This page uses content from the Jean Simmons biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE (born January 31, 1929, in Crouch Hill, London) is an Oscar-nominated English actress.

Early life

Simmons was born in Crouch Hill, London, England, United Kingdom.

Career

Simmons began acting while still in her teens. Her first major film was Great Expectations, in which she played the young Estella. In 1948, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Ophelia in Hamlet, opposite Laurence Olivier.

In 1950, she married the British actor Stewart Granger, with whom she appeared in several films, successfully making the transition to Hollywood. Among her best-known leading roles are Guys and Dolls (1955), Elmer Gantry (directed by her second husband, Richard Brooks) and Spartacus, and The Happy Ending, again directed by Brooks and for which she received her second Oscar nomination.

By the 70s, her screen career had tapered off and Simmons turned to stage and television acting. She toured the U.S. in the well-reviewed A Little Night Music, then took the show to London. For her appearance in the mini-series The Thorn Birds, she won an Emmy Award. In 1989, she again starred in a miniseries version of Great Expectations, where she performed the role of Miss Havisham, Estella's adoptive mother, as well as in 1985 and 1986 in North & South.

Honors

• In 2003 She was made an Officer in the Order of the British Empire.

Private life

She was married twice:

1. Stewart Granger (1950-1960), (one child)
2. Richard Brooks (1960-1977), (one daughter Kate Brooks)

Filmography

• Sports Day (1944)
• Give Us the Moon (1944)
• Mr. Emmanuel (1944)
• Kiss the Bride Goodbye (1945)
• Meet Sexton Blake (1945)
• The Way to the Stars (1945)
• Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)
• Great Expectations (1946)
• The Woman in the Hall (1947)
• Uncle Silas (1947)
• Black Narcissus (1947)
• Hungry Hill (1947)
• Hamlet (1948)
• The Blue Lagoon (1949)
• Adam and Evelyne (1949)
• So Long at the Fair (1950)
• Cage of Gold (1950)
• Trio (1950)
• The Clouded Yellow (1951)
• Angel Face (1952)
• Androcles and the Lion (1952)
• Young Bess (1953)
• Affair with a Stranger (1953)
• The Robe (1953)
• The Actress (1953)
• She Couldn't Say No (1954)
• Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)
• The Egyptian (1954)
• A Bullet Is Waiting (1954)
• Désirée (1954)
• Footsteps in the Fog (1955)
• Guys and Dolls (1955)
• Hilda Crane (1956)
• This Could Be the Night (1957)
• Until They Sail (1957)
• The Big Country (1958)
• Home Before Dark (1958)
• This Earth Is Mine (1959)
• Elmer Gantry (1960)
• Spartacus (1960)
• The Grass Is Greener (1960)
• All the Way Home (1963)
• Life at the Top (1965)
• Mister Buddwing (1966)
• Divorce American Style (1967)
• Rough Night in Jericho (1967)
• The Happy Ending (1969)
• Say Hello to Yesterday (1971)
• Mr. Sycamore (1975)
• Dominique (1978)
• The Dawning (1988)
• Going Undercover (1988)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1991)
• They do it with Mirrors (1991)
• How to Make an American Quilt (1995)
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) (voice)
• Jean Simmons: Rose of England (2004) (documentary)
• Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro) (2004) (voice)
• Through the Moebius Strip (2005) (voice) (currently in post-production)

External links

• Jean Simmons - A Fan Resource

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