When Jennifer tried out for the lead role in Claudia, she was so sure that she gave a bad reading, she ran out. To her suprise, Selznick, was very impressed and had his secretary call her back and she was signed to a seven-year contract.
In 1944, on her 25th birthday, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as, Bernadette Soubirous. That year, Jones friend, Ingrid Bergman, was also a Best Actress nominee for her performance in, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Jones apologized to Bergman, who replied, "No, Jennifer, your Bernadette was better than my Maria". Jones presented the Best Actress Oscar the following year to Bergman for the film, Gaslight.
Her beauty and sensitive nature stood out in one of my favorite, Jennifer films, Duel in the Sun (1946). A Western, directed by King Vidor, which tells the story of a girl named Mestiza, who goes to live with her Anglo relatives, becoming involved in prejudice and forbidden love.
Jennifer's other well know films: Since You Went Away (1944), Love Letters (1945), Cluny Brown (1946), Portrait of Jennie (1948), Madame Bovary (1949), We Were Strangers (1949), Gone to Earth (1950), Carrie (1952), Ruby Gentry (also 1952), Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953), Beat the Devil (1953), Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1955), Good Morning Miss Dove (also 1955), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) starring opposite Gregory Peck and A Farewell to Arms (1957) opposite Rock Hudson.
Her last big-screen performance was in the disaster film, The Towering Inferno (1974), in which she danced with Fred Astaire right before the fire broke out. Her exit from the film earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
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| Jennifer with her husband Robert Walker and thier two children. The couple were married in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 2, 1939. |
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