![shirley jones best voice ever shirley jones best voice ever](https://www.ocregister.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/nwm/nwm0wf-b88547264z.120151022000017000gu1cnp69.10.jpg)
“I was flattered, but I never expected the Oscar. I predict you will win the Academy Award.’
![shirley jones best voice ever shirley jones best voice ever](https://cdn.britannica.com/86/179386-050-0625BE2C/Shirley-Jones-The-Partridge-Family-David-Cassidy.jpg)
You were not only excellent in today’s scenes. He apologized to me and said, ‘Shirley, I was wrong. When Brooks saw the rushes, the scenes that were filmed that day, he called me at home.
![shirley jones best voice ever shirley jones best voice ever](https://travsd.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/shirleyjones_partridge2.jpg)
On that first day, when he gave me no direction, I played Lulu as I knew I could. I had no way of knowing I was making an impression on Burt Lancaster, and he would see me as Lulu Baines. Red Skelton was marvelous and encouraged me. It was a great stretch for me, and I was grateful for the director’s confidence. “My character was an actress from the Mack Sennett era who turned alcoholic. You did not have the luxury of extra takes or the chance to rest between scenes. He had seen me on television playing opposite Red Skelton in ‘The Big Slide,’ a drama that aired on ‘Playhouse 90.’ Those dramas were done live, and acting in them was just like doing a play. “Burt Lancaster also knew I could play Lulu. By reading ‘Elmer Gantry’ I knew who Lulu was and knew I could play her. I’d never seen the entire script of the movie. Also, Brooks only gave actors their lines. “On the first day of shooting, he gave me no direction at all. He had me pegged as one kind of character, Laurey Williams from ‘Oklahoma!’ and only Burt’s cajoling changed his mind. As his suggestion, I read ‘Elmer Gantry’ and flew from San Francisco to L.A. “Burt Lancaster is totally responsible for me getting the most important role of my career,” Jones says. Only at Lancaster’s insistence did Brooks even talk to Jones. Landing the part in “Elmer Gantry” wasn’t as easy as Lancaster said it would be. “The book has renewed my career in ways I did not expect,” says Jones, who made recent appearances in Pitman, N.J. Since its publication in July, she has, she says, been “inundated with requests” for personal appearances. “Shirley Jones: A Memoir” has also advanced Jones’s career. In our conversation and in her new book, “Shirley Jones: A Memoir,” Jones recounts the double effect of her success in “Elmer Gantry.” It gave her new status as an actress and put a major crimp in her marriage with Cassidy, who was jealous that Jones attained star status before he did. Lancaster was a co-recipient in the Best Actor category. For her performance in “Elmer Gantry,” Jones earned the 1960 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. It would change her image from that of a wistful, singing ingénue to a woman who has been around, knows the score, and could convey to a camera. “Elmer Gantry” and Lulu Baines would do exactly what Jones wanted it to do. “Now my idol was on the telephone telling me he wanted to me to co-star with him in a movie.
SHIRLEY JONES BEST VOICE EVER MOVIE
“Throughout my teenage years, I adored movie stars like most girls, but when anyone asked my favorite, the one for whom I would melt in a minute, it was Burt Lancaster. “His offer was only half of it,” Jones continues. Here was Burt Lancaster, who I’d never met, calling to say he was campaigning with (‘Elmer Gantry’ director) Richard Brooks to get me just such a part. I was typecast from my roles in ‘Oklahoma!’ and ‘Carousel,’ and as much as I loved those pictures, I knew it was vital that I get an important dramatic role to show my range. For years, I wanted to be taken as seriously as an actress as I was as a singer and musical comedy performer. I hadn’t, and Burt recommended I read it because he was playing Gantry in a movie and wanted me to play the role of Lulu Baines, a woman who is driven to prostitution because of an encounter with Gantry. “He asked me if I’d ever read ‘Elmer Gantry’ by Sinclair Lewis. He had something on his mind and, thank goodness, he called back,” says Jones by telephone from her L.A. Not in the mood for a joke, Jones hangs up. The voice on the other end says, “Hello, Shirley, this is Burt Lancaster.” Right before taking stage to do a show, Shirley Jones receives a telephone call at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco where she is appearing with her first husband, Jack Cassidy. Shirley Jones - Ingenue Image, Authentic Adult