Shelley Winters Dead and Trolls Appear

January 14, 2006 2:57 PM

Shelley Winters Dead and Trolls AppearIt was pretty sad today to see that Shelley Winters died. She was a better actress than most of her movies and a bit of a hottie before she outlived her peers and lost her physical appeal. Nice to see that the trolls used the occasion to bash her pretty mercilessly, mostly focusing on her weight and overwhelming a condolence board. Is there any topic people can be civil on? How long before someone loses their shirt and unmoderated forums/comments become a thing of the past?
posted by jbielby (71 comments total)

Coo. I didn't know there was a Yahoo! News - Message Board, but now I do I see no reason to return there.
posted by Artw at 3:07 PM on January 14, 2006

I loved Shelley Winters, especially in "The Poseidon Adventure." She was, um, big then, but she was great. That swimming scene. Woa moma!
posted by MarshallPoe at 3:08 PM on January 14, 2006

Always liked her. For some of these people, they'd make jokes about having sex with their dead mom's corpose, so don't take it too personally.

That being said, I think the internet would be far better if it came with a remote-slap-the-user protocol.
posted by Kickstart70 at 3:08 PM on January 14, 2006

.
posted by muppetboy at 3:09 PM on January 14, 2006

ignore them. PS: never knew she was a hottie!
posted by ParisParamus at 3:13 PM on January 14, 2006

There is proobably nothing more telling about a person's character than the way they treat death. Even the death of someone they don't know personally.
posted by ParisParamus at 3:18 PM on January 14, 2006

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight: There are mean people on the internet?
posted by elwoodwiles at 3:24 PM on January 14, 2006

.

(she was an incredible actress both fat and thin)
posted by kimdog at 3:28 PM on January 14, 2006

ignore them.
posted by ParisParamus at 6:13 PM EST on January 14

(head explodes)
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 3:29 PM on January 14, 2006

and putting an end to it. and taking it up about 5 notches.
posted by ParisParamus at 7:29 PM AST on January 14 [!]
posted by Space Coyote at 3:35 PM on January 14, 2006

Not only was Marilyn Monroe her peer, but the two were roommates in the mid-1940s and close friends and confidants.
posted by ericb at 3:37 PM on January 14, 2006

...board users began to attack him as an "overly robust geezer that makes a living walking behind the elephant with a shovel."

They get the text, we get the pictures.
posted by TimeFactor at 3:39 PM on January 14, 2006

MetaFilter: Far better if it came with a remote-slap-the-user protocol.

.
Rest In Peace Shelley
posted by Duncan at 3:40 PM on January 14, 2006

.
posted by moonbird at 3:44 PM on January 14, 2006

That Yahoo! board is teh funnay:

01/14/06 06:35 pm
Msg: 2104 of 2135
KFC STOCK TO DROP!!
by: imonthephonesellin (41/M)
posted by Kwantsar at 3:46 PM on January 14, 2006

her best role was 'a place in the sun' with montgomery clift and elizabeth taylor. a great actress to be sure. she will be missed.
posted by brandz at 4:00 PM on January 14, 2006

.

(and thanks for the vintageblushing link)
posted by Busithoth at 4:00 PM on January 14, 2006

I worked with her about 15 years ago, which was not a good experience, although I loved her as an actress. I've posted my memories and thoughts.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:02 PM on January 14, 2006

yahoo's news boards are a dire wasteland full of drooling, semi-literate grunts who type with their knuckles

it's been that way for years ... why does any of this come as a surprise?

i gave up on reading them a long time ago
posted by pyramid termite at 4:04 PM on January 14, 2006

Ah!! The Post Langolier strikes again!
posted by Balisong at 4:17 PM on January 14, 2006

.

As for Yahoo's boards, the last time I bothered with them, I was still using NeoPlanet for my main browser.
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:20 PM on January 14, 2006

She gave a brief talk at my (performing arts) high school here in Houston around 25 years ago. Sadly, she seemed to be either ill or - we suspected - a bit inebriated, and she was not completely coherent.

Some of us students were snickering about it afterwards when a teacher overheard us, and I remember a sort of sad look on his face as he told us how he'd had a huge crush on her when he was our age, and that while she may have been a bit off that day, she was a truly gifted performer, and had probably forgotten more about the acting profession than most actors would ever learn.

I suspect he was right.

.
posted by John Smallberries at 4:23 PM on January 14, 2006

MeTa
posted by Balisong at 4:27 PM on January 14, 2006

In some ways it's sad that I know her best from stuff like Pete's Dragon and the Posideon Adventure. I have real fond memories of them both from my childhood and will probabkly watch PD after dinner but it's a shame how her career - or at least stardom - kind of petered out and now people feel license to abuse her. Similarly, for years the only reason I knew Fred Astaire was from Ghost Story and the Amazing Dobermans.

Btw, elwoodwiles: lol.
posted by jbielby at 4:34 PM on January 14, 2006

I second brandz' comment about how great she was in "A Place in the Sun" - I was just thinking about Winters after seeing Scarlett Johansson play the similar role in "Match Point"...
posted by twsf at 4:49 PM on January 14, 2006

She had her knockers

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posted by fire&wings at 5:09 PM on January 14, 2006

The Yahoo message boards make Fark look like an evening at a literary salon populated entirely by deafmutes.
posted by solid-one-love at 5:11 PM on January 14, 2006

.

Loved her on Cheers.
posted by dgaicun at 5:21 PM on January 14, 2006

Are you saying the trolls spoiled your enjoyment of Shelly Winters' death? I'm not exactly sure why you get mad at the trolls in one condolence thread and then you make a condolence thread of your own, that draws attention towards them and away from Shelly Winters.

She would have earned my admiration for Night of the Hunter alone, but she had so many great roles. And she used to be one hell of talk show guest in the 70s.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:22 PM on January 14, 2006

When I was a kid in the 70s, the common misconception/urban myth was that she was dead, back then. Probably because her character died in The Poseidon Adventure.
posted by JanetLand at 5:25 PM on January 14, 2006

I read that she gained weight for her role in Poseidon, and then was never able to take & keep it off afterwards. She was a really strong actor & made a big impression on me in Lolita, Alfie, & A Patch of Blue. I can't believe people would be bagging on an 85 year old woman for not being their ideal of beauty, that just seems a tad insane, but yahoo message boards are not exactly known for sanity or intelligence.
posted by zarah at 5:27 PM on January 14, 2006

She was great in The Tenant, too.

And yes, it's difficult to look at a Yahoo Message Board about any story at all that isn't littered with completely off-topic messages about how LINBTARDS SUXX C0CK!!! posted by LIBSLOVE0Sama2003.



.
posted by interrobang at 6:08 PM on January 14, 2006

Yahoo could save themselves some time and effort and do away with their news messageboards. It makes Fark look high-brow.
posted by my sock puppet account at 6:27 PM on January 14, 2006

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posted by robink at 7:04 PM on January 14, 2006

So can anyone point me to a video of her and Olly Reed having a to-do on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson? Please.

Reed, fired up with green room hospitality, was outlining his chauvinist views on women. They had a heated exchange after which she stormed off the set, returning with a champagne bucket full of iced water which she proceeded to dump over Reed’s head. He then tried to attack her and was hauled off by studio technicians as the urbane Carson was left dumbfounded and the show cut to commercials.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1986414,00.html
posted by uncanny hengeman at 7:07 PM on January 14, 2006

.

How long before someone loses their shirt

I misread that at first.

I read that she gained weight for her role in Poseidon

The NYT obituary claims that this was a studio-created little white lie.
posted by Aknaton at 7:08 PM on January 14, 2006

Yahoo could save themselves some time and effort and do away with their news messageboards.

And the posters would just fade into oblivion? I don't think so. Let them have Yahoo's message boards: everything they post there is something they're not posting where I'll see it.

As for Mme Winters, loved her in Alfie. The real one, of course.
posted by George_Spiggott at 7:11 PM on January 14, 2006

Lets not forget her role in Night of the Hunter, though I'm struggling to recall her playing the incessant bordello madam in a movie from one of Genet's plays? The Balcony or the Maids, perhaps? It might also have had Spock in?

If I didn't imagine it, it sounds like a candidate for resuscitation. Though it really, really sucked.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:33 PM on January 14, 2006

Shelley Winters Dead and Trolls Appear

It's funny 'cause I don't know her.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 7:35 PM on January 14, 2006

.

She used to smoke it out and then she became cool enough to not care anymore.
posted by fenriq at 8:27 PM on January 14, 2006

A fat lot of you have no idea what . means!
posted by mischief at 8:34 PM on January 14, 2006

I'm sorry she's gone. She was a terrific actress. I especially like her performance in Kubrick's "Lolita."
posted by grumblebee at 8:37 PM on January 14, 2006

.
posted by JHarris at 8:38 PM on January 14, 2006

grumblebee, you beat me to the Lolita reference by moments. She was outstanding in that film.

When I first visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, I was stunned to find that the very last item on display as you leave is the Oscar statuette she won for her role in "The Diary of Anne Frank". She had donated it for display for the public, out of respect for the Frank family - show me how any other Oscar winners with that sense of generosity and respect. She was a classy, hot babe, opinionated and apparently didn't suffer fools lightly. She will be missed.
posted by dbiedny at 9:07 PM on January 14, 2006

strike the "how"
posted by dbiedny at 9:09 PM on January 14, 2006

My wife and I were eating at a restaurant called Cava in Los Angeles (in what is now the Orlando Hotel) when the woman eating alone at the next table struck up a friendly conversation with us. We spent a pleasant meal chatting with her. The fact that she was Shelley Winters never came up.
posted by jfrancis at 9:16 PM on January 14, 2006

When the subject of "The Tonight Show" comes up, people fondly recall the "Ed Ames" hatchet throw, or the Rhinestone Cowboy" solo. Me? I almost always think back to the night Shelly Winters dumped a drink on Oliver Reed's head.

(I'm guessing Ed, Doc and Tommie had to tackle him during the sudden commercial break -- cuz he really wanted to murder her.)
posted by RavinDave at 10:29 PM on January 14, 2006

Trolls? Geepers dude, get a friggin GRIP.

She had an incredible career. She doesn't need any of your lame defense.
posted by HTuttle at 10:35 PM on January 14, 2006

One in a million.
.
posted by cookie-k at 12:20 AM on January 15, 2006

Eeek. They email their mothers from those keyboards?
posted by emf at 12:33 AM on January 15, 2006

I thought she was great as Nana Mary on Rosanne.
posted by Smedleyman at 1:38 AM on January 15, 2006

Yahoo! has message boards?
posted by moonbiter at 5:02 AM on January 15, 2006

OMG there are trollz on teh internets!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by skallas at 5:02 AM on January 15, 2006

I thought she was great as Nana Mary on Rosanne.

She was! she was really wonderful in everything, and actually played a lot of unsympathetic characters over the years--Anne Frank, Patch of Blue, etc.
posted by amberglow at 5:05 AM on January 15, 2006

I've felt close to her since she went on a book tour and I happened to catch her on the Today show and then again that night on Carson.

Laughing she said: "I don't even know what happened on that damn morning show."

It was fun seeing both.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:36 AM on January 15, 2006

She told a story about her roomate, Marylin Monroe.

Shelly was making dinner for their two dates and ran to get something from the store. Just wash the salad while I'm gone.

When she returned Marylin wash cleaning the leaves with a Brillo pad.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:42 AM on January 15, 2006

The odd thing about her is that as her stunning beauty faded, she made a carreer out of playing a horrible, bitter person, whose beauty had faded. Given that she seemed so nice in interviews, I always assumed that it was a case of somebody working out their demons in their craft. She always creeped the hell out of me after I saw 'A Patch of Blue.'

Anyway, great actress. She had a good run, and gave us a lot.
posted by lumpenprole at 12:01 PM on January 15, 2006

Um, is it just me or is she not actually that good looking? I mean, nice rack, but she looks like a bloke.
posted by Sparx at 12:23 PM on January 15, 2006

Um, is it just me or is she not actually that good looking?

Indeed, she was a great actress, and sounds like a fine, fun person as well, but I never saw the sex appeal. Having first seen her old and fat, I was astonished to hear that she'd been a blond bombshell. And seeing her in Night of the Hunter... I assumed that Hollywood wasn't very creative at the time (if ever!) and handed a young blond actress, would make her into a sex symbol reflexively. thanks for breaking the taboo first Sparx
posted by Aknaton at 1:20 PM on January 15, 2006

She had an amazing career, and I'm saddened that she's passed.

Of course, I'm sure all the people who are ragging on her looks are in fact all stellar beauties who cannot leave the house without being mobbed by adoring fans...because if there's one thing we all know about the internet, it's that the internet is where all the beautiful people are.
posted by dejah420 at 6:51 PM on January 15, 2006

You are, of course, correct dejah420. I am extraordinarily pretty.
posted by Sparx at 7:31 PM on January 15, 2006

When the subject of "The Tonight Show" comes up, people fondly recall the "Ed Ames" hatchet throw, or the Rhinestone Cowboy" solo. Me? I almost always think back to the night Shelly Winters dumped a drink on Oliver Reed's head.

(I'm guessing Ed, Doc and Tommie had to tackle him during the sudden commercial break -- cuz he really wanted to murder her.)

Any downloadable footage floating around on the internet?

Anyone? Anyone?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 8:25 PM on January 15, 2006

People make much of the whole "dying young and beautiful" thing, but really it is those who live a long, full life who give us the most.
posted by orange swan at 6:46 AM on January 16, 2006

Loved her on Cheers.
posted by dgaicun at 5:21 PM PST on January 14 [!]

According to IMDB, she was never on Cheers.
posted by orange swan at 6:50 AM on January 16, 2006

According to IMDB, she was never on Cheers.

But, she was on Roseanne (playing Rosanne's mother).
posted by ericb at 7:34 AM on January 16, 2006

Sorry, but she was good on All in the Family.
posted by dgaicun at 8:25 AM on January 16, 2006

Hey man if she got it on with Robert Mitchum and Burt Landcaster she's ok in my book.

BTW. The Devils Daughter while cheesey still gives me nightmares. A cheap rip-off of Rosemary's Baby but still good for the genre.
posted by tkchrist at 9:52 AM on January 16, 2006

.
posted by cass at 12:55 PM on January 16, 2006

But, she was on Roseanne (playing Rosanne's mother).

Roseanne's grandmother.
posted by JanetLand at 12:44 PM on January 18, 2006

JanetLand -- ah, yes, you're right.
posted by ericb at 1:12 PM on January 18, 2006

She also wrote a memoir. It's been a couple of decades since I read her book, but she was specific and descriptive about her work with Stevens et al.

She studied with Laughton, and acted with all the big lights in the fifties. When she was no longer nubile/cute/young, she became a coach. She was a working actor all her life, and that can't be an easy thing to achieve.

A few weeks ago I wondered to a friend why Jon Stewart was the new Oscar host. Why not have someone who knows everyone, who isn't wide-eyed, who knows where the bodies are buried and what acting is about? I thought Shelley Winters would be just right.
posted by goofyfoot at 10:01 PM on January 19, 2006