Shirley Jones | |
|---|---|
 Jones in the 1970s | |
| Born | Shirley Mae Jones[1] (1934-03-31)March 31, 1934 (age 91) Charleroi, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1950–present |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3, includingShaun andPatrick |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Labels |
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| Website | castproductions |
Musical artist | |
Shirley Mae Jones (born March 31, 1934) is an American actress and singer. In her six decades inshow business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number ofmusical films, such asOklahoma! (1955),Carousel (1956), andThe Music Man (1962). She won theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a vengefulprostitute inElmer Gantry (1960). She played the lead role of Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children, in the musicalsituation-comedy television seriesThe Partridge Family (1970–1974), which co-starred her real-life stepson,David Cassidy, son ofJack Cassidy.
Jones was born on March 31, 1934,[2][1] inCharleroi, Pennsylvania, toMethodist parents Marjorie (née Williams), and Paul Jones, owner of the Jones Brewing Company.[3] Jones' paternal grandfather came fromWales.[4] She was named after child starShirley Temple.[5]
Jones says that many people have incorrectly assumed that her middle name referred tovaudeville and film legendMae West, but Jones was actually named after her aunt. Coincidentally, the first star Jones ever met was West, who was performing at the Twin Coaches supper club inRostraver around 1954.[6]
The Jones family later moved to the small nearby town ofSmithton. Jones began singing at the age of six in theMethodist Church choir and took voice lessons from Ralph Lewando.[5] While attendingSouth Huntingdon High School inRuffs Dale, she participated in school plays.
Jones won the Miss Pittsburgh contest in 1952.[7]
Her first audition was for an open bi-weeklycasting call held by John Fearnley,casting director forRodgers and Hammerstein and their various musicals.[8] At the time, Jones had never heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein.[9] Fearnley was so impressed, he ran across the street to fetchRichard Rodgers, who was rehearsing with an orchestra for an upcoming musical. Rodgers then calledOscar Hammerstein at home.[9]
The two saw great potential in Jones. She became the first and only singer to be put under personal contract with the songwriters. They first cast her in a minor role inSouth Pacific. For her second Broadway show,Me and Juliet, she started as a chorus girl, and then an understudy for the lead role, earning rave reviews inChicago."[8]
Jones impressed Rodgers and Hammerstein with her musically trained voice. She was cast as the female lead in the film adaptationOklahoma! in 1955. Other film musicals quickly followed, includingCarousel (1956),April Love (1957), andThe Music Man (1962), in which she was oftentypecast as a wholesome, kind character.
However, she won a 1960Academy Award for her performance inElmer Gantry portraying a woman corrupted by the title character played byBurt Lancaster. Her character becomes a prostitute who encounters her seducer years later and reveals his true character. The director,Richard Brooks, had originally fought against her being in the movie, but after seeing her first scene, told her she would win an Oscar for her performance.[10] She was reunited withRon Howard (who had played her brother inThe Music Man) inThe Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963). With an uncharacteristically brunette hairstyle, Jones played the role of a woman who falls in love with Tony Randall's lion-owning professor inFluffy (1965).
In her film career, she has worked with some of Hollywood's icons:Jimmy Stewart,Gene Kelly,Marlon Brando,James Cagney,Henry Fonda,Frank Sinatra,Dean Martin and directorJohn Ford.[6]
In 1970, after turning down the role ofCarol Brady onThe Brady Bunch, a role that ultimately went to her best friend,Florence Henderson, Jones was the producers' first choice to audition for the lead role of Shirley Partridge inThe Partridge Family, anABC musical sitcom based loosely on the real-life musical familyThe Cowsills. The series focused on a young widowed mother whose five children form a pop-rock group after the entire family painted its signature bus to travel. She was convinced that the combination of music and comedy would be a surefire hit.
Jones realized, however, that:
The problem withPartridge—though it was great for me and gave me an opportunity to stay home and raise my kids—when my agents came to me and presented it to me, they said if you do a series and it becomes a hit show, you will be that character for the rest of your life and your film career will go into the toilet, which is what happened. But I have no regrets.[11]
During its first season, the series became a hit and was screened in over 70 countries. Within months, Jones and her co-stars werepop culture television icons.[12] Her 20-year-old stepsonDavid Cassidy, who was an unknown actor at the time, played Shirley Partridge's eldest son Keith and became ateen idol.
The show also spawned a number of albums and singles by The Partridge Family, performed by David Cassidy and Shirley Jones. That same year, their single "I Think I Love You" reached number one on theBillboard Hot 100 music chart, making Jones the second person, afterFrank Sinatra, and the first woman to win an acting Oscar and also have a number-one hit on that chart. Her achievement was matched only byCher andBarbra Streisand. The Partridge Family won aNARM award for the best-selling single of the year in 1970 for their hit "I Think I Love You".[13] In 1971, The Partridge Family was nominated for aGrammy under theBest New Artist category.[14]
The series' run ended in 1974.
Shirley Jones's friendship with David Cassidy had begun in the mid-to-late 1950s, when David was just six, after he learned about his father's divorce from his mother Evelyn Ward. Upon David's first meeting with Shirley before co-starring with her onThe Partridge Family, he said, "The day he tells me that they're divorced, he tells me, 'We're remarried, and let me introduce you to my new wife.' He was thrilled when her first film,Oklahoma! (1955), had come out; and my dad took me to see it—I just see her, and I go, uh-oh, it doesn't really quite register with me, 'cause I'm in total shock, because I wanted to hate her, but the instant that I met her, I got the essence of her. She's a very warm, open, sweet, good human being. She couldn't have thawed it for me—the coldness and the ice—any more than she did."[15]
Shirley was shocked to hear her stepson was going to audition for the role of Keith Partridge. David said, "At the auditions, they introduced me to the lead actress [Shirley Jones] 'cause they had no idea, they had no idea. So I said, 'What are you doing here?' She looked at me and said, 'What are you doing here?' And I said, 'Well, I'm reading for the lead guy.' I said, 'What are you doing here?' She said, 'I'm the mother!'" Cassidy discussed his relationship with his stepmother on the show: "She wasn't my mother, and I can be very open, and we can speak, and we became very close friends. She was a very good role model for me, watching the way, you know, she dealt with people on the set, and watching people revere her."[16]
Cassidy appeared on many shows alongside his stepmother, includingA&E Biography,TV Land Confidential, andThe Today Show. He was one of the presenters of his stepmother'sIntimate Portrait onLifetime Television, and the reality show pilotIn Search of the Partridge Family, where he served as co-executive producer. The rest of the cast also celebrated the 25th, 30th, and 35th anniversaries ofThe Partridge Family (although Cassidy was unavailable to attend the 25th anniversary in 1995 owing to other commitments). Jack Cassidy's death in 1976 drew Jones and Cassidy closer, as Shirley's three children and stepson mourned their father.[citation needed]
In 1975, Jones starred inWinner Take All as a compulsive gambler who wrecks her marriage by stealing from her husband and by eventually cheating on him with her bookie. In 1979, Jones tried her hand at television for the second time, starring in theNBC showShirley, which, likeThe Partridge Family, featured a family headed by a widowed mother. It failed to win ratings and was cancelled toward the middle of the season.[17] Jones also played the "older woman" girlfriend of Drew Carey's character in several episodes ofThe Drew Carey Show.[18][19][20] She reprised Shirley Partridge in a cameo in a 2000 episode ofThat '70s Show.[21]
She was also in the dramatic projectThere Were Times, Dear, in which she played a loyal wife whose husband is dying ofAlzheimer's disease. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for this work.
In February 1986, Jones unveiled her star on theHollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street just around the corner from Hollywood Boulevard.
In 1983, she appeared in a rare revival ofNoël Coward's operetta,Bitter Sweet. In 2004, she returned to Broadway in a revival of42nd Street, portraying diva Dorothy Brock oppositePatrick Cassidy, the first time a mother and son were known to star together on Broadway. In July 2005, Jones revisited the musicalCarousel onstage in Massachusetts, portraying "Cousin Nettie".
Jones appeared as aunt of a struggling widow during the Great Depression, in Hallmark Channel'sHidden Places in 2006.[22] She received an Emmy Award nomination for Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie,[23] and theScreen Actors Guild Award for Actress in a Movie or Miniseries.[24] She also appeared inGrandma's Boy (2006) as a nymphomaniac senior citizen.[25]
On November 16, 2007, she took the stage at theFord Center inOklahoma City, Oklahoma, during the Oklahoma Centennial Spectacular concert that celebrated the state's 100th birthday. Jones sang the songs "Oklahoma!" and "People Will Say We're In Love" from the musicalOklahoma!.
In early 2008, it was announced that Jones would playColleen Brady on the long-runningNBC soap operaDays of Our Lives.ABC Family seriesRuby & The Rockits featured Jack and Patrick Cassidy. Jones guest-starred as their mother.[26]
In 2008, U.K. labelStage Door Records released the retrospective collectionThen & Now featuring 24 songs from Jones's musical career, including songs from the filmsOklahoma!,Carousel, andApril Love. The album featured new recordings of songs including "Beauty and the Beast", "Memory", and a sentimental tribute toThe Music Man. She had a recurring role as Burt Chance's mother in theFox TV comedy seriesRaising Hope.[27]
In mid-2012, Jones played Mrs. Paroo, when her son Patrick played Harold Hill, in aCalifornia Musical Theatre revival ofThe Music Man.[28]
In 2014, Jones guest-starred on an episode ofGeneral Hospital asMrs. McClain.[29][30]
On August 5, 1956, Jones married actor and singerJack Cassidy.[31] They had three sons,Shaun,Patrick, and Ryan.[31]David Cassidy was Jack's son from his first marriage to actressEvelyn Ward and became her stepson. Jones divorced Cassidy in 1975.[31]
On the evening of December 11, 1976, after Jones had refused an offer of reconciliation from Jack Cassidy, she received news that her ex-husband's penthouse apartment was on fire.[citation needed] Apparently, the fire started from his lit cigarette when he fell asleep on the couch; the following morning, firefighters found Cassidy's body inside the gutted apartment.[32] Jack "wanted to come back (to me) right up to the day he died", Jones said in a 1983 newspaper interview. "And as I realized later, I wanted him. That's the terrible part. Much as I love Marty and have a wonderful relationship—I'd say this with Marty sitting here—I'm not sure if Jack were alive I'd be married to Marty." Jones was 20 years old when she met Cassidy, who was seven years her senior, and she refers to him as the most influential person in and the love of her life.[33]
On November 13, 1977, Jones married actor and comedianMarty Ingels.[34] Jones and Ingels wrote an autobiography based on their relationship calledShirley & Marty: An Unlikely Love Story.[35] Despite what Ingels called having an “odd-couple relationship”[36] and separations (she filed, then withdrew, a divorce petition in 2002), they remained married until Ingels' death on October 21, 2015, from a massivestroke.[37] After his death, Jones said: "He often drove me crazy, but there's not a day I won't miss him and love him to my core."[36]
Jones is a supporter ofPETA.[38]
Jones was devastated whenSuzanne Crough died on April 27, 2015; Crough played one of her TV daughters onThe Partridge Family.[39]
