Norton Simon Museum holds Jennifer Jones film series

Jennifer Jones became one of the top stars of the 1940s and ‘50s under the guidance of her second husband, uber-producer David O. Selznick.

Because of Selznick’s firm grip, though, Jones didn’t make as many movies as some of her contemporaries, such as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. As a result, many people today aren’t familiar with her work, save perhaps for her final role as Fred Astaire’s love interest in 1974’s “The Towering Inferno.”

But during her career, Jones earned a lead actress Oscar for 1943’s “The Song of Bernadette” and received nominations for 1944’s “Since You Went Away,” 1945’s “Love Letters,” 1946’s “Duel in the Sun” and 1955’s “Love Is a Many Splendored-Thing.” Jones also got to show off her comedic chops in Ernst Lubitsch’s last film, 1946’s “Cluny Brown,” in which she played a lady plumber. And she was ethereally beautiful in the magical 1948 fantasy “Portrait of Jennie.”

Jones, who died last December at the age of 90, is being honored at a series of screenings this month at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. Jones was married to Simon from 1971 until his death in 1993. Robert Walker Jr., her eldest son by her first husband, Robert Walker (“Strangers on a Train”), will do a Q&A with the museum’s chief curator, Carol Togneri, before each screening.

The retrospective begins Saturday with “The Song of Bernadette,” in which Jones plays a saintly young girl who becomes a nun after seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes. Screening Oct. 16 is the lavish, melodramatic western “Duel in the Sun,” in which she plays a fiery femme fatale. Coming Oct. 23 is 1953’s “Beat the Devil,” with Humphrey Bogart and Gina Lollobrigida, a quirky film noir parody directed in Italy by John Huston. The series concludes on Oct. 30 with the romance “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing,” in which Jones plays a Eurasian doctor in Hong Kong who falls in love with an American war correspondent (William Holden).

Jones was born Phyllis Lee Isley in Tulsa, Okla., in 1919 to operators of a regional theatrical troupe. She made a few forgettable films with her real name, including the 1939 serial “Dick Tracy’s G-Men,” but she just didn’t catch on until she auditioned for Selznick, who had won back-to-back Academy Awards for producing 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” and 1940’s “Rebecca.”

Selznick immediately signed her to a contract and introduced her as his latest discovery, Jennifer Jones. Her first film under his guidance was “The Song of Bernadette.” They fell in love, divorced their spouses and married in 1949. And until his death in 1965, Selznick was the force behind Jones.

“He kept a tight rein on her,” Robert Walker Jr. says. “She went with the program. He was always looking for that perfect vehicle for her. I think that was detrimental in the long run. They were awfully picky. I am sure she was getting lots of offers, but a lot of people didn’t want to deal with Selznick. He was a brilliant, unbelievably terrific guy, but the biggest micromanager in history. He interfered so much, I think people were a little intimidated. If they would take on Jennifer, they would have to take on David.”

Despite her status, Walker says his mother was very reclusive. “She hated to be photographed unless it was on the movie set,” he says. “She would go beet red and just get so nervous. But in front of a movie camera she was fine.”

The last six years of her life, Jones lived with Walker and his family in Malibu. “We had a wonderful six years with her,” he says. “The children gave her such pleasure and she gave the children so much. She looked beautiful up until the end. There was something that glowed about her.”

susan.king@latimes.com