Jennifer Jones, who achieved Hollywood stardom in “The Song of Bernadette” and other films of the 1940s and ’50s, died last week Thursday at her home in Malibu. She was 90 years old.
Jones, who was the chairwoman of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif., died of natural causes, Leslie Denk, a museum spokeswoman, told The New York Times. Jones was the widow of industrialist and art patron Norton Simon.
After winning an Academy Award in 1944 for her performance in “The Song of Bernadette,” Jones went on to star in successful films like “Duel in the Sun” and “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.” She was nominated for Oscars five times.
Jones was born Phylis Lee Isley in Tulsa, Okla., on March 2, 1919, the only child of Philip and Flora Mae Isley. After a year at Northwestern University, she moved to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she was cast as Elizabeth Barrett opposite Robert Walker’s Robert Browning in “The Barretts of Wimpole Street.” The two soon married, and on their honeymoon in 1939 they went to Hollywood, where they found bit roles.
Retreating to New York, the couple had a son, Robert Jr., in 1940, and another, Michael, less than a year later. Michael died in 2007. Robert survives her, as do eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.