 Winters continued work well into her 70s |
Two-time Oscar winner Shelley Winters has died of heart failure at the age of 85, her publicist Dale Olson has said. She died at a Beverly Hills nursing home early on Saturday, having suffered a heart attack in October.
Winters, who won Oscars for The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue, was best known for her role in 1972 disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure.
She was equally famous for her romances with some of Hollywood's leading men including Errol Flynn and Clark Gable.
"I am so sad. She was a great person and a genius to work with," said Roseanne Barr in a statement. "We will all miss her."
The pair starred together in the 1990s show Roseanne, with Winters playing Roseanne's grandmother.
"Shelley was an idol of mine - and many - an extraordinary woman with powerful charisma, enormous talent and a keen, perceptive mind," said longtime friend and actress Connie Stevens.
Monroe's roommate
Winters' career spans six decades, beginning with an uncredited part in 1943's What a Woman!
A roommate of the young Marilyn Monroe, her ex-husbands include the actors Anthony Franciosa and Vittorio Gassman, with whom she had a daughter, Vittoria.
Notable film work included Stanley Kubrick's Lolita, Alfie, with Michael Caine and The Night of the Hunter, with Robert Mitchum.
Her last film appearance was in 1999's La Bomba.
In the 1980s Winters wrote two autobiographies, Shelley, Also Known as Shirley, and Shelley II: The Middle of My Century, in which she detailed her relationships with a string of Hollywood stars including Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and William Holden.
The books became bestsellers, but her trademark frankness meant that talk show hosts "only want to know about my love affairs," Winters later said.
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