Shelley Winters Biography

Actress, writer. Born Shirley Schrift on August 18, 1920 (some sources say 1922), in St. Louis, Missouri. Raised in Brooklyn, New York, theatricality came naturally to Winters, as her mother had been an aspiring opera singer. Shelley Winters childhood was marked by tragedy, however, when her father was sentenced to prison for an arson he didn't commit. He was later exonerated, but the experience deeply affected Winters. "I developed a whole fantasy world . . . Reality was too unbearable. This ability to fantasize has been a powerful tool in my acting," she later wrote.

In her teens, Winters tried out for the leading role of Gone with the Wind during a casting call in New York in 1938. While she didn't get the part, Winters was encouraged by director George Cukor to finish her schooling and study acting. Working as a model during the day, Winters took acting classes at night. Shelley Winters landed some small stage roles and performed at a number of resorts in the Catskills during the summer.

Shelley Winters first big break came when director Max Reinhardt gave her a comedic part in his English adaptation of Die Fledermaus, which was called Rosalinda. The operetta debuted in the fall of 1942, and Winters' career soon took off. Harry Cohn, the president of Columbia Pictures, saw her in the show and hired her soon after. Shelley Winters  crafted the stage name Shelley Winters, drawing inspiration for the name from the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and her mother, Rose Winter.