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Portrait of Jennifer (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Epstein (Mia: The Life of Mia Farrow), in this entertaining celebrity bio, details the successful career and tragic personal life of Jones, a versatile film star whose popularity peaked in the 1940s and '50s. Born Phyllis Isley in 1919, Jones was renamed by producer David O. Selznick, who brought her to public attention in Song of Bernadette, for which she won the 1943 Academy Award for best actress. The love affair between Jones and Selznick ended Jones's first marriage to actor Robert Walker and caused Selznick's wife, Irene, to divorce him. Walker later died under mysterious circumstances. An overbearing perfectionist, according to the author, Selznick married Jones and chose her film roles for her. Epstein describes Jones as a shy and emotionally fragile woman who, though ambitious, had difficulty adjusting to fame. After Selznick's death, she remarried billionaire Norton Simon and became a therapist. Photos not seen by PW. Movie Entertainment Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist

A veteran writer of popular biographies of film stars turns his experienced and evenhanded pen to resurrecting from the annals of cinematic history a life and career with which most people under 40 won't be familiar. But Jennifer Jones was a big star in her day--the 1940s and 1950s--and her story is well worth telling. She burst on the celebrity scene in 1944 at age 25 with The Song of Bernadette, but Epstein goes further back than that, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Phyllis Isley was born into a show-business family. Her beauty carried her to Hollywood, and the big event of her life there was, in addition to the movies she made, her affair with and her eventual marriage to producer David Selznick. Handled responsibly rather than in tabloid style, Epstein's treatment is a sensitive recognition of a sensitive nature confronting the cutthroat film business. For all active film collections. Brad Hooper
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (February 16, 1995)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0671740563
  • ISBN-13: 978-0671740566
  • Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #151,674 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Edward Z. Epstein
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Towering Portrait of Jennifer Jones, June 25, 2004
By Kendrik Lau (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I have to say that this book is a many-splendored thing. Finally, a bio on Jennifer Jones!

I remember the very first time I ever laid eyes on Jennifer Jones. I was probably around 8 or 9 years old and it was the NBC broadcast premiere of The Towering Inferno. I started watching it in mid film and saw this white claded woman running through a smoke filled hallway and banging on the door.

Needless to say, Jones was one of the few people who actually acted in the disaster epic and I was a Jennifer Jones fan from that day on.

Portrait of Jennifer is a biography on Jennifer Jones, the only other bio I know of is called Star Crossed, a book on Jones and her erstwhile husband Robert Walker. But this book concentrates solely on Ms Jones herself. This is a shame. It seems of all of the stars of yesteryear, Jennifer Jones is often the most overlooked and ignored. When the New York Rockette had their first Black performer, also named Jennifer Jones, nobody made the connection. It is a shame, but this book remedied that and gave Jennifer Jones the recognition she deserves in writing.

The author originally contacted Jennifer Jones for her participation in the book, which the former actress respectfully declined. Thus the book is mostly from hearsay and second hand accounts....but however, the author still managed to paint a fascinating portrait of the actress.

Born Phylis Isley, the book traced Jones' vaudeville childhood, to her marriage to Robert Walker. She was then discovered by David O. Selznick, which lead to her Oscar winning performance in The Song of Bernadette. She and Robert Walker became the star couple in Hollywood...which ended with her marriage to Selznick and her divorce from Robert Walker. Robert Walker's life was pratically destroyed after Jennifer divorced him and ironically, it seems Jennifer's promising film career was stunted (albeit unintentionally) by Selznick, who was so obsessed with her that he limited her roles mostly to romantic leads.

The bio also went onto Selznick's death, Jones' suicide attempts, her marriage to her Norton Simon, and a comeback to the movies which was aborted with the tragic suicide of her daughter.

There are also some background info on her various movies, and fans of "The Towering Inferno" may be interested in some tidbits in the book, such as Jones provided the material for the gown she wore in the film (white silk that costed around a hundred bucks a yard...and I am talking about 1970 dollars!).

In any case, after reading the book, Jennifer Jones came across as most of her onscreen roles: a seemingly timid and frail woman who possesses a high degree of strength and independence.

I hope that she realize she still has fans out there, and I wouldn't mind seeing her in a movie again.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading, January 23, 2000
I was named after Jennifer Jones, so I naturally had curiosity about her life. When I found a copy of this book, I bought it and read it in a matter of a few days. Jennifer Jones was a much more fascinating person than I had anticipated. Although I found the book to be a little murky on presenting a time/context of which events occur (particularly in relation to her first husband, Robert Walker), the book is overall very interesting and gives the reader an enthralling portrait of this great actress.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful! but....., April 1, 2006
By CarmenJones (Cleveland Oh.) - See all my reviews
i found this to be a wonderful book beautifully written by the author, but there is one thing that is sadly lacking in the book, thats miss jones refusal to speak to the author, i have a question that i'm burning to know "why did she get involved with david selznick? was it love or merely her burning ambition?" throughout the book you never get a feeling of true love between the two, it was as though they were both using each other, but other than that question the book is informative and a great read- zero boring parts!
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