EARLY DAYS PRODUCTIONS
Simmons was born on January 31, 1929 in Lower Holloway, London, England, to Charles Simmons and his wife Winifred (Loveland) Simmons. Simmons began acting at the age of 14. She was spotted by the director Val Guest, who cast her in the Margaret Lockwood vehicle Give us the Moon. Prior to moving to Hollywood, she played the young Estella in David Lean's version of Great Expectations (1946) and Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), for which she received her first Oscar nomination. It was the experience of working on Great Expectations that caused her to pursue an acting career more seriously
1929 - 2010
Stats:
Birth Name:
Jean Merilyn Simmons
Height: 5' 6"
Eye Color: hazel
Hair Color: brown
Nickname: none found
Quote: "Making "Spartacus" was enough acting to last anybody a lifetime. .... after we had been filming a year Kirk Douglas sent a magnum of champagne with a little note saying, "I hope our second year will be as happy as our first."
Birth Name:
Jean Merilyn Simmons
Height: 5' 6"
Eye Color: hazel
Hair Color: brown
Nickname: none found
Quote: "Making "Spartacus" was enough acting to last anybody a lifetime. .... after we had been filming a year Kirk Douglas sent a magnum of champagne with a little note saying, "I hope our second year will be as happy as our first."
Playing Ophelia in Olivier's Hamlet made her a star. Olivier offered her the chance to work and study at the Bristol Old Vic, advising her to play anything they threw at her to get experience, but she was under contract to the Rank Organisation who vetoed the idea. In 1950 Rank sold her contract to Howard Hughes, who then owned the RKO studio in Hollywood.
In 1950, she married the English actor Stewart Granger, with whom she appeared in several films, successfully making the transition to an American career. She made four films for Hughes, including Angel Face, directed by Otto Preminger. According to David Thomson "if she had made only one film - Angel Face - she might now be spoken of with the awe given to Louise Brooks." A court case freed her from the contract with Hughes in 1952. In 1953, she starred alongside Spencer Tracy in The Actress, a film that was one of her personal favourites.
For more information about Jean Simmons please visit: Wikipedia
Jean Simmons's Selected 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 (1959)
Cage of Gold (1959)
Trio "Sanatorium" (1959)
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)
Heidi (1968)
The Happy Ending (1969)
Say Hello to Yesterday (1971)
Mr Sycamore (1975)
Dominique (1978)
Yellow Pages (1988)
The Dawning (1988)
How to Make an American Quilt (1995)
Daisies in December (1995)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Jean Simmons: Rose of England (2004)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Thru the Moebius Strip (2005)
Shadows in the Sun (2009)
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 (1959)
Cage of Gold (1959)
Trio "Sanatorium" (1959)
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)
Heidi (1968)
The Happy Ending (1969)
Say Hello to Yesterday (1971)
Mr Sycamore (1975)
Dominique (1978)
Yellow Pages (1988)
The Dawning (1988)
How to Make an American Quilt (1995)
Daisies in December (1995)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Jean Simmons: Rose of England (2004)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Thru the Moebius Strip (2005)
Shadows in the Sun (2009)
Full Movie: Adam and Evelyn (1949)
When a friend dies, a gambler adopts his daughter. Complications ensue. - Taken from IMDB
Among the many films she appeared in during this period were The Robe (1953), The Egyptian (1954), Guys and Dolls (1955), The Big Country (1958), Elmer Gantry (1960), (directed by her second husband, Richard Brooks), Spartacus (1960), and The Happy Ending (1969), again directed by Brooks and for which she received her second Oscar nomination.
By the 1970s, Simmons turned her focus to stage and television acting. She toured the United States in Stephen Sondheim's well-reviewed musical A Little Night Music, then took the show to London, and thus originated the role of Desirée Armfeldt on the West End. Doing the show for three years, she said she never tired of Sondheim's music; "No matter how tired or off you felt, the music would just pick you up."
In 1989, her career came full circle with her appearance in a mini series version of Great Expectations, in which she played the role of Miss Havisham, Estella's adoptive mother. Later in life, she moved to Santa Monica, California, where she lived until her death from lung cancer at home on January 22, 2010 just 9 days short of her 81st birthday.
Early Days Productions: Jean Simmons 03/26/2012
