"Va Va Voom" Star of the Day

Shelley Winters
The Oscar-winning actress passed away over the weekend. Many people remember her roles as older, crotchety ladies, but she was actually a very successful pin-up girl in her younger years.

A plain-looking former chorus girl, Shelley Winters was glamorized by her movie company and starred in seductive roles. But she wouldn't be defined by a stereotype. Winters shed the temptress image to become a polished dramatic actress, claiming two Academy Awards in a career that spanned more than 100 films.

Winters won Academy Awards as supporting actress in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue." She sustained her long career by repeatedly reinventing herself.

Winters wrote openly in her autobiographies of her romances with Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and other leading men. She also said after she came to Hollywood in the mid-1940s she was roommates with another rising starlet - Marilyn Monroe.

Winters received her last Oscar nomination for 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure." Among her other notable films: "Night of the Hunter," "Executive Suite," "I Am a Camera," "The Big Knife," "Odds Against Tomorrow," "The Young Savages," "Lolita," "The Chapman Report," "The Greatest Story Ever Told," "A House Is Not a Home," "Alfie," "Harper," "Pete's Dragon," "Stepping Out" and "Over the Brooklyn Bridge."

Winters died of heart failure Saturday at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She was 85. Winters had been hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack.