Shirley Jones Bio
Shirley Mae Jones (born March 31, 1934) is an American actress and singer whose career has spanned more than six decades across stage, film, and television. Born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, she first won wide attention as the female lead of the film adaptation of Oklahoma! (1955), followed by a string of wholesome musical roles in Carousel (1956), April Love (1957), and The Music Man (1962). In 1960 she earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her dramatic turn in Elmer Gantry, and in 1970 she became a television icon as the widowed mother of a pop-rock family on The Partridge Family. She is also a trained vocalist whose singles, including “I Think I Love You” with the Partridge cast, reached the top of the Billboard charts.
Early Life and Background
Shirley Mae Jones was born on March 31, 1934, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Paul Jones, owner of the Jones Brewing Company, and Marjorie Williams Jones. The family later moved to the nearby town of Smithton, where she grew up in a Methodist household. Her Welsh grandfather had settled in the region, and the family remained rooted in the small coal-country communities south of Pittsburgh. Her parents gave her the name Shirley, inspired by the child star Shirley Temple, and her middle name honored a beloved aunt, a common source of confusion given the era’s famous entertainer Mae West.
Jones began singing at the age of six in the Methodist Church choir and soon began formal voice lessons with Ralph Lewando. As a high school student at South Huntingdon High School in Ruffs Dale, Pennsylvania, she took part in school plays and quickly showed a comfort with performing on stage. In 1952, she was named Miss Pittsburgh, a local honor that helped open doors to professional auditions. Her first encounter with a major show-business name came in 1954, when she saw Mae West perform at the Twin Coaches supper club in Rostraver, an experience she has often recalled with affection.
Path to Celebrity
Encouraged by her early success, Jones auditioned at an open casting call run by John Fearnley, the casting director for the famous songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Fearnley was so taken with her singing that he ran across the street to fetch Rodgers during a rehearsal. Rodgers phoned Hammerstein at home, and the two songwriters placed Jones under a rare personal contract. She was cast in a minor role in the Broadway production of South Pacific and, for her second Broadway show, Me and Juliet, she moved up from the chorus to understudy the lead, earning strong reviews during the Chicago run.
That Rodgers and Hammerstein contract soon brought Jones to Hollywood. In 1955, at the age of twenty-one, she was chosen to play Laurey Williams, the female lead of the screen version of Oklahoma! The film was a critical and commercial smash, and the studio quickly signed her for Carousel (1956), April Love (1957), and later The Music Man (1962), all of which cast her as a kind, optimistic heroine. The steady stream of musical leads established her as one of the most bankable young performers of the 1950s and the face of Hollywood’s golden-age musicals.
Shirley Jones Career
Early Career (1950–1959)
Jones began her professional career in the early 1950s on the Broadway stage under the personal guidance of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Her first starring film role came in 1955 with Oklahoma!, the first widescreen musical adapted from a Broadway hit. The film turned her into a star almost overnight and led to roles in Carousel (1956) and April Love (1957), both of which were popular with audiences. She also signed recording contracts during this period, releasing singles and albums that showcased her clear, trained soprano and helped establish her as a recording artist in her own right.
Breakthrough (1960–1974)
Jones’s breakthrough as a dramatic actress came in 1960 with Elmer Gantry, in which she portrayed Lulu Bains, a woman whose life has been shattered by the title charlatan played by Burt Lancaster. Director Richard Brooks had originally opposed her casting, but after seeing her first scene he told her she would win an Academy Award. The prediction proved accurate: she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role. The award opened the door to a wider range of parts, including a 1962 reunion with director Morton DaCosta for The Music Man and a 1963 pairing with Glenn Ford in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.
In 1970, Jones accepted the lead role of Shirley Partridge in the ABC musical sitcom The Partridge Family, a series loosely based on the real-life pop group The Cowsills. The show followed a widowed mother and her five children as they formed a pop-rock band and traveled in a painted bus. Her real-life stepson, David Cassidy, was cast as her on-screen son Keith, and the casting of an actual family member became a key part of the show’s appeal. The series ran until 1974, screened in more than seventy countries, and turned Jones and her co-stars into international television stars.
Notable Works and Milestones
Jones’s signature works include the musicals Oklahoma! (1955), Carousel (1956), April Love (1957), and The Music Man (1962), as well as the dramatic Elmer Gantry (1960), for which she earned her Academy Award. The Partridge Family (1970–1974) became her most recognizable television vehicle, and its single “I Think I Love You” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first woman to have both an Academy Award win and a chart-topping single. In 1986, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street, recognizing her long contribution to the entertainment industry.
Shirley Jones Award Nominations
Across her long career, Jones has earned a number of high-profile nominations in addition to her Oscar win. She received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her dramatic work in the television movie There Were Times, Dear, in which she played a wife caring for a husband with Alzheimer’s disease. She was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for the Hallmark Channel film Hidden Places (2006), and the Screen Actors Guild recognized her performance with a nomination for Actress in a Movie or Miniseries for the same project. The Partridge Family cast earned a Grammy Award nomination in 1971 for Best New Artist, reflecting the show’s impact on popular music.
Shirley Jones Awards Won
The cornerstone of Jones’s award history is her 1960 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Elmer Gantry, which made her a respected dramatic performer as well as a musical star. The Partridge Family’s single “I Think I Love You” won a National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) award for best-selling single of the year in 1970, a rare crossover honor for a television star. Together, these awards highlight the unusual range of her career, from a serious film role that earned Hollywood’s highest prize to a television-driven pop hit that ruled the music charts.
Shirley Jones Family
Jones married actor and singer Jack Cassidy on August 5, 1956, and the couple had three sons: Shaun, Patrick, and Ryan. Through this marriage she became the stepmother of David Cassidy, Jack’s son from his earlier marriage to actress Evelyn Ward. After divorcing Jack Cassidy in 1975, Jones married actor and comedian Marty Ingels on November 13, 1977, and the two remained together until Ingels’s death in 2015. The couple co-wrote an autobiography about their relationship, Shirley & Marty: An Unlikely Love Story, and their marriage lasted nearly four decades.
Personal Life
Outside of her career, Jones has been open about the influence Jack Cassidy had on her life, describing him as the love of her life even after her second marriage. The family was devastated when Jack Cassidy died in a fire on December 12, 1976, an event that drew Jones closer to her stepson David and the rest of the blended family. Jones is a known supporter of the animal-rights organization PETA and has continued to make occasional public appearances and guest television appearances into her later years, including a recurring role as Burt Chance’s mother on the Fox comedy series Raising Hope and a guest spot on General Hospital in 2014.