Shirley Jones: Biography, Filmography, Movies & Photos

“After I won the Oscar, my salary doubled, my friends tripled, my children became more popular at school, my butcher made a pass at me, and my maid hit me up for a raise.”

– Shirley Jones

The Partridge Family

She originally wanted to become a veterinarian. Instead, Shirley Jones became the winner of the 1952 Miss Pittsburgh Pageant and launched her successful career as an actress and singer. In her six decades of television, she starred as wholesome characters in a number of well-known musical films, such as Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), and The Music Man (1962). She known to millions as Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children in the television series The Partridge Family (1970–1974), co-starring her real-life stepson David Cassidy, son of Jack Cassidy. In something you would only expect from Hollywood, she and Elizabeth Taylor are the only actresses to win Oscars for playing prostitutes in the same year: Jones for Elmer Gantry (1960) (Best Supporting Actress) and Taylor for Butterfield 8 (1960) (Best Actress). Dexter the sixth season

Shirley Jones

Named after child star Shirley Temple, Shirley Jones started singing at the age of six. She started formal training at the age of 12 and would dream of singing with her idol, Gordon MacRae. Upon graduating from high school, while vacationing in New York City with her parents, the 19-year-old Jones auditioned for the songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Her wholesome appearance and well-trained soprano voice impressed the team, who cast her in a minor role in their Broadway production of Me and Juliet (1953). Standing out among the large cast, Jones was eventually signed to play the lead on tour. She later signed for the role of a nurse in the Broadway production of South Pacific. Within a year, she would be in Hollywood to appear in her first film, Oklahoma! (1955) as Laurey, the farm girl in love with cowboy Gordon MacRae. Oklahoma! (1955) would be filmed in CinemaScope and Todd-AO wide-screen and would take a year to shoot. (In Oklahoma!, she worked with Gloria Grahame, who is being highlighted during our slide show presentations this year.)

Oklahoma! movie poster

Released in 1955, the multimillion-dollar production met with acclaim from critics, who felt Jones was the perfect choice to play the movie’s heroine Laurey. She followed the success of her film debut with a turn in the 1956 feature adaptation of Carousel (1956). Opportunities continued to come her way, and she landed leading roles in April Love (1957) and Never Steal Anything Small (1959), which paired her with leading man James Cagney.

With a screen image comparable to peaches-n-cream, Shirley wanted a darker role to change her image. In 1960, she would be cast as the vengeful prostitute in the Richard Brooks dramatic film Elmer Gantry (1960). With a brilliant performance against an equally brilliant Burt Lancaster, Shirley would win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. But the public wanted the good Shirley so she was cast as “Marion,” the librarian, in the successful musical The Music Man (1962). Shirley would again work with little Ron Howard in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1963). She took on lighter roles in and Bedtime Story (1964); and showed her flair for the dramatic in The Happy Ending (1969) and The Cheyenne Social Club (1970). The Memphis Film Festival guests

The Partridge Family

In 1970, Shirley Jones became Shirley Partridge in the television series The Partridge Family (1970). While the success of the show would do well for her stepson, teen idol David Cassidy, her name and face was in the public view for the four years that the series ran, and trade papers often ran with a story about Shirley Jones and her successful career. The cast capitalized on the show’s popularity by recording a few albums which included songs like “I Think I Love You” and “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted.” The show still plays in reruns today and is available on DVD. After the show ended, Shirley would spend the rest of the 70′s in the land of television movies. The television movie The Lives of Jenny Dolan (1975) would be made as a pilot for a series that was not picked up. In 1979, Shirley appeared in a comedy show called Shirley (1979), but the show lasted only one season.

Shirley Jones was among the weekend guests at the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, signing autographs and posing for photos for fans.

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