Nine inches too short

"Overeaters anonymous, it's my only religion."

"I could face respectability over 60. I think on-stage nudity is disgusting, shameful ... But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, tasteful, patriotic and a progressive religious experience."

"I'm not overweight. I'm just nine inches too short."

"In Hollywood, all marriages are happy. It's trying to live together afterwards that causes the problems."

“Sex is much more fun when you have to sneak around and cover it up."

Today would have been the 90th birthday of one of our favourite irreverent stars, Miss Shelley Winters.

Facts:

• From an inauspicious start working in Woolworth's, she began her acting career on the Vaudeville circuit.
• Her stage name was apparently a confabulation of her favourite poet Shelley and her mother's maiden name Winter.
• As a teenager she competed for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but for many years she was mainly cast in “moll" or victim roles before she achieved recognition; her first Oscar nomination was for A Place in the Sun in 1951.
• She famously shared an apartment off Sunset Boulevard with Marilyn Monroe.
• Her “conquests" among the Hollywood glitterati included such heartthrobs as Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster, William Holden and Errol Flynn, but her admirers came from a variety of backgrounds. Dylan Thomas, when Miss Winters asked why he'd come to Hollywood, famously said it was “to touch a starlet's tits". “Ok", said Miss Winters, “but only one finger."

We miss her.

Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift, 18th August 1920 - 14th January 2006)