Rest in Peace, Jennifer Jones
Another sad day for fans of classic movies… the talented, sensitive actress Jennifer Jones has passed away at 90.
I found it intriguing how the MSNBC summary of Jones focused on much of the sorrow and unhappiness she experienced in her private life, including her somewhat publicized struggle with mental illness, and the suicide of her daughter, while the Washington Post focused on Jones’ career as an actress.
On the one hand, after marrying Norton Simon, Jones did tremendous good by donating her money and time to help those struggling with mental illness, and like other stars such as Gene Tierney, she made it more possible for people to talk about these issues. She also supported arts and culture through her links to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
On the other, as the Washington Post notes, much of the great work she did was overshadowed by her relationship and management by David O. Selznick.
I’d be the first to admit that there’s a special poignancy watching “Since You Went Away,” knowing the truth about her relationship with soon-to-be ex-husband Robert Walker, who she had met and fallen in love with, while the pair were teenagers in dramatic school. Walker was equally talented and troubled, and was devastated when Jones married Selznick. Production on “The Clock,” a beautiful WWII gem Walker starred in with Judy Garland, and directed by Garland’s then husband Vincente Minelli, was marred by his excessive drinking. Selznick’s passion for his wife’s career during the same period is well known; unlike the lifetime pairing of William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, where Hearst also employed over the top tactics to make his sweetie Queen of the Movies, it seems that obsession ultimately burned out the couple’s relationship.
There was plenty of unhappiness to go around, and with all that pain Jones experienced at the height of her stardom, she appeared to have enjoyed a level of peace in the last couple of decades. Still, because she was so sensitive an actress, and it was clearly informed to some degree by her life, it would be great to see a thoroughly researched biography, along the lines of David Stenn’s work on Clara Bow and Jean Harlow.
Ultimately, Jones should be remembered for the art she left behind, playing “Jennie” and “Bernadette”, and the WaPo is to be commended for writing about her life as an artist, and not – as so often happens when a screen or other star of the retro past dies – not simply a cinematic cypher who played in some roles we might remember.
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