Jean Simmons

Demure British beauty 'Jean Simmons' (qv) was born January 31, 1929 in Crouch End, London. As a 14-year-old dance student, she was plucked from her school to play 'Margaret Lockwood' (qv)'s precocious sister in _Give Us the Moon (1944)_ (qv), and she went on to make a name for herself in such major British productions as _Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)_ (qv), _Great Expectations (1946)_ (qv) (as the spoiled, selfish Estella), _Black Narcissus (1947)_ (qv) (as a sultry native beauty), _Hamlet (1948)_ (qv) (playing Ophelia to 'Laurence Olivier' (qv)'s great Dane and earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination), _The Blue Lagoon (1949)_ (qv) and _So Long at the Fair (1950)_ (qv), among others.In 1950, she married actor 'Stewart Granger' (qv), and that same year, starred in the 'Frank Sinatra' (qv)/'Marlon Brando' (qv) musical _Guys and Dolls (1955)_ (qv); she used her own singing voice and earned her first Golden Globe Award. Simmons divorced Granger in 1960 and almost immediately married writer-director 'Richard Brooks' (qv), who cast her as Sister Sharon opposite 'Burt Lancaster' (qv) in _Elmer Gantry (1960)_ (qv), a memorable adaptation of the 'Sinclair Lewis' (qv) novel. That same year, she co-starred with 'Kirk Douglas' (qv) in 'Stanley Kubrick' (qv)'s _Spartacus (1960)_ (qv) and played a would-be homewrecker opposite 'Cary Grant' (qv) in _The Grass Is Greener (1960)_ (qv).Off the screen for a few years, Jean captivated moviegoers with a brilliant performance as the mother in _All the Way Home (1963)_ (qv), a literate, tasteful adaptation of 'James Agee' (qv)'s "A Death in the Family". However, after that, she found quality projects somewhat harder to come by, and took work in _Life at the Top (1965)_ (qv), _Mister Buddwing (1966)_ (qv), _Divorce American Style (1967)_ (qv), _Rough Night in Jericho (1967)_ (qv), _The Happy Ending (1969)_ (qv) (a 'Richard Brooks' (qv) film for which she was again Oscar-nominated, this time as Best Actress).Jean continued making films well into the 1970s. In the 1980s, she appeared mainly in television miniseries, such as _North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985)_ (qv) and _The Thorn Birds (1983)_ (qv). She made a comeback to films in 1995 in _How to Make an American Quilt (1995)_ (qv) co-starring 'Winona Ryder' (qv) and 'Anne Bancroft' (qv), and most recently played the elderly Sophie in the English version of 'Hayao Miyazaki' (qv)'s _Howl's Moving Castle (2004)_ (qv). She now resided in Santa Monica, California, with her dog, Mr. Gates, and her two cats, Adisson and Megan. 'Jean Simmons' (qv) died of lung cancer on January 22, 2010, nine days before her 81st birthday.::[email protected]