incredible underwater shot where your character is drowned, her hair drifting like seaweed?
Shelley Winters: Oh, that wasn’t me. They used a model and made a mask of my face, which in those days was really torturous. They put a straw in my mouth, covered my eyes with little pads, and made a mold of my face with plaster of paris or something. It gets quite hot, and it’s very scary. I’ve drowned a lot in my movies - A Place in the Sun, The Night of the Hunter, The Poseidon Adventure, and a couple of others not as distinguished. Underwater, I’m a superstar. [laughs]
GF: Many of the women you’ve played have been brash and vulgar -
SW: And a lot of ‘em were flashy and slutty. I hope that in some ways I was fulfilling what was in the script. Our instinct as human beings is to be sympathetic, to make an audience understand, even if your character’s a murderer, what made her that way. But sometimes, to get across what a writer is saying to the audience, you have to avoid that sympathetic dimension. Laughton taught me that.
Shelley Winters, 85; Oscar Winner Went From Bombshell to Respected Actress
The First Shelley Winters Website
Photos: A Place in the Sun, SOB