| Shirley Jones  AKA Shirley Mae Jones
Born: 31-Mar-1934
Birthplace: Charleroi, PA
Gender: Female
Religion: Methodist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor
Party Affiliation: Republican Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Mom of The Partridge Family Shirley Jones was raised in Pennsylvania, where her parents ran the Jones Brewery, founded by her grandfather (the brewery still produces Stoney's Beer). Named after Shirley Temple, Jones was in the church choir at the age of six, and began taking piano lessons shortly after that. Her piano teacher recognized her musical talents, urged the girl to take music seriously, and recommended that her parents get her professional singing lessons. Jones appeared in school plays, and won the Miss Pittsburgh beauty pageant the same year she finished high school, 1952. When she decided to move to New York, her parents gave her $160 for the trip. She promised to return when the money ran low, but it never did. She auditioned as a replacement chorus girl for the original Broadway run of South Pacific, but the voice lessons paid off when she sang, and she was immediately cast in a more substantial part.
On stage, she starred in Show Boat, The Sound of Music, and The King and I, among many other roles. On film, she starred in the musicals Oklahoma! and Carousel, both with Gordon MacRae, and The Music Man with Robert Preston. She won an Oscar in 1960, playing a prostitute in Elmer Gantry with Burt Lancaster. She met actor Jack Cassidy in a 1950s stage production of Oklahoma!, and they soon married. He became familiar to America as a perennial TV "guest star," and in the early 1970s his son David co-starred with Jones in The Partridge Family. The success of that sitcom is said to have driven Jack to drink, and Jones divorced him in the mid-1970s.
The Partridge Family was inspired by the success of The Cowsills, a real-life family that made squeaky-clean "safe" rock'n'roll. Jones and her stepson David, playing heartthrob Keith Partridge, actually sang on the Partridge Family's songs, but everything else about the group's music was manufactured by the Wrecking Crew, a group of Los Angeles session musicians that performed The Monkees' early hits. David Cassidy, only sixteen years younger than Jones, has admitted to a longtime crush on his stepmother: "I always wanted to take that walk down Dad's Memory Lane."
In 1977, Jones married comedian Marty Ingels, and despite several brief separations they remain married today. They sued National Enquirer over their false headline, "Husband's bizarre behavior driving Shirley Jones to drink". The case took eight years to reach a conclusion, and actually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Jones eventually received an apology and an undisclosed payment from the tabloid.
Her 1964 comedy Bedtime Story with Marlon Brando and David Niven was remade in 1988, as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Steve Martin, Michael Caine, and Glenne Headly in Jones' role. A longtime outspoken Republican, she sang the national anthem at the GOP's 1988 Convention. In 2008 she joined the cast of the soap opera Days of Our Lives.
Father: Paul Jones (brewer)
Mother: Marjorie Williams (homemaker)
Husband: Jack Cassidy (actor, m. 5-Aug-1956, div. 1974, d. 1976, three sons)
Son: David Cassidy (actor, b. 12-Apr-1950, stepson from Jack Cassidy's first marriage)
Son: Shaun Cassidy (actor, b. 27-Sep-1958)
Son: Patrick Cassidy (actor, b. 4-Jan-1962)
Son: Ryan Cassidy (set decorator, b. 23-Feb-1966)
Husband: Marty Ingels (comedian, m. 13-Nov-1977, d. 2015)
High School: South Huntingdon High School, Ruffs Dale, PA (1952)
Beauty Contest Miss Pittsburgh (1952)
Oscar for Best Supporting Actress 1961 for Elmer Gantry
Hollywood Walk of Fame 1986 at 1541 Vine St.
TELEVISION
Days of Our Lives Colleen Brady (2008-)
Monarch Cove Grace Foster (2006)
Shirley Shirley Miller (1979-80)
The Partridge Family Shirley Partridge (1970-74)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Over the Garden Wall (3-Nov-2014)
Family Weekend (29-Mar-2013)
Carnal Innocence (13-Jun-2011)
Hidden Places (28-Jan-2006)
Grandma's Boy (6-Jan-2006)
Raising Genius (10-Mar-2004) · Aunt Sis
Manna From Heaven (17-Jan-2003)
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth (17-Oct-2000) · Nurse Kervorkian
Gideon (10-Oct-1999) · Elly Morton
Tank (16-Mar-1984)
The Children of An Lac (9-Oct-1980)
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (18-May-1979) · Gina Rowe
Evening in Byzantium (14-Aug-1978)
The Cheyenne Social Club (12-Jun-1970)
The Happy Ending (21-Dec-1969) · Flo
Silent Night, Lonely Night (16-Dec-1969)
The Secret of My Success (29-Sep-1965)
Fluffy (27-Jun-1965)
Bedtime Story (10-Jun-1964)
Dark Purpose (5-Feb-1964)
A Ticklish Affair (18-Aug-1963) · Amy Martin
The Courtship of Eddie's Father (6-Mar-1963) · Elizabeth Marten
The Music Man (19-Jun-1962) · Marian Paroo
Two Rode Together (26-Jul-1961) · Marty Purcell
Pepe (21-Dec-1960)
Elmer Gantry (7-Jul-1960) · Lulu Bains
Bobbikins (28-Jul-1959)
Never Steal Anything Small (11-Feb-1959)
April Love (27-Nov-1957) · Liz Templeton
Carousel (16-Feb-1956) · Julie Jordan
Oklahoma! (11-Oct-1955) · Laurey
Official Website:
http://www.shirleyjones.com/
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