Oscar-winning actress Shelley Winters dies of heart failure

AWARD-winning actress Shelley Winters, the outspoken star who graduated from blonde bombshell parts to dramas, has died aged 85.

Ms Winters died of heart failure early Saturday at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She had been hospitalised in October after a heart attack.

The actress sustained her long career by repeatedly reinventing herself.

Starting as a nightclub chorus girl, she advanced to supporting roles in New York plays, then became famous as a Hollywood sexpot.

A devotee of the Actors Studio, she switched to serious roles as she matured. Her Oscars were for her portrayal of mothers. Still working well into her 70s, she had a recurring role as Roseanne’s grandmother on the 1990s TV show Roseanne.

In a statement, Roseanne Barr said: “I am so sad. She was a great person and a genius to work with. We will all miss her.”

Long-time friend and actress Connie Stevens said: “Shelley was an idol of mine - and many - an extraordinary woman with powerful charisma, enormous talent and a keen, perceptive mind.”

In 1959’s The Diary of Anne Frank, she was Petronella Van Daan, mother of Peter Van Daan and one of eight real-life Jewish refugees in World War II Holland who hid for more than a year in cramped quarters until they were betrayed and sent to Nazi death camps. The socially conscious Winters donated her Oscar statuette to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

In 1965’s Patch of Blue, she portrayed a hateful, foul-mouthed mother who tries to keep her blind daughter, who is white, apart from the kind black man who has befriended her.

Ever vocal on social and political matters, Winters was a favoured guest on television talk shows, and she demonstrated her frankness in two autobiographies: Shelley, Also Known as Shirley (1980) and Shelley II: The Middle of My Century (1989).