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{{short description|British actress (1929–2010)}} |
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{{for|the musician|Gene Simmons}} |
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{{distinguish|Gene Simmons|Jen Simmons}} |
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{{Use British English|date=May 2021}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} |
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{{Infobox person |
{{Infobox person |
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| name = Jean Simmons |
| name = Jean Simmons |
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| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] |
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| image = Studio publicity Jean Simmons.jpg |
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| image = Studio publicity Jean Simmons.jpg |
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| imagesize = 240px |
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| caption |
| caption = Simmons in a 1955 studio publicity shot |
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| birth_name = Jean Merilyn Simmons |
| birth_name = Jean Merilyn Simmons |
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| birth_date = {{ |
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1929|1|31}} |
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| birth_place = [[ |
| birth_place = [[Islington]], London, England |
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| death_date = {{ |
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2010|1|22|1929|1|31}} |
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| death_place = [[Santa Monica, California |
| death_place = [[Santa Monica, California]], U.S. |
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| resting_place = [[Highgate Cemetery]], London, England |
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| death_cause = [[Lung Cancer]] |
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| citizenship = United Kingdom<br />United States<!-- she became a US citizen as is clearly stated in the text --> |
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| nationality = [[British people|British]] |
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| spouse = {{plainlist| |
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| alma_mater = [[Aida Foster stage school|Aida Foster School of Dance]] |
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* {{marriage|[[Stewart Granger]]|1950|1960|end=div}} |
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| spouse = [[Stewart Granger]] (1950–60) (divorced) 1 child<br>[[Richard Brooks]] (1960–77) (divorced) 1 child |
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* {{marriage|[[Richard Brooks]]|1960|1980|end=div}} |
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| parents = [[Charles Simmons (gymnast)|Charles Simmons]],<br/>Winifred (Loveland) Simmons |
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}} |
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| occupation = Actress, dancer |
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| children = 2 |
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| years_active = 1944–2009 |
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| father = [[Charles Simmons (gymnast)|Charles Simmons]] |
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| occupation = Actress, singer |
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| years_active = 1944–2010 |
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}} |
}} |
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'''Jean Merilyn Simmons''' |
'''Jean Merilyn Simmons''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}} (31 January 1929 – 22 January 2010) was a British actress and singer.<ref>{{cite news |last=Nelson |first=Valerie J. |title=Jean Simmons dies at 80; radiant beauty was known for stunning versatility |url=https://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-jean-simmons23-2010jan23-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=23 January 2010 |access-date=12 August 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Vallance |first=Tom |title=Jean Simmons: Actress who dazzled opposite the likes of Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jean-simmons-actress-who-dazzled-opposite-the-likes-of-marlon-brando-kirk-douglas-and-laurence-olivier-1878829.html |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |location=London |date=26 January 2010}}</ref> One of [[J. Arthur Rank]]'s "well-spoken young starlets," she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Britain during and after the Second World War, followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950 onwards.<ref name=NYTObit>{{cite news |last=Harmetz |first=Aljean |author-link=Aljean Harmetz |title=Jean Simmons, Actress, Dies at 80 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/movies/24simmons.html |quote=Jean Simmons, the English actress who made the covers of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' and ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazines by the time she was 20 and became a major mid-century star alongside strong leading men like [[Laurence Olivier]], [[Richard Burton]] and [[Marlon Brando]], often playing their demure helpmates, died on Friday at her home in [[Santa Monica, California]]. She was 80. The cause was [[lung cancer]], according to Judy Page, her agent. |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 January 2010 |access-date=24 January 2010}}</ref> |
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Simmons was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress]] for ''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'' (1948), and won a [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy|Golden Globe Award for Best Actress]] for ''[[Guys and Dolls (film)|Guys and Dolls]]'' (1955). Her other film appearances include ''[[Great Expectations (1946 film)|Great Expectations]]'' (1946), ''[[Black Narcissus]]'' (1947), ''[[The Blue Lagoon (1949 film)|The Blue Lagoon]]'' (1949), ''[[So Long at the Fair]]'' (1950), ''[[Angel Face (1953 film)|Angel Face]]'' (1953), ''[[Young Bess]]'' (1953), ''[[The Robe (film)|The Robe]]'' (1953), ''[[The Big Country]]'' (1958), ''[[Elmer Gantry (film)|Elmer Gantry]]'' (1960), ''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]'' (1960), and the 1969 film ''[[The Happy Ending]]'', for which she was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]. She also won an [[Emmy Award]] for the miniseries ''[[The Thorn Birds (miniseries)|The Thorn Birds]]'' (1983). |
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==Early life and career== |
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Simmons was born in [[Lower Holloway]], [[London]], [[England]], to [[Charles Simmons (gymnast)|Charles Simmons]] and his wife, Winifred (Loveland) Simmons. Jean was the youngest of four children with siblings Edna, Harold and Lorna. She began acting at the age of 14. During the [[Second World War]], the Simmons family was evacuated to [[Winscombe]] in [[Somerset]].<ref>''[[Picturegoer]]'' 2 August 1947 'Are They Being Fair To Jean Simmons?'</ref> Her father, a physical education teacher (who had represented Great Britain in the [[1912 Summer Olympics]]),<ref>as told to [[Gloria Hunniford]] in ''Sunday, Sunday'' television interview LWT, autumn 1985</ref> taught briefly at [[Sidcot School]], and sometime during this period Simmons followed her elder sister on to the village stage and sang songs such as "[[Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow]]". Returning to London and just enrolled at the [[Aida Foster stage school|Aida Foster School of Dance]], she was spotted by the director [[Val Guest]], who cast her in the [[Margaret Lockwood]] vehicle ''[[Give Us the Moon]]''.<ref>Val Guest ''So You Want to be in Pictures?'' p.58.ISBN 1-90311-115-3</ref> Small roles in several other films followed including the high profile ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'', produced by [[Gabriel Pascal]]. Pascal saw potential in Simmons and in 1945 he signed her to a seven-year contract.<ref>Jean Simmons, The Biography Channel</ref> Prior to moving to Hollywood, she played the young Estella in [[David Lean]]'s version of ''[[Great Expectations (1946 film)|Great Expectations]]'' (1946) and [[Ophelia]] in [[Laurence Olivier]]'s ''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'' (1948), for which she received her first Oscar nomination. She also played an [[India]]n girl in the Powell-Pressburger film ''[[Black Narcissus]]'' (1947). |
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==Biography== |
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It was the experience of working on ''Great Expectations'' that caused her to pursue an acting career more seriously:{{cquote|I thought acting was just a lark, meeting all those exciting film stars, and getting £5 a day which was lovely because we needed the money. But I figured I'd just go off and get married and have children like my mother. It was working with David Lean that convinced me to go on.<ref name=weekly>''[[Woman's Weekly (UK magazine)|Woman's Weekly]]'', Christmas 1989</ref>}} |
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===Early life=== |
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Simmons was born on 31 January 1929, in [[Islington, London]],<ref>''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Jean Simmons, (Brian McFarlane) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-103243?rskey=Ex2fdt&result=2]</ref> to [[Charles Simmons (gymnast)|Charles Simmons]], a bronze medalist in [[gymnastics at the 1912 Summer Olympics]], and his wife, Winifred Ada (née Loveland). Jean was the youngest of four children, with siblings Lorna, Harold, and Edna. She began acting at the age of 14.<ref>{{cite news |title=Jean Simmons' Age Is Exposed |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1985589/jean_simmons_age/ |work=The Salina Journal |issue=96 |volume=116 |page=20 |date=26 April 1967 |access-date=14 March 2015 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref> |
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During the Second World War, the Simmons family was evacuated to [[Winscombe]], [[Somerset]].<ref name=picturegoer>"Are They Being Fair to Jean Simmons?", ''[[Picturegoer]]'', 2 August 1947.</ref> Her father, a physical education teacher,<ref>Per [[Gloria Hunniford]] in ''Sunday, Sunday'' television interview LWT, autumn 1985</ref> taught briefly at [[Sidcot School]], and sometime during this period, Simmons followed her eldest sister onto the village stage and sang popular songs such as "[[Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow]]". At this point, her ambition was to be an [[acrobatic dance]]r.<ref>''TV Times'', 22–28 March 1975, p. 4</ref> |
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Playing Ophelia in Olivier's ''Hamlet'' made her a star while still in her teens, although she was already well known for her work in other British films, including her first starring role in the film adaptation of ''[[Uncle Silas]]'', and ''[[Black Narcissus]]'' (both 1947). 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; she was under contract to the [[Rank Organisation]] who vetoed the idea.<ref>{{cite news |first=Philip |last=French |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/23/the-unforgettable-jean-simmons |title=Jean Simmons: an unforgettable English rose |work=The Observer |date=24 January 2010}}</ref> Rank was unhappy at this time also that [[Stewart Granger]] was pursuing his young star and, (according to the actor's account), confronted Granger ("a shop-worn thirty-four"), at a meeting at the [[Dorchester Hotel]] saying that what was going on was wrong since he was a married man with two children. Granger told Rank he had been divorced for six months, and left.<ref>Stewart Granger, Sparks Fly Upward, Granada 1981, p.132</ref> In 1949 Simmons starred with Granger in ''[[Adam and Evelyne]]''. In 1950 Rank sold Simmons's contract to [[Howard Hughes]], who then owned the [[RKO Pictures|RKO]] studio in Hollywood. That year she was voted the fourth most popular star in Britain.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18193224 |title=Critics Praise Drama: Comedians Win Profits. |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |location=NSW |date=29 December 1950 |accessdate=24 April 2012 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> |
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===Early films=== |
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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 (1952 film)|Angel Face]]'', directed by [[Otto Preminger]]. According to [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] "if she had made only one film – ''Angel Face'' – she might now be spoken of with the awe given to [[Louise Brooks]]."<ref name="Thomson">{{cite news |first=David |last=Thomson |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/24/jean-simmons-obituary |title=Jean Simmons obituary |work=The Guardian |date=25 January 2010}}</ref> A court case freed her from the contract with Hughes in 1952.<ref name="Thomson"/> [[image:Jean Simmons in Angel Face trailer.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Simmons in [[Otto Preminger]]'s ''[[Angel Face (1952 film)|Angel Face]]'' - one of four films she made for [[RKO Pictures]] ]] In 1953 she starred alongside [[Spencer Tracy]] in ''[[The Actress]]'', a film that was one of her personal favourites. Among the many films she appeared in during this period were ''[[The Robe]]'' (1953), ''[[Young Bess]]'' (1953), ''[[Désirée (film)|Désirée]]'' (1954), ''[[The Egyptian (film)|The Egyptian]]'' (1954), ''[[Guys and Dolls (film)|Guys and Dolls]]'' (1955) – "in which she's delightfully proper (and improper) as the [[Salvation Army]] officer Sarah Brown" <ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/apr/06/1 Philip French, Screen Legends, No.11]</ref> – ''[[The Big Country]] '' (1958), ''[[Elmer Gantry (film)|Elmer Gantry]]'' (1960), (directed by her second husband, [[Richard Brooks]]), ''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]'' (1960), ''[[All the Way Home (film)|All the Way Home]]'' (1963) – a film of [[James Agee]]'s novel, ''[[A Death in the Family]]'' – and ''[[The Happy Ending]]'' (1969), again directed by Brooks and for which she received her second Oscar nomination. In the opinion of film critic [[Philip French]], a film of 1958, ''[[Home Before Dark (film)|Home Before Dark]]'', saw her give "perhaps her finest performance as a housewife driven into a breakdown in [[Mervyn LeRoy]]'s psychodrama."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/apr/06/1 |title=Philip French's screen legends - No 11: Jean Simmons 1929- |work=The Observer |date=6 April 2008 |first=Philip |last=French}}</ref> |
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On her return to London, Simmons enrolled at the [[Aida Foster stage school|Aida Foster School of Dance]]. She was spotted by director [[Val Guest]], who cast her in the [[Margaret Lockwood]]-starring vehicle ''[[Give Us the Moon]]'' (1944) in a large role as Lockwood's sister.<ref>{{cite book |last=Guest |first=Val |url= |title=So You Want to be in Pictures? |publisher=Reynolds & Hearn |year=2001 |isbn=978-1903111154 |page=58}}</ref> |
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Small roles in several other films followed, including ''[[Mr. Emmanuel]]'' (1944), ''[[Kiss the Bride Goodbye]]'' (1945), ''[[Meet Sexton Blake]]'' (1945), and the popular ''[[The Way to the Stars]]'' (1945), as well as the short ''[[Sports Day (film)|Sports Day]]'' (1945). |
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Simmons had a small part as a harpist in the high-profile ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' (1945), produced by [[Gabriel Pascal]], starring [[Vivien Leigh]], and co-starring Simmons's future husband [[Stewart Granger]]. Pascal saw potential in Simmons, and in 1945 he signed her to a seven-year contract with [[the Rank Organisation|the J. Arthur Rank Organisation]].{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}} |
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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 theatre|West End]].<ref>[http://www.sondheimguide.com/night.html Sondheim Guide - A Little Night Music]</ref> 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." |
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===''Great Expectations'' and stardom=== |
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She portrayed Fiona Cleary, Cleary family matriarch, in the 1983 [[mini-series]], ''[[The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)|The Thorn Birds]]''; she won an [[Emmy Award]] for her role. |
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[[File:Jean Simmons 1948 crop.jpg|thumb|left|Simmons at the [[20th Academy Awards|1948 Academy Awards]], where she received her first [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] nomination]] |
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Simmons became a star in Britain when she was cast as the young Estella in [[David Lean]]'s version of ''[[Great Expectations (1946 film)|Great Expectations]]'' (1946). The movie was the third-most-popular film at the British box office in 1947, and Simmons received excellent reviews.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27893195 |title=Anna Neagle Most Popular Actress |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=3 January 1948 |access-date=24 April 2012 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> |
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The experience of working on ''Great Expectations'' caused her to pursue an acting career more seriously:{{blockquote|text=I thought acting was just a lark, meeting all those exciting movie stars, and getting £5 a day which was lovely because we needed the money. But I figured I'd just go off and get married and have children like my mother. It was working with David Lean that convinced me to go on.<ref name=weekly>''[[Woman's Weekly (UK magazine)|Woman's Weekly]]'', Christmas 1989<!-- ISBN (if any), pages needed --></ref>}} |
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In 1985 and 1986 she appeared in ''[[North and South (TV miniseries)|North & South]]'', again playing the role of the family matriarch as Clarissa Main. |
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[[File:Black Narcissus (1947), screenshot of Jean Simmons.png|thumb|right|Simmons in ''[[Black Narcissus]]'' (1947)]] |
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Simmons had support roles in ''[[Hungry Hill (film)|Hungry Hill]]'' (1947) with Margaret Lockwood and the [[Powell and Pressburger|Powell-Pressburger]] film ''[[Black Narcissus]]'' (1947), playing an Indian woman in the latter alongside [[Sabu Dastagir|Sabu]].<ref name="reelclassics">[http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Simmons/simmons-bio.htm Biography], reelclassics.com; accessed 24 April 2014.</ref><ref name=picturegoer/> |
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Simmons was top-billed for the first time in the drama ''[[Uncle Silas (film)|Uncle Silas]]'' (1947). She followed it with ''[[The Woman in the Hall]]'' (1947). Neither was particularly successful, but Simmons was then in a huge international hit, playing [[Ophelia]] in [[Laurence Olivier]]'s ''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'' (1948), for which she received her first Oscar nomination. Olivier offered her the chance to work and study at the [[Old Vic]], advising her to play anything they offered her to get experience, but she was under contract to the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, which vetoed the idea.<ref>{{cite news| first=Philip| last=French| url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jan/23/the-unforgettable-jean-simmons| title=Jean Simmons: an unforgettable English rose| work=[[The Observer]]| location=London| date=24 January 2010}}</ref> |
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In 1988 she starred in ''[[The Dawning]]'' with [[Anthony Hopkins]] and [[Hugh Grant]], and in 1989 she again starred in a mini-series, this time a version of ''[[Great Expectations (1989 film)|Great Expectations]]'', in which she played the role of Miss Havisham, Estella's adoptive mother. Simmons made a late career appearance in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "[[The Drumhead]]" as a retired [[Starfleet]] admiral and hardened legal investigator who conducts a [[Witch-hunt#Metaphorical usage|witch-hunt]]. In 1991 she appeared in the short-lived revival of the 1960s daytime series [[Dark Shadows (1991 TV series)|''Dark Shadows'']], in roles originally played by [[Joan Bennett]]. From 1994 until 1998 Simmons narrated the [[A&E Network|A&E]] [[Documentary film|documentary]] [[television series]], ''[[Mysteries of the Bible]]''. In 2004 Simmons voiced the lead-role of Sophie in the English dub of ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (film)|Howl's Moving Castle]]''. |
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Simmons had the lead in [[Frank Launder]]'s ''[[The Blue Lagoon (1949 film)|The Blue Lagoon]]'' (1949), based on [[The Blue Lagoon (novel)|the 1908 novel]] by [[Henry De Vere Stacpoole]] and co-produced with Launder's partner [[Sidney Gilliat]],<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55886550 |title=...and from London |newspaper=[[The Mail (Adelaide)|The Mail]] |volume=35 |issue=1,806 |date=4 January 1947 |access-date=10 October 2017 |page=9 (Sunday Magazine) |location=Adelaide |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> a project originally announced for Lockwood a decade earlier. It was a considerable financial success.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gillett |first1=Philip |title=The British working class in postwar film |date=2003 |publisher=Manchester University Press |location=Manchester |isbn=0719062578 |page=200 |url=https://archive.org/details/britishworkingcl0000gill |access-date=3 April 2023}}</ref> |
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===Stewart Granger=== |
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Simmons starred with Stewart Granger in the comedy ''[[Adam and Evelyne]]'' (1949). It was her first adult role, and Granger and she became romantically involved; they soon married.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63371662 |title=JEAN SIMMONDS TO FACE F/LIGHTS (sic) |newspaper=[[Townsville Daily Bulletin]] |location=Queensland |date=16 November 1948 |access-date=20 June 2015 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> |
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Simmons made two films that were popular at the local box office: ''[[So Long at the Fair]]'' (1950) with [[Dirk Bogarde]] and ''[[Trio (1950 film)|Trio]]'' (1950), where she was one of several stars. She was then in ''[[Cage of Gold]]'' (1950) with [[David Farrar (actor)|David Farrar]] and [[Ralph Thomas]]' ''[[The Clouded Yellow]]'' (1950) with [[Trevor Howard]]. In 1950, Simmons was voted the fourth-most popular star in Britain.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18193224|title=Critics Praise Drama: Comedians Win Profits| newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald| agency=[[Australian Associated Press]]| date=29 December 1950| access-date=24 April 2012| page=3| publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> |
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===Howard Hughes and Victor Mature=== |
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[[File:Victor Mature - Jean Simmons - 1967.jpg|thumb|right|Simmons with [[Victor Mature]] in ''[[Androcles and the Lion (1952 film)|Androcles and the Lion]]'' (1952)]] |
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Granger became a Hollywood star in ''[[King Solomon's Mines (1950 film)|King Solomon's Mines]]'' (1950) and was signed to a contract by MGM, so Simmons moved to Los Angeles with him. In 1951, Rank sold her contract to [[Howard Hughes]], who then owned [[RKO Pictures]].<ref>{{cite book| title=Howard Hughes, The Untold Story| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WnbDirjSyHUC&q=simmons| first1=Peter| last1=Brown| first2=Pat| last2=Broeske| page=241| publisher=Penguin| year=1997| isbn=978-0451180285}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=The Year of the Flirt| newspaper=[[The Guardian]]| location=London| last=Lennon| first=Peter| author-link=Peter Lennon| date=12 November 1999| url=https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,,254808,00.html}}</ref> |
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Hughes was eager to start a sexual relationship with Simmons, but Granger put a stop to his advances by angrily telling Hughes over the phone: "Mr. Howard bloody Hughes, you'll be sorry if you don't leave my wife alone."<ref>{{cite web |title=Stewart Granger Jean Simmons and Claire Bloom – adventures of two north London girls |url=https://www.aenigma-images.com/tag/stewart-granger/ |website=aenigma |access-date=26 December 2020}}</ref> To punish Simmons and Granger, Hughes refused to lend her to [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] where director [[William Wyler]] wanted to cast her in the female lead for his film ''[[Roman Holiday]]''; the role made a star of [[Audrey Hepburn]].{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}} |
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Her first Hollywood film was ''Androcles and the Lion'' (1952), produced by Pascal and co-starring Victor Mature. It was followed by ''[[Angel Face (1953 film)|Angel Face]]'' (1953), directed by [[Otto Preminger]] with [[Robert Mitchum]]. [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] wrote that "she might now be spoken of with the awe given to [[Louise Brooks]]" if Simmons only starred in that film.<ref name="Thomson">{{cite news| first=David| last=Thomson| url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan/24/jean-simmons-obituary| title=Jean Simmons obituary| work=The Guardian| date=25 January 2010}}</ref> Smarting over his rebuff from Granger, Hughes instructed Preminger to treat Simmons as roughly as possible, leading the director to demand that costar Mitchum repeatedly slap the actress harder and harder, until Mitchum turned and punched Preminger, asking if that was how he wanted it.<ref>{{cite news| last=Bernstein| first=Adam| title=English actress was known for roles in the films 'Hamlet' and 'Elmer Gantry'| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012205323.html| access-date=1 January 2018| newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]| date=24 January 2010}}</ref> He also made her appear in ''[[She Couldn't Say No (1954 film)|She Couldn't Say No]]'' (1954), a comedy with Mitchum. |
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A court case freed Simmons from the contract with Hughes in 1952.<ref name="Thomson"/> They settled out of court; part of the arrangement was that Simmons would do one more film for no additional money.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hopper |first=Hedda |date=18 July 1952 |title=Looking at Hollywood: Story of Talking Animals Bought for Movie |url= |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune|Chicago Daily Tribune]] |page=A4}}</ref> Simmons also agreed to make three more movies under the auspices of RKO, but not actually at that studio—she would be lent out. She would make an additional picture for 20th Century Fox while RKO got the services of Victor Mature for one film.<ref>{{cite news| title=Jean Simmons Suit Settled by Hughes: British Actress Wins on Points; Producer to Pay All Costs of Trial| url=https://latimes.newspapers.com/search/#query=Jean+Simmons+Suit+Settled+by+Hughes%3A+British+Actress+Wins+on+Points%3B+Producer+to+Pay+All+Costs+of+Trial| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| date=18 July 1952| page=A1|url-access=subscription }}</ref> |
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[[File:Jean Simmons 1954.jpg|thumb|left|Publicity portrait of Simmons for MGM]] |
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MGM cast her in the lead of ''[[Young Bess]]'' (1953) playing a young [[Queen Elizabeth I]] with Granger. She went back to RKO to do the extra film under the settlement with Hughes, titled ''[[Affair with a Stranger]]'' (1953) with Mature; it flopped.{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}} |
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===20th Century Fox=== |
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Fox asked Simmons back for ''[[The Egyptian (film)|The Egyptian]]'' (1954), another epic, but it was not especially popular.{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}} She had the lead in Columbia's ''[[A Bullet Is Waiting]]'' (1954). More widely seen was{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}} ''[[Désirée (film)|Désirée]]'' (1954), where Simmons played [[Désirée Clary]] opposite [[Marlon Brando]]'s [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]. |
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Simmons and Granger returned to England to make the thriller ''[[Footsteps in the Fog]]'' (1955). Then, [[Joseph Mankiewicz]] cast her opposite Brando in the screen adaptation of ''Guys and Dolls'' (1955), where she did her own singing in a role turned down by [[Grace Kelly]]; it was a big hit.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=1957-01-02 |title=109 top money films of 1956 |url=https://archive.org/details/variety205-1957-01 |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |volume=205 |issue=5 |pages=1 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> |
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Simmons played the title role in ''[[Hilda Crane]]'' (1956) at Fox, a box-office disappointment.{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}} So, too, were ''[[This Could Be the Night (film)|This Could Be the Night]]'' (1957) and ''[[Until They Sail]]'' (1957), both at MGM. |
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[[File:Jean Simmons by Ernest A. Bachrach, 1955.jpg|thumb|right|Simmons by [[Ernest Bachrach]], 1955]] |
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Simmons had a big success, though, in ''[[The Big Country]] ''(1958), directed by [[William Wyler]]. She starred in ''[[Home Before Dark (film)|Home Before Dark]]'' (1958) at Warner Bros. and ''[[This Earth Is Mine (1959 film)|This Earth Is Mine]]'' (1959) with [[Rock Hudson]] at Universal. In the opinion of film critic [[Philip French]], ''Home Before Dark'' was "perhaps her finest performance as a housewife driven into a breakdown in [[Mervyn LeRoy]]'s psychodrama."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/apr/06/1| title=Philip French's screen legends – No 11: Jean Simmons profile| work=The Observer| date=6 April 2008| first=Philip| last=French}}</ref> |
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===''Elmer Gantry'' and Richard Brooks=== |
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Simmons went into ''[[Elmer Gantry (film)|Elmer Gantry]]'' (1960), directed by [[Richard Brooks]], who became her second husband. It was successful, as was ''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]'' (1960), where she played [[Kirk Douglas]]'s character's love interest. Simmons then did ''[[The Grass Is Greener]]'' (1960) with Mitchum, [[Cary Grant]], and [[Deborah Kerr]]. |
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She took some years off screen, then returned in ''[[All the Way Home (1963 film)|All the Way Home]]'' (1963) with [[Robert Preston (actor)|Robert Preston]]. She did ''[[Life at the Top (film)|Life at the Top]]'' (1965) with [[Laurence Harvey]], ''[[Mister Buddwing]]'' (1966) with [[James Garner]], ''[[Divorce American Style]]'' (1967) with [[Dick Van Dyke]], and ''[[Rough Night in Jericho (film)|Rough Night in Jericho]]'' (1967) with [[George Peppard]] and Dean Martin. |
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Simmons did ''[[Heidi (1968 film)|Heidi]]'' (1968) for TV, then Brooks wrote and directed ''[[The Happy Ending]]'' (1969) for her, and she received her second Oscar nomination.{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}} |
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===1970s and 1980s=== |
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By the 1970s, Simmons turned her focus to stage and television acting. She toured the United States in [[Stephen Sondheim]]'s ''[[A Little Night Music]]'', then took the show to London, thus originating the role of Desirée Armfeldt in the [[West End theatre|West End]]. Performing in 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."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.sondheimguide.com/night.html| publisher=The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide| title=A Little Night Music: 1974 Touring Production; 1975 London Production| access-date=12 August 2018}}</ref> |
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She portrayed Fiona "Fee" Cleary, the Cleary family matriarch, in the miniseries ''The Thorn Birds'' (1983); she won an [[Emmy Award]] for her role. She appeared in ''[[North and South (miniseries)|North and South]]'' (1985–86), again playing the role of the family matriarch as Clarissa Main, and starred in ''[[The Dawning]]'' (1988) with [[Anthony Hopkins]] and [[Hugh Grant]]. In 1989, Simmons appeared as murder mystery author Eudora McVeigh Shipton, a self-proclaimed rival to Jessica Fletcher, in the two-part [[Murder, She Wrote]] episode "Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall" with [[Angela Lansbury]]. |
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===1990s and 2000s=== |
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In 1991, she made a late-career appearance in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "[[The Drumhead]]" as a retired [[Starfleet]] admiral and hardened legal investigator who conducts a [[Witch-hunt#Metaphorical usage|witch hunt]]. That same year, she starred in a remake of ''[[Great Expectations (1989 TV series)|Great Expectations]]'', this time playing the role of Miss Havisham, Estella's adoptive mother, and as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard/Naomi Collins, in the short-lived revival of the 1960s daytime series [[Dark Shadows (1991 TV series)|''Dark Shadows'']], in roles originally played by [[Joan Bennett]]. From 1994 until 1998, Simmons narrated the [[A&E Network|A&E]] documentary television series ''[[Mysteries of the Bible]]''. In 1995, she appeared in ''[[How to Make an American Quilt]]'' with [[Winona Ryder]], [[Maya Angelou]], [[Ellen Burstyn]], [[Anne Bancroft]], and [[Alfre Woodard]]. In 2004, she voiced the lead role of Sophie in the English dub of ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (film)|Howl's Moving Castle]]''.<ref name="reelclassics"/> |
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==Personal life== |
==Personal life== |
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[[File:Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons, 1955.jpg|thumb|left|Simmons with her first husband [[Stewart Granger]] in 1955]] |
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Jean Simmons was married and divorced twice. She married [[Stewart Granger]] in [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucson]], [[Arizona]], on 20 December 1950. In 1956 she and Granger became U.S. citizens; they divorced in 1960. On 1 November 1960, she married director [[Richard Brooks]]; they divorced in 1977. Although both men were significantly older than Simmons, she denied she was looking for a father figure. Her father had died when she was just 16 but she said: "They were really nothing like my father at all. My father was a gentle, softly-spoken man. My husbands were much noisier and much more opinionated ... it's really nothing to do with age ... it's to do with what's there – the twinkle and sense of humour."<ref name=weekly/> And in a 1984 interview, given in [[Copenhagen]] at the time she was shooting the film ''Yellow Pages'', she elaborated slightly on her marriages, stating, {{cquote|It may be simplistic, but you could sum up my two marriages by saying that, when I wanted to be a wife, Jimmy (Stewart Granger) would say: 'I just want you to be pretty.' And when I wanted to cook, Richard would say: 'Forget the cooking. You've been trained to act – so act!' Most people thought I was helpless – a clinger and a butterfly – during my first marriage. It was Richard Brooks who saw what was wrong and tried to make me stand on my own two feet. I'd whine: 'I'm afraid.' And he'd say: 'Never be afraid to fail. Every time you get up in the morning, you are ahead.'}} |
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Simmons was married and divorced twice. At 21, she married [[Stewart Granger]] in Tucson, Arizona, on 20 December 1950.<ref>{{cite news| title=English Stars Married Here| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2000315/english_stars_married_here/| access-date=16 March 2015| work=[[Tucson Citizen|Tucson Daily Citizen]]| volume=78| issue=304| date=21 December 1950| page=4| via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref> She and Granger became US citizens in 1956;<ref>{{cite news| title=The Stewart Grangers Become Citizens of US| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19560608&id=Zx8aAAAAIBAJ&pg=1136,4989103| access-date=16 March 2015| work=[[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|The Milwaukee Journal]]| agency=[[Associated Press]]| date=9 June 1956| page=1}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> in the same year, their daughter Tracy Granger was born. They divorced in 1960.<ref>{{cite news| title=Jean Simmons Files To Divorce Stewart Granger| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19600708&id=a75OAAAAIBAJ&pg=7294,4472816| access-date=16 March 2015| work=[[The Blade (Toledo)|The Blade]]| agency=[[United Press International]]| date=8 July 1960| location=[[Toledo, Ohio]]| page=7}}</ref> |
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On 1 November 1960, Simmons married director Richard Brooks;<ref>{{cite news| title=Actress Weds Film Director| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2114492/actress_weds_film_director/| access-date=1 April 2015| work=[[The Odessa American]]| agency=Associated Press| issue=263| date=2 November 1960| volume=35| page=27| via=Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}</ref> their daughter, Kate Brooks, was born a year later, in 1961. Simmons and Brooks divorced in 1980.{{sfn|Daniel|2011|p=210}} Although both men were significantly older than Simmons, she denied that she was looking for a father figure. Her father had died when she was just 16, but she said: <blockquote>They were really nothing like my father at all. My father was a gentle, softly spoken man. My husbands were both much noisier and much more opinionated ... it's really nothing to do with age ... it's to do with what's there – the twinkle and sense of humour.<ref name=weekly/></blockquote> In a 1984 interview, given in Copenhagen at the time she was shooting the film ''Going Undercover'' (1988,<ref name="BFIGU">{{cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b795f0c10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707144213/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b795f0c10|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 July 2020|title=Going Undercover (1988)|work=BFI|access-date=7 July 2020}}</ref><ref name="LAT1988">{{cite news|last=Wilmington|first=Michael|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-20-ca-3471-story.html|title=''Going Undercover''—the Gags, Ideas Get Lost in the Chase|work=Los Angeles Times|date=20 June 1988|access-date=7 July 2020}}</ref> a.k.a. ''Yellow Pages''; completed 1985)<ref name="BBFCYP">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/yellow-pages-1985|title=Yellow Pages (1985)|work=British Board of Film Classification|access-date=7 July 2020}}</ref> she elaborated slightly on her marriages, stating, {{blockquote|text=It may be simplistic, but you could sum up my two marriages by saying that, when I wanted to be a wife, Jimmy [Stewart Granger] would say: "I just want you to be pretty." And when I wanted to cook, Richard would say: "Forget the cooking. You've been trained to act – so act!" Most people thought I was quite helpless – a clinger and a butterfly – during my first marriage. It was Richard Brooks who saw what was wrong and tried to make me stand on my own two feet. I'd whine: 'I'm afraid.' And he'd say: 'Never be afraid to fail. Every time you get up in the morning, you are ahead.'}} |
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She had two daughters, Tracy Granger and Kate Brooks, one by each marriage – their names bearing witness to Simmons' friendship with [[Spencer Tracy]]<ref>''Picture Show and ''TV Mirror'', 2 July 1960, p.7. Simmons says her daughter was named after Spencer Tracy in interview, but adds, "Jimmy ([[Stewart Granger]]) says he got the name from the role [[Katharine Hepburn]] played in ''[[The Philadelphia Story (film)|The Philadelphia Story]]'' "</ref> and [[Katharine Hepburn]]. Simmons moved to the East Coast of the US in the late 1970s, briefly owning a home in [[New Milford, Connecticut|New Milford]], [[Connecticut]] near her longtime friend [[Rex Reed]]. Later she moved to [[Santa Monica, California|Santa Monica]], [[California]], where she lived until her death from [[lung cancer]]. She died at home on 22 January 2010, nine days before her 81st birthday, surrounded by her family.<ref name="death">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8476400.stm|title=British-born Hollywood actress Jean Simmons dies at 80|publisher=BBC|accessdate=23 January 2010 | date=2010-01-23}}</ref> |
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Simmons had two daughters, Tracy Granger (a film editor since 1990), and Kate Brooks (a TV production assistant and producer), one by each marriage – their names bearing witness to Simmons's friendship with [[Spencer Tracy]]<ref>''Picture Show and TV Mirror'', 2 July 1960, p. 7. Simmons says her daughter was named after Spencer Tracy in interview, but adds, "Jimmy [Granger] says he got the name from the role Katharine Hepburn played in ''[[The Philadelphia Story (film)|The Philadelphia Story]].''"</ref> and [[Katharine Hepburn]]. Simmons moved to the East Coast of the US in the late 1970s, briefly owning a home in New Milford, Connecticut. She returned to California, settling in Santa Monica, California, where she lived until her death.{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}} |
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Throughout her life Simmons spoke out publicly about her own struggle with addiction, and in 2003 became the patron of the British drugs and human rights charity [[Release (agency)|Release]]. She was an active supporter of their campaigns for just, humane and effective drug policies, recognising that many of those with drug problems cannot afford the luxurious facilities available to celebrities. In 2005 Simmons signed a petition to the [[British Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]] asking him not to upgrade [[cannabis]] from a class C drug to a class B.<ref name="petition">{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sting-leads-campaign-against-blairs-plan-to-reclassify-cannabis-519959.html|title=Sting leads campaign against Blair's plan to reclassify cannabis|work=The Independent|accessdate=17 March 2010 | location=London | first=Sophie | last=Goodchild | date=2005-12-18}}</ref> |
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In the [[2003 New Year Honours]], Simmons was appointed an [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] (OBE) for services to acting.<ref name="LG 31 December 2002">{{London Gazette |issue=56797 |date=31 December 2002 |page=24 |supp=y}}</ref> |
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She was cremated in Santa Monica and her ashes buried in [[North London]] in [[Highgate Cemetery]] West. {{citation needed|date=August 2012}} |
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In 2003, she became the patron of the British drugs and human rights charity [[Release (agency)|Release]]. In 2005, she signed a petition to British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] asking him not to upgrade [[Cannabis (drug)|cannabis]] from a class C drug to class B.<ref name="petition">{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/stinyg-leads-campaign-against-blairs-plan-to-reclassify-cannabis-519959.html| title=Sting leads campaign against Blair's plan to reclassify cannabis| work=The Independent| access-date=17 March 2010| location=London| first=Sophie| last=Goodchild| date=18 December 2005}}</ref> |
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==Death== |
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[[File:Grave of Jean Simmons.jpg|thumb|right|Grave of Jean Simmons in [[Highgate Cemetery]], London]] |
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Simmons died from [[lung cancer]] at her home in Santa Monica on 22 January 2010, nine days before her 81st birthday. She is interred in [[Highgate Cemetery]], north London.<ref name="death">{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8476400.stm| title=British-born Hollywood actress Jean Simmons dies at 80| publisher=[[BBC News]]| access-date=23 January 2010| date=23 January 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3516771.stm| title=Obituary: Jean Simmons|publisher=BBC News| access-date=12 August 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-01-23 |title=Jean Simmons |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/film-obituaries/7061131/Jean-Simmons.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-07-12 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |language=en}}</ref> |
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==Filmography== |
==Filmography== |
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{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: |
{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 100%;" |
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|- |
|- |
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! Year |
! Year |
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! Film |
! Film |
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| Line 57: | Line 120: | ||
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| rowspan="3" | 1944 |
| rowspan="3" | 1944 |
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|''[[ |
|''[[Give Us the Moon]]'' |
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|Heidi |
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|Peggy<ref>{{cite web|title=''Sports Day'' (1944)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037305/|publisher=[[Internet Movie Database|IMDb]]}}</ref> |
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| |
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|- |
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|''[[Give us the Moon]]'' |
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|Heidi<ref>{{cite web|title=''Give Us the Moon'' (1944)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035945/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
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| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
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|''[[Mr. Emmanuel]]'' |
|''[[Mr. Emmanuel]]'' |
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| Sally Cooper |
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| Sally Cooper<ref>{{cite web|title=''Mr. Emmanuel'' (1944)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037093/fullcredits#cast|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
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| Billed as Jean Simmonds |
| Billed as Jean Simmonds |
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|- |
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|''[[Sports Day (film)|Sports Day]]'' |
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|Peggy |
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| |
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|- |
|- |
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| rowspan="4" |1945 |
| rowspan="4" |1945 |
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|''[[Kiss the Bride Goodbye]]'' |
|''[[Kiss the Bride Goodbye]]'' |
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|Molly Dodd<ref>{{cite web|title=''Kiss the Bride Goodbye'' (1945)|url= |
|Molly Dodd<ref>{{cite web|title=''Kiss the Bride Goodbye'' (1945)|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036985/|publisher=IMDb|access-date=19 January 2016}}</ref> |
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| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Meet Sexton Blake]]'' |
|''[[Meet Sexton Blake!]]'' |
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|Eva Watkins<ref>{{cite web|title=''Meet Sexton Blake'' (1945)|url= |
|Eva Watkins<ref>{{cite web|title=''Meet Sexton Blake'' (1945)|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037061/fullcredits#cast|publisher=IMDb|access-date=19 January 2016}}</ref> |
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| |
| |
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|- |
|- |
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| Line 83: | Line 146: | ||
|- |
|- |
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|''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' |
|''[[Caesar and Cleopatra (film)|Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' |
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| Harpist |
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|harpist |
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|Uncredited |
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| |
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|- |
|- |
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|1946 |
|1946 |
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|''[[Great Expectations (1946 film)|Great Expectations]]'' |
|''[[Great Expectations (1946 film)|Great Expectations]]'' |
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|Estella as a girl |
|Estella as a girl |
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| |
| |
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|- |
|- |
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| rowspan="4" | 1947 |
| rowspan="4" | 1947 |
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|''[[ |
|''[[Hungry Hill (film)|Hungry Hill]]'' |
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|Jane Brodrick |
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| Jay |
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| |
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|- |
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|''[[Uncle Silas (film)|Uncle Silas]]'' |
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|Caroline Ruthyn<ref>{{cite web|title=''Uncle Silas'' (1947)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039492/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
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| |
| |
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|- |
|- |
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| Line 104: | Line 163: | ||
| |
| |
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|- |
|- |
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|''[[ |
|''[[Uncle Silas (film)|Uncle Silas]]'' |
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|Caroline Ruthyn |
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|Jane Brodrick |
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| |
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|- |
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|''[[The Woman in the Hall]]'' |
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| Jay Blake |
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| |
| |
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|- |
|- |
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|1948 |
|1948 |
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|''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'' |
|''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'' |
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|Ophelia |
|[[Ophelia]] |
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|[[Volpi Cup]]<br>Nominated — [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress]] |
|[[Volpi Cup for Best Actress]]<br />Nominated — [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress]] |
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|- |
|- |
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|rowspan="2"|1949 |
|rowspan="2"|1949 |
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|''[[The Blue Lagoon (1949 film)|The Blue Lagoon]]'' |
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|Emmeline Foster |
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| |
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|- |
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|''[[Adam and Evelyne]]'' |
|''[[Adam and Evelyne]]'' |
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|Evelyne Kirby |
|Evelyne Kirby |
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| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
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|''[[The Blue Lagoon (1949 film)|The Blue Lagoon]]'' |
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|rowspan="3"|1950 |
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|Emmeline Foster |
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| |
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|- |
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|rowspan="4"|1950 |
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|''[[So Long at the Fair]]'' |
|''[[So Long at the Fair]]'' |
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|Vicky Barton |
|Vicky Barton |
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|[[Bambi Award| |
|[[Bambi Award|Bambi Award for Best Actress – International]] (2nd place) |
||
|- |
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|''[[Trio (1950 film)|Trio]]'' |
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|Evie Bishop |
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|Segment "Sanatorium"<br />[[Bambi Award|Bambi Award for Best Actress – International]] (2nd place) |
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|- |
|- |
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|''[[Cage of Gold]]'' |
|''[[Cage of Gold]]'' |
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|Judith Moray |
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|Judith Moray<ref>{{cite web|title=''Cage of Gold'' (1950))|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042295/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
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| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
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|''[[Trio (1950 film)|Trio]]'': "Sanatorium" |
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|Evie Bishop |
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|[[Bambi Award| Bambi Award for Best Actress - International]] (2nd place) |
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|- |
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|1951 |
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|''[[The Clouded Yellow]]'' |
|''[[The Clouded Yellow]]'' |
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|Sophie Malraux |
|Sophie Malraux |
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| |
| |
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|- |
|- |
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|1952 |
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|''[[ |
|''[[Androcles and the Lion (1952 film)|Androcles and the Lion]]'' |
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|Lavinia |
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|Diane Tremayne |
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| |
| |
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|- |
|- |
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|rowspan="5"|1953 |
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|''[[Androcles and the Lion (film)|Androcles and the Lion]]'' |
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|''[[Angel Face (1953 film)|Angel Face]]'' |
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|Lavinia |
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|Diane Tremayne Jessup |
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| |
| |
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|- |
|- |
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|rowspan="4"|1953 |
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|''[[Young Bess]]'' |
|''[[Young Bess]]'' |
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|Princess Elizabeth |
|Princess Elizabeth |
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|[[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress]] <small>(also for [[The Robe (film)]] and [[The Actress]])</small> |
|[[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress]] <small>(also for [[The Robe (film)|''The Robe'']] and ''[[The Actress]]'')</small> |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Affair with a Stranger]]'' |
|''[[Affair with a Stranger]]'' |
||
|Carolyn Parker |
|||
|Carolyn Parker<ref>{{cite web|title=''Affair with a Stranger'' (1953)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045477/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
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| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[The Robe (film)|The Robe]]'' |
|''[[The Robe (film)|The Robe]]'' |
||
|Diana |
|Diana |
||
|[[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress]] <small>(also for [[Young Bess]] and [[The Actress]])</small> |
|[[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress]] <small>(also for ''[[Young Bess]]'' and ''[[The Actress]]'')</small> |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[The Actress]]'' |
|''[[The Actress]]'' |
||
|Ruth Gordon Jones |
|Ruth Gordon Jones |
||
|[[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress]] <small>(also for [[Young Bess]] and [[The Robe (film)]])</small> |
|[[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress]] <small>(also for ''[[Young Bess]]'' and ''[[The Robe (film)|The Robe]]'')</small> |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|rowspan="5"|1954 |
|rowspan="5"|1954 |
||
|''[[She Couldn't Say No (1954 film)|She Couldn't Say No]]'' |
|''[[She Couldn't Say No (1954 film)|She Couldn't Say No]]'' |
||
|Corby Lane |
|Corby Lane |
||
|AKA ''Beautiful but Dangerous'' |
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| |
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|- |
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|''[[Demetrius and the Gladiators]]'' |
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|Diana |
|||
|Appeared in a clip from ''The Robe'' |
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|- |
|- |
||
|''[[The Egyptian (film)|The Egyptian]]'' |
|''[[The Egyptian (film)|The Egyptian]]'' |
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| Line 180: | Line 238: | ||
|- |
|- |
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|''[[A Bullet Is Waiting]]'' |
|''[[A Bullet Is Waiting]]'' |
||
|Cally Canham |
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|Cally Canham<ref>{{cite web|title=''A Bullet Is Waiting'' (1954)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046812/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
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| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Désirée (film)|Désirée]]'' |
|''[[Désirée (film)|Désirée]]'' |
||
|Désirée Clary |
|[[Désirée Clary]] |
||
| |
| |
||
|- |
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|''[[Demetrius and the Gladiators]]'' |
|||
|Diana |
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|Appeared in a clip from ''The Robe'' |
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|- |
|- |
||
|rowspan="2"|1955 |
|rowspan="2"|1955 |
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| Line 194: | Line 256: | ||
|''[[Guys and Dolls (film)|Guys and Dolls]]'' |
|''[[Guys and Dolls (film)|Guys and Dolls]]'' |
||
|Sergeant Sarah Brown |
|Sergeant Sarah Brown |
||
|[[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress |
|[[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy]]<br />Nominated – [[BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role|BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress]] |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1956 |
|1956 |
||
|''[[Hilda Crane]]'' |
|''[[Hilda Crane]]'' |
||
|Hilda Crane |
|Hilda Crane Burns |
||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
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| Line 204: | Line 266: | ||
|''[[This Could Be the Night (film)|This Could Be the Night]]'' |
|''[[This Could Be the Night (film)|This Could Be the Night]]'' |
||
|Anne Leeds |
|Anne Leeds |
||
|Nominated |
|Nominated – [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy]] |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Until They Sail]]'' |
|''[[Until They Sail]]'' |
||
|Barbara Leslie Forbes |
|Barbara Leslie Forbes |
||
| |
| |
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| Line 216: | Line 278: | ||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Home Before Dark (film)|Home Before Dark]]'' |
|''[[Home Before Dark (film)|Home Before Dark]]'' |
||
|Charlotte Bronn |
|||
|Charlotte Bronn<ref>{{cite web|title=''Home Before Dark'' (1958)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051732/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
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|[[Laurel Award| |
|[[Laurel Award|Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance]] (4th place)<br />Nominated – [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
||
|- |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|1959 |
|1959 |
||
|''[[This Earth Is Mine (1959 film)|This Earth Is Mine]]'' |
|''[[This Earth Is Mine (1959 film)|This Earth Is Mine]]'' |
||
|Elizabeth Rambeau |
|||
|Elizabeth Rambeau<ref>{{cite web|title=''This Earth is Mine'' (1959)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053355/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
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| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
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| Line 228: | Line 289: | ||
|''[[Elmer Gantry (film)|Elmer Gantry]]'' |
|''[[Elmer Gantry (film)|Elmer Gantry]]'' |
||
|Sharon Falconer |
|Sharon Falconer |
||
|[[Laurel Award| |
|[[Laurel Award|Laurel Award for Top Female Dramatic Performance]] (3rd place)<br />Nominated – [[BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role|BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress]]<br />Nominated – [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Spartacus ( |
|''[[Spartacus (film)|Spartacus]]'' |
||
|Varinia |
|Varinia |
||
| |
| |
||
| Line 236: | Line 297: | ||
|''[[The Grass Is Greener]]'' |
|''[[The Grass Is Greener]]'' |
||
|Hattie Durant |
|Hattie Durant |
||
|[[Laurel Award| |
|[[Laurel Award|Laurel Award for Top Female Comedy Performance]] (5th place) |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1963 |
|1963 |
||
|''[[All the Way Home (film)|All the Way Home]]'' |
|''[[All the Way Home (1963 film)|All the Way Home]]'' |
||
|Mary Follett |
|Mary Follett |
||
| |
| |
||
| Line 245: | Line 306: | ||
|1965 |
|1965 |
||
|''[[Life at the Top (film)|Life at the Top]]'' |
|''[[Life at the Top (film)|Life at the Top]]'' |
||
|Susan Lampton |
|||
|Susan Lampton<ref>{{cite web|title=''Life at the Top'' (1965)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059389/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1966 |
|1966 |
||
|''[[Mister Buddwing]]'' |
|''[[Mister Buddwing]]'' |
||
|The Blonde |
|The Blonde |
||
| |
| |
||
| Line 265: | Line 326: | ||
|''[[Heidi (1968 film)|Heidi]]'' |
|''[[Heidi (1968 film)|Heidi]]'' |
||
|Fräulein Rottenmeier |
|Fräulein Rottenmeier |
||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1969 |
|1969 |
||
|''[[The Happy Ending]]'' |
|''[[The Happy Ending]]'' |
||
|Mary |
|Mary Wilson |
||
|Nominated |
|Nominated – [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]<br />Nominated – [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1971 |
|1971 |
||
| Line 277: | Line 338: | ||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1972 |
|||
|1975 |
|||
|''[[The Odd Couple (1970 TV series)|The Odd Couple]]'' |
|||
|Princess Lydia |
|||
|Episode: "The Princess" |
|||
|- |
|||
|rowspan="2"|1975 |
|||
|''[[Mr. Sycamore (film)|Mr. Sycamore]]'' |
|''[[Mr. Sycamore (film)|Mr. Sycamore]]'' |
||
|Estelle Benbow |
|Estelle Benbow |
||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|||
|''The Easter Promise'' |
|||
|Constance Payne |
|||
|TV |
|||
|- |
|||
|1977 |
|||
|''[[Hawaii Five-O (1968 TV series)|Hawaii Five-O]]'' |
|||
|Terri O'Brien |
|||
|TV; Episode "A Cop on the Cover" |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|rowspan="2"|1978 |
|rowspan="2"|1978 |
||
|''[[The Dain Curse]]'' |
|''[[The Dain Curse]]'' |
||
|Aaronia Haldorn |
|Aaronia Haldorn |
||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Dominique (film)|Dominique]]'' |
|''[[Dominique (1978 film)|Dominique]]'' |
||
|Dominique Ballard |
|Dominique Ballard |
||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1979 |
|1979 |
||
|''[[Beggarman, Thief]]'' |
|''[[Beggarman, Thief]]'' |
||
|Gretchen Jordache Burke |
|||
|Gretchen Jordache Burke<ref>{{cite web|title=''Beggarman, Thief'' (1979)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078839/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1981 |
|rowspan="3"|1981 |
||
|'' |
|''A Small Killing'' |
||
|Margaret Lawrence |
|||
|Margaret Lawrence<ref>{{cite web|title=''A Small Killing'' (1981)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083095/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|||
|''Golden Gate'' |
|||
|Jane Kingsley |
|||
|TV |
|||
|- |
|||
|''[[Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls]]'' |
|||
|Helen Lawson |
|||
|TV |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|1983 |
|1983 |
||
|''[[The Thorn Birds ( |
|''[[The Thorn Birds (miniseries)|The Thorn Birds]]'' |
||
|Fee Cleary |
|Fee Cleary |
||
|[[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie]]<br>Nominated |
|TV<br />[[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie]]<br />Nominated – [[Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film]] |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1984 |
|rowspan="2"|1984 |
||
|''[[December Flower]]'' |
|''[[December Flower]]'' |
||
|Etta Marsh |
|||
|Etta Marsh<ref>{{cite web|title=''December Flower'' (1984)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397051/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|||
|''[[All for Love (British TV series)|All for Love]]'' |
|||
|Deidre Mackay |
|||
|Episode: "Down at the Hydro" |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|rowspan="2"|1985 |
|rowspan="2"|1985 |
||
|'' |
|''Midas Valley'' |
||
|Molly Hammond |
|||
|Molly Hammond<ref>{{cite web|title=''Midas Valley'' (1985)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089592/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[North and South ( |
|''[[North and South (miniseries)|North and South]]'' |
||
|Clarissa Gault Main |
|Clarissa Gault Main |
||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1986 |
|1986 |
||
|''[[North and South ( |
|''[[North and South (miniseries)|North and South Book II]]'' |
||
|Clarissa Gault Main |
|Clarissa Gault Main |
||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1987 |
|1987 |
||
|''[[Perry Mason (TV series)|Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love]]'' |
|''[[Perry Mason (TV film series)|Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love]]'' |
||
|Laura Robertson |
|||
|Laura Robertson <ref>{{cite web|title=''Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love'' (1987)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093722/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|rowspan=" |
|rowspan="3"|1988 |
||
|''[[ |
|''[[Inherit the Wind (1988 film)|Inherit the Wind]]'' |
||
|Lucy Brady |
|||
|Maxine de la Hunt<ref>{{cite web|title=''Yellow Pages'' (1988)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095233/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[The Dawning]]'' |
|''[[The Dawning]]'' |
||
|Aunt Mary |
|Aunt Mary |
||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|||
|''Going Undercover'' |
|||
|Maxine de la Hunt<ref name="CBIFD">{{cite book|editor-last1=Allon|editor-first1=Yoram|editor-last2=Cullen|editor-first2=Del|editor-last3=Patterson|editor-first3=Hannah|author-last=Brown|author-first=David|chapter=James Kenelm Clarke|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJAcf31BweQC&pg=PA60|title=Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors|publisher=Wallflower Press|year=2001|page=60, viii|isbn=9781903364215}}</ref> |
|||
|Released as ''Going Undercover'' in the US in 1988.<ref name="BFIGU" /><ref name="LAT1988" /> Straight to video in the UK as ''Yellow Pages'' (completed 1985).<ref name="BBFCYP" /><ref name="CBIFD" /> |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|rowspan="2"|1989 |
|rowspan="2"|1989 |
||
|''[[Great Expectations (1989 |
|''[[Great Expectations (1989 TV series)|Great Expectations]]'' |
||
|Miss Havisham |
|[[Miss Havisham]] |
||
| |
|TV |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Murder She Wrote]]'' |
|''[[Murder, She Wrote]]'' |
||
|Eudora McVeigh Shipton |
|||
| |
|||
|Nominated |
|Episode: "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall"<br />Nominated – [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series]] |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|rowspan="3"|1991 |
|rowspan="3"|1991 |
||
|''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' |
|''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' |
||
|Rear Admiral Norah Satie |
|||
|Episode: "[[The Drumhead]]" |
|||
|Rear Admiral Norah Satie |
|||
| |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Dark Shadows (1991 TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'' |
|''[[Dark Shadows (1991 TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'' |
||
| Elizabeth Collins Stoddard |
| Elizabeth Collins Stoddard |
||
Naomi Collins |
|||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[They Do It with Mirrors#Film, TV or theatrical adaptations|They Do It with Mirrors]]'' |
|''[[They Do It with Mirrors#Film, TV or theatrical adaptations|They Do It with Mirrors]]'' |
||
|Carrie-Louise Serrocold |
|Carrie-Louise Serrocold |
||
|TV; [[Miss Marple (TV series)]] |
|||
|- |
|||
|1994 |
|||
|''[[In the Heat of the Night (TV series)|In the Heat of the Night]]'' |
|||
|Miss Cordelia |
|||
|TV; Episode: "Ches and the Grand Lady" |
|||
|- |
|||
| 1994–1998 |
|||
| ''[[Mysteries of the Bible]]'' |
|||
| Narrator |
|||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 364: | Line 466: | ||
|''[[How to Make an American Quilt]]'' |
|''[[How to Make an American Quilt]]'' |
||
|Em Reed |
|Em Reed |
||
|Nominated |
|Nominated – [[Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture]] |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|'' |
|''Daisies in December'' |
||
|Katherine Palmer |
|||
|Katherine Palmer<ref>{{cite web|title=''Katherine Palmer'' (1995)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112781/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|2001 |
|2001 |
||
|''[[Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within]]'' |
|''[[Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within]]'' |
||
|Council Member 2 |
|Council Member 2 |
||
|Voice |
|||
| |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|2003 |
|2003 |
||
|'' |
|''Winter Solstice'' |
||
|Countess Lucinda Rhives |
|||
|Countess Lucinda Rhives<ref>{{cite web|title=''Winter Solstice'' (2003)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0354213/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
|Released in Germany as ''Wintersonne'' |
|Released in Germany as ''Wintersonne'' |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|rowspan="2"|2004 |
|rowspan="2"|2004 |
||
|'' |
|''Jean Simmons: Rose of England'' |
||
|Herself |
|Herself |
||
| |
| |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|''[[Howl's Moving Castle (film)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'' |
|''[[Howl's Moving Castle (film)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'' |
||
| |
|Old Sophie |
||
|Voice, English version |
|||
| |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|2005 |
|2005 |
||
|''[[Thru the Moebius Strip]]'' |
|''[[Thru the Moebius Strip]]'' |
||
|Shepway |
|||
|Shepway (voice)<ref>{{cite web|title=''Through the Moebius Stip'' (2005)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0267024/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
|Voice |
|||
| |
|||
|- |
|- |
||
|2009 |
|2009 |
||
|''[[Shadows in the Sun (2009 film)|Shadows in the Sun]]'' |
|''[[Shadows in the Sun (2009 film)|Shadows in the Sun]]'' |
||
|Hannah |
|||
|Hannah <ref>{{cite web|title=''Shadows in the Sun'' (2009)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065124/|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> |
|||
|Final film role |
|||
| |
|||
|- |
|||
|} |
|} |
||
== |
==Box office ranking== |
||
For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted |
For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted Simmons among the top ten British stars at the box office via an annual poll in the ''Motion Picture Herald''. |
||
*1949 |
*1949 – 4th<ref>{{cite news| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2759831| title=Bob Hope Takes Lead from Bing In Popularity| newspaper=[[Canberra Times]]| date=31 December 1949| access-date=27 April 2012| page=2| publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> (9th most popular overall)<ref>{{cite news| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49700937| title=Tops At Home | newspaper=[[The Courier-Mail]]| location=Brisbane| date=31 December 1949| access-date=27 April 2012| page=4| publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> |
||
*1950 |
*1950 – 2nd (4th most popular overall)<ref>{{cite news| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article26748158| title=Bob Hope Best Draw In British Theatres| newspaper=[[The Mercury (Hobart)|The Mercury]]| location=Hobart, Tasmania| date=29 December 1950| access-date=27 April 2012| page=4| publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> |
||
*1951 |
*1951 – 3rd<ref>{{cite news| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63397098| title=Vivien Leigh Actress of the Year.| newspaper=[[Townsville Daily Bulletin]]| location=Queensland, Australia| date=29 December 1951| access-date=27 April 2012| page=1| publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> |
||
== |
==Awards and nominations== |
||
{| class="wikitable sortable" |
{| class="wikitable sortable" |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 422: | Line 523: | ||
| {{nom}} |
| {{nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
|1950 |
|||
| 1953 |
|||
|[[Daily Mail National Film Awards]] |
|||
| [[National Board of Review]] |
|||
|Most Outstanding British Actress of the Year |
|||
| [[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] |
|||
| |
|||
| ''The Actress'' |
|||
| {{won}} |
| {{won}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 431: | Line 532: | ||
| [[National Board of Review]] |
| [[National Board of Review]] |
||
| [[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] |
| [[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] |
||
| ''The Robe'' |
| ''The Actress'' / ''The Robe'' / ''Young Bess'' |
||
| {{won}} |
|||
|- |
|||
| 1953 |
|||
| [[National Board of Review]] |
|||
| [[National Board of Review Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] |
|||
| ''Young Bess'' |
|||
| {{won}} |
| {{won}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 443: | Line 538: | ||
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
||
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy|Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy]] |
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy|Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy]] |
||
| ''Guys and Dolls'' |
| rowspan="2" | ''Guys and Dolls'' |
||
| {{won}} |
| {{won}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 449: | Line 544: | ||
| [[BAFTA Awards]] |
| [[BAFTA Awards]] |
||
| [[BAFTA Awards|Best Foreign Actress]] |
| [[BAFTA Awards|Best Foreign Actress]] |
||
| ''Guys and Dolls'' |
|||
| {{nom}} |
| {{nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| 1958 |
| 1958 |
||
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
| rowspan="2" | [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
||
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy|Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy]] |
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy|Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy]] |
||
| ''This Could Be the Night'' |
| ''This Could Be the Night'' |
||
| Line 459: | Line 553: | ||
|- |
|- |
||
| 1959 |
| 1959 |
||
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
|||
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama|Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama|Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
||
| ''Home Before Dark'' |
| ''Home Before Dark'' |
||
| Line 467: | Line 560: | ||
| [[BAFTA Awards]] |
| [[BAFTA Awards]] |
||
| [[BAFTA Awards|Best Foreign Actress]] |
| [[BAFTA Awards|Best Foreign Actress]] |
||
| ''Elmer Gantry'' |
| rowspan="2" | ''Elmer Gantry'' |
||
| {{nom}} |
| {{nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 473: | Line 566: | ||
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
||
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama|Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama|Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
||
| ''Elmer Gantry'' |
|||
| {{nom}} |
| {{nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 479: | Line 571: | ||
| [[Academy Awards]] |
| [[Academy Awards]] |
||
| [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] |
| [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] |
||
| ''The Happy Ending'' |
| rowspan="2" | ''The Happy Ending'' |
||
| {{nom}} |
| {{nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 485: | Line 577: | ||
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
||
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama|Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama|Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama]] |
||
| ''The Happy Ending'' |
|||
| {{nom}} |
| {{nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 491: | Line 582: | ||
| [[Primetime Emmy Awards]] |
| [[Primetime Emmy Awards]] |
||
| [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie|Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie]] |
| [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie|Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie]] |
||
| ''The Thorn Birds'' |
| rowspan="2" | ''The Thorn Birds'' |
||
| {{won}} |
| {{won}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 497: | Line 588: | ||
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
| [[Golden Globe Awards]] |
||
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film|Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television]] |
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film|Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television]] |
||
| ''The Thorn Birds'' |
|||
| {{nom}} |
| {{nom}} |
||
|- |
|- |
||
| Line 514: | Line 604: | ||
==References== |
==References== |
||
{{reflist| |
{{reflist|30em}} |
||
==Bibliography== |
|||
* {{cite book|last=Capua|first=Michelangelo|title=Jean Simmons: Her Life and Career|date=2022|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|isbn=978-1-4766-8224-2}} |
|||
* {{cite book |last=Daniel |first=Douglass K. |title=Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBpagIZywpwC&q=simmons |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |location=Madison, WI |year=2011 |pages=66, 141, 233 |isbn=978-0299251239}} |
|||
==External links== |
==External links== |
||
{{Wikiquote}} |
{{Wikiquote}} |
||
{{Commons}} |
{{Commons}} |
||
*{{IMDb name|1739 |
*{{IMDb name|1739}} |
||
*[https://www.aenigma-images.com/2016/11/jean-simmons-claire-bloom/ Jean Simmons and Claire Bloom] at [https://www.aenigma-images.com/ aenigma] |
|||
*{{Memoryalpha}} |
|||
{{Memoryalpha}} |
|||
*{{tcmdb name|177854}} |
|||
*{{Tcmdb name}} |
|||
*[http://www.youtube.com/user/JeanSimmonsMemorial The Jean Simmons Memorial YouTube Page] |
|||
*[ |
*[https://www.youtube.com/user/JeanSimmonsMemorial The Jean Simmons Memorial YouTube Page] |
||
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110818214135/http://jeansimmons.netfirms.com/ Jean Simmons – A Fan Resource] |
|||
*[http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=48279 Jean Simmons 1946 newsreel footage] from [[British Pathe]] ([http://www.britishpathe.com/results.php?search=%22jean+simmons%22 newsreel search]) |
|||
*[http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=48279 Jean Simmons 1946 newsreel footage] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611043009/http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=48279 |date=11 June 2011}} from [[British Pathe]] ([http://www.britishpathe.com/results.php?search=%22jean+simmons%22 newsreel search] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002940/http://www.britishpathe.com/results.php?search=%22jean+simmons%22 |date=4 March 2016}}) |
|||
*[http://www.britishpathe.com/video/jean-simmons-in-motorboat Jean Simmons in motorboat Britlsh Pathe] |
|||
*[http://www.britishpathe.com/video/jean-simmons-in-motorboat Jean Simmons in motorboat Britlsh Pathe] |
|||
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3516771.stm BBC obituary] |
|||
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/movies/24simmons.html Obituary] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' (23 January 2010) |
|||
*[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/film-obituaries/7061131/Jean-Simmons.html Telegraph obituary] |
|||
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110425013411/http://moviemorlocks.com/2010/01/27/in-appreciation-of-jean-simmons-1929-2010.htm In Appreciation of Jean Simmons (1929–2010)] |
|||
*[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/movies/24simmons.html Obituary] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' (January 23, 2010) |
|||
*[http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Simmons/simmons-bio.htm Biography] |
|||
*[http://moviemorlocks.com/2010/01/27/in-appreciation-of-jean-simmons-1929-2010.htm In Appreciation of Jean Simmons (1929-2010)] |
|||
*[http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/1603/jean-simmons Photographs and literature] |
*[http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/1603/jean-simmons Photographs and literature] |
||
{{Navboxes |
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{{GoldenGlobeBestActressMotionPictureMusicalComedy 1950-1960}} |
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{{Authority control |
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{{Persondata |
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|NAME= Simmons, Jean |
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|ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Simmons, Jean Merilyn |
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|SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress |
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|DATE OF BIRTH= 31 January 1929 |
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|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Lower Holloway]], [[London]], [[England]], [[UK]] |
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|DATE OF DEATH= 22 January 2010 |
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|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Santa Monica, California]], USA |
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[[Category:Alumni of the Aida Foster Theatre School]] |
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[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer in California]] |
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[[Category:British expatriate actresses in the United States]] |
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[[Category:British film actresses]] |
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[[Category:People from Islington (district)]] |
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Latest revision as of 18:42, 29 November 2024
Jean Simmons | |
|---|---|
 Simmons in a 1955 studio publicity shot | |
| Born | Jean Merilyn Simmons 31 January 1929 Islington, London, England |
| Died | 22 January 2010 (aged 80) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Highgate Cemetery, London, England |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom United States |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, singer |
| Years active | 1944–2010 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Father | Charles Simmons |
Jean Merilyn Simmons OBE (31 January 1929 – 22 January 2010) was a British actress and singer.[1][2] One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets," she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Britain during and after the Second World War, followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950 onwards.[3]
Simmons was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hamlet (1948), and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for Guys and Dolls (1955). Her other film appearances include Great Expectations (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Blue Lagoon (1949), So Long at the Fair (1950), Angel Face (1953), Young Bess (1953), The Robe (1953), The Big Country (1958), Elmer Gantry (1960), Spartacus (1960), and the 1969 film The Happy Ending, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won an Emmy Award for the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).
Biography
[edit]Early life
[edit]Simmons was born on 31 January 1929, in Islington, London,[4] to Charles Simmons, a bronze medalist in gymnastics at the 1912 Summer Olympics, and his wife, Winifred Ada (née Loveland). Jean was the youngest of four children, with siblings Lorna, Harold, and Edna. She began acting at the age of 14.[5]
During the Second World War, the Simmons family was evacuated to Winscombe, Somerset.[6] Her father, a physical education teacher,[7] taught briefly at Sidcot School, and sometime during this period, Simmons followed her eldest sister onto the village stage and sang popular songs such as "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow". At this point, her ambition was to be an acrobatic dancer.[8]
Early films
[edit]On her return to London, Simmons enrolled at the Aida Foster School of Dance. She was spotted by director Val Guest, who cast her in the Margaret Lockwood-starring vehicle Give Us the Moon (1944) in a large role as Lockwood's sister.[9] Small roles in several other films followed, including Mr. Emmanuel (1944), Kiss the Bride Goodbye (1945), Meet Sexton Blake (1945), and the popular The Way to the Stars (1945), as well as the short Sports Day (1945).
Simmons had a small part as a harpist in the high-profile Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), produced by Gabriel Pascal, starring Vivien Leigh, and co-starring Simmons's future husband Stewart Granger. Pascal saw potential in Simmons, and in 1945 he signed her to a seven-year contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation.[citation needed]
Great Expectations and stardom
[edit]
Simmons became a star in Britain when she was cast as the young Estella in David Lean's version of Great Expectations (1946). The movie was the third-most-popular film at the British box office in 1947, and Simmons received excellent reviews.[10]
The experience of working on Great Expectations caused her to pursue an acting career more seriously:
I thought acting was just a lark, meeting all those exciting movie stars, and getting £5 a day which was lovely because we needed the money. But I figured I'd just go off and get married and have children like my mother. It was working with David Lean that convinced me to go on.[11]
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Simmons had support roles in Hungry Hill (1947) with Margaret Lockwood and the Powell-Pressburger film Black Narcissus (1947), playing an Indian woman in the latter alongside Sabu.[12][6]
Simmons was top-billed for the first time in the drama Uncle Silas (1947). She followed it with The Woman in the Hall (1947). Neither was particularly successful, but Simmons was then in a huge international hit, playing Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), for which she received her first Oscar nomination. Olivier offered her the chance to work and study at the Old Vic, advising her to play anything they offered her to get experience, but she was under contract to the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, which vetoed the idea.[13]
Simmons had the lead in Frank Launder's The Blue Lagoon (1949), based on the 1908 novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole and co-produced with Launder's partner Sidney Gilliat,[14] a project originally announced for Lockwood a decade earlier. It was a considerable financial success.[15]
Stewart Granger
[edit]Simmons starred with Stewart Granger in the comedy Adam and Evelyne (1949). It was her first adult role, and Granger and she became romantically involved; they soon married.[16]
Simmons made two films that were popular at the local box office: So Long at the Fair (1950) with Dirk Bogarde and Trio (1950), where she was one of several stars. She was then in Cage of Gold (1950) with David Farrar and Ralph Thomas' The Clouded Yellow (1950) with Trevor Howard. In 1950, Simmons was voted the fourth-most popular star in Britain.[17]
Howard Hughes and Victor Mature
[edit]
Granger became a Hollywood star in King Solomon's Mines (1950) and was signed to a contract by MGM, so Simmons moved to Los Angeles with him. In 1951, Rank sold her contract to Howard Hughes, who then owned RKO Pictures.[18][19]
Hughes was eager to start a sexual relationship with Simmons, but Granger put a stop to his advances by angrily telling Hughes over the phone: "Mr. Howard bloody Hughes, you'll be sorry if you don't leave my wife alone."[20] To punish Simmons and Granger, Hughes refused to lend her to Paramount where director William Wyler wanted to cast her in the female lead for his film Roman Holiday; the role made a star of Audrey Hepburn.[citation needed]
Her first Hollywood film was Androcles and the Lion (1952), produced by Pascal and co-starring Victor Mature. It was followed by Angel Face (1953), directed by Otto Preminger with Robert Mitchum. David Thomson wrote that "she might now be spoken of with the awe given to Louise Brooks" if Simmons only starred in that film.[21] Smarting over his rebuff from Granger, Hughes instructed Preminger to treat Simmons as roughly as possible, leading the director to demand that costar Mitchum repeatedly slap the actress harder and harder, until Mitchum turned and punched Preminger, asking if that was how he wanted it.[22] He also made her appear in She Couldn't Say No (1954), a comedy with Mitchum.
A court case freed Simmons from the contract with Hughes in 1952.[21] They settled out of court; part of the arrangement was that Simmons would do one more film for no additional money.[23] Simmons also agreed to make three more movies under the auspices of RKO, but not actually at that studio—she would be lent out. She would make an additional picture for 20th Century Fox while RKO got the services of Victor Mature for one film.[24]
MGM cast her in the lead of Young Bess (1953) playing a young Queen Elizabeth I with Granger. She went back to RKO to do the extra film under the settlement with Hughes, titled Affair with a Stranger (1953) with Mature; it flopped.[citation needed]
20th Century Fox
[edit]Fox asked Simmons back for The Egyptian (1954), another epic, but it was not especially popular.[citation needed] She had the lead in Columbia's A Bullet Is Waiting (1954). More widely seen was[citation needed] Désirée (1954), where Simmons played Désirée Clary opposite Marlon Brando's Napoleon Bonaparte.
Simmons and Granger returned to England to make the thriller Footsteps in the Fog (1955). Then, Joseph Mankiewicz cast her opposite Brando in the screen adaptation of Guys and Dolls (1955), where she did her own singing in a role turned down by Grace Kelly; it was a big hit.[25]
Simmons played the title role in Hilda Crane (1956) at Fox, a box-office disappointment.[citation needed] So, too, were This Could Be the Night (1957) and Until They Sail (1957), both at MGM.
Simmons had a big success, though, in The Big Country (1958), directed by William Wyler. She starred in Home Before Dark (1958) at Warner Bros. and This Earth Is Mine (1959) with Rock Hudson at Universal. In the opinion of film critic Philip French, Home Before Dark was "perhaps her finest performance as a housewife driven into a breakdown in Mervyn LeRoy's psychodrama."[26]
Elmer Gantry and Richard Brooks
[edit]Simmons went into Elmer Gantry (1960), directed by Richard Brooks, who became her second husband. It was successful, as was Spartacus (1960), where she played Kirk Douglas's character's love interest. Simmons then did The Grass Is Greener (1960) with Mitchum, Cary Grant, and Deborah Kerr.
She took some years off screen, then returned in All the Way Home (1963) with Robert Preston. She did Life at the Top (1965) with Laurence Harvey, Mister Buddwing (1966) with James Garner, Divorce American Style (1967) with Dick Van Dyke, and Rough Night in Jericho (1967) with George Peppard and Dean Martin.
Simmons did Heidi (1968) for TV, then Brooks wrote and directed The Happy Ending (1969) for her, and she received her second Oscar nomination.[citation needed]
1970s and 1980s
[edit]By the 1970s, Simmons turned her focus to stage and television acting. She toured the United States in Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, then took the show to London, thus originating the role of Desirée Armfeldt in the West End. Performing in 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."[27]
She portrayed Fiona "Fee" Cleary, the Cleary family matriarch, in the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983); she won an Emmy Award for her role. She appeared in North and South (1985–86), again playing the role of the family matriarch as Clarissa Main, and starred in The Dawning (1988) with Anthony Hopkins and Hugh Grant. In 1989, Simmons appeared as murder mystery author Eudora McVeigh Shipton, a self-proclaimed rival to Jessica Fletcher, in the two-part Murder, She Wrote episode "Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall" with Angela Lansbury.
1990s and 2000s
[edit]In 1991, she made a late-career appearance in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Drumhead" as a retired Starfleet admiral and hardened legal investigator who conducts a witch hunt. That same year, she starred in a remake of Great Expectations, this time playing the role of Miss Havisham, Estella's adoptive mother, and as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard/Naomi Collins, in the short-lived revival of the 1960s daytime series Dark Shadows, in roles originally played by Joan Bennett. From 1994 until 1998, Simmons narrated the A&E documentary television series Mysteries of the Bible. In 1995, she appeared in How to Make an American Quilt with Winona Ryder, Maya Angelou, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, and Alfre Woodard. In 2004, she voiced the lead role of Sophie in the English dub of Howl's Moving Castle.[12]
Personal life
[edit]
Simmons was married and divorced twice. At 21, she married Stewart Granger in Tucson, Arizona, on 20 December 1950.[28] She and Granger became US citizens in 1956;[29] in the same year, their daughter Tracy Granger was born. They divorced in 1960.[30]
On 1 November 1960, Simmons married director Richard Brooks;[31] their daughter, Kate Brooks, was born a year later, in 1961. Simmons and Brooks divorced in 1980.[32] Although both men were significantly older than Simmons, she denied that she was looking for a father figure. Her father had died when she was just 16, but she said:
They were really nothing like my father at all. My father was a gentle, softly spoken man. My husbands were both much noisier and much more opinionated ... it's really nothing to do with age ... it's to do with what's there – the twinkle and sense of humour.[11]
In a 1984 interview, given in Copenhagen at the time she was shooting the film Going Undercover (1988,[33][34] a.k.a. Yellow Pages; completed 1985)[35] she elaborated slightly on her marriages, stating,
It may be simplistic, but you could sum up my two marriages by saying that, when I wanted to be a wife, Jimmy [Stewart Granger] would say: "I just want you to be pretty." And when I wanted to cook, Richard would say: "Forget the cooking. You've been trained to act – so act!" Most people thought I was quite helpless – a clinger and a butterfly – during my first marriage. It was Richard Brooks who saw what was wrong and tried to make me stand on my own two feet. I'd whine: 'I'm afraid.' And he'd say: 'Never be afraid to fail. Every time you get up in the morning, you are ahead.'
Simmons had two daughters, Tracy Granger (a film editor since 1990), and Kate Brooks (a TV production assistant and producer), one by each marriage – their names bearing witness to Simmons's friendship with Spencer Tracy[36] and Katharine Hepburn. Simmons moved to the East Coast of the US in the late 1970s, briefly owning a home in New Milford, Connecticut. She returned to California, settling in Santa Monica, California, where she lived until her death.[citation needed]
In the 2003 New Year Honours, Simmons was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to acting.[37]
In 2003, she became the patron of the British drugs and human rights charity Release. In 2005, she signed a petition to British Prime Minister Tony Blair asking him not to upgrade cannabis from a class C drug to class B.[38]
Death
[edit]
Simmons died from lung cancer at her home in Santa Monica on 22 January 2010, nine days before her 81st birthday. She is interred in Highgate Cemetery, north London.[39][40][41]
Filmography
[edit]Box office ranking
[edit]For a number of years, British film exhibitors voted Simmons among the top ten British stars at the box office via an annual poll in the Motion Picture Herald.
- 1949 – 4th[45] (9th most popular overall)[46]
- 1950 – 2nd (4th most popular overall)[47]
- 1951 – 3rd[48]
Awards and nominations
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Nelson, Valerie J. (23 January 2010). "Jean Simmons dies at 80; radiant beauty was known for stunning versatility". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
- ^ Vallance, Tom (26 January 2010). "Jean Simmons: Actress who dazzled opposite the likes of Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier". The Independent. London.
- ^ Harmetz, Aljean (23 January 2010). "Jean Simmons, Actress, Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
Jean Simmons, the English actress who made the covers of Time and Life magazines by the time she was 20 and became a major mid-century star alongside strong leading men like Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Marlon Brando, often playing their demure helpmates, died on Friday at her home in Santa Monica, California. She was 80. The cause was lung cancer, according to Judy Page, her agent.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Jean Simmons, (Brian McFarlane) [1]
- ^ "Jean Simmons' Age Is Exposed". The Salina Journal. Vol. 116, no. 96. 26 April 1967. p. 20. Retrieved 14 March 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Are They Being Fair to Jean Simmons?", Picturegoer, 2 August 1947.
- ^ Per Gloria Hunniford in Sunday, Sunday television interview LWT, autumn 1985
- ^ TV Times, 22–28 March 1975, p. 4
- ^ Guest, Val (2001). So You Want to be in Pictures?. Reynolds & Hearn. p. 58. ISBN 978-1903111154.
- ^ "Anna Neagle Most Popular Actress". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 3 January 1948. p. 3. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
- ^ a b Woman's Weekly, Christmas 1989
- ^ a b Biography, reelclassics.com; accessed 24 April 2014.
- ^ French, Philip (24 January 2010). "Jean Simmons: an unforgettable English rose". The Observer. London.
- ^ "...and from London". The Mail. Vol. 35, no. 1, 806. Adelaide. 4 January 1947. p. 9 (Sunday Magazine). Retrieved 10 October 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Gillett, Philip (2003). The British working class in postwar film. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 200. ISBN 0719062578. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
- ^ "JEAN SIMMONDS TO FACE F/LIGHTS (sic)". Townsville Daily Bulletin. Queensland. 16 November 1948. p. 4. Retrieved 20 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Critics Praise Drama: Comedians Win Profits". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. Australian Associated Press. 29 December 1950. p. 3. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
- ^ Brown, Peter; Broeske, Pat (1997). Howard Hughes, The Untold Story. Penguin. p. 241. ISBN 978-0451180285.
- ^ Lennon, Peter (12 November 1999). "The Year of the Flirt". The Guardian. London.
- ^ "Stewart Granger Jean Simmons and Claire Bloom – adventures of two north London girls". aenigma. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
- ^ a b Thomson, David (25 January 2010). "Jean Simmons obituary". The Guardian.
- ^ Bernstein, Adam (24 January 2010). "English actress was known for roles in the films 'Hamlet' and 'Elmer Gantry'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- ^ Hopper, Hedda (18 July 1952). "Looking at Hollywood: Story of Talking Animals Bought for Movie". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. A4.
- ^ "Jean Simmons Suit Settled by Hughes: British Actress Wins on Points; Producer to Pay All Costs of Trial". Los Angeles Times. 18 July 1952. p. A1.
- ^ "109 top money films of 1956". Variety. Vol. 205, no. 5. 2 January 1957. p. 1 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ French, Philip (6 April 2008). "Philip French's screen legends – No 11: Jean Simmons profile". The Observer.
- ^ "A Little Night Music: 1974 Touring Production; 1975 London Production". The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
- ^ "English Stars Married Here". Tucson Daily Citizen. Vol. 78, no. 304. 21 December 1950. p. 4. Retrieved 16 March 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "The Stewart Grangers Become Citizens of US". The Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. 9 June 1956. p. 1. Retrieved 16 March 2015.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Jean Simmons Files To Divorce Stewart Granger". The Blade. Toledo, Ohio. United Press International. 8 July 1960. p. 7. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
- ^ "Actress Weds Film Director". The Odessa American. Vol. 35, no. 263. Associated Press. 2 November 1960. p. 27. Retrieved 1 April 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Daniel 2011, p. 210.
- ^ a b "Going Undercover (1988)". BFI. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
- ^ a b Wilmington, Michael (20 June 1988). "Going Undercover—the Gags, Ideas Get Lost in the Chase". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
- ^ a b "Yellow Pages (1985)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
- ^ Picture Show and TV Mirror, 2 July 1960, p. 7. Simmons says her daughter was named after Spencer Tracy in interview, but adds, "Jimmy [Granger] says he got the name from the role Katharine Hepburn played in The Philadelphia Story."
- ^ "No. 56797". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2002. p. 24.
- ^ Goodchild, Sophie (18 December 2005). "Sting leads campaign against Blair's plan to reclassify cannabis". The Independent. London. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
- ^ "British-born Hollywood actress Jean Simmons dies at 80". BBC News. 23 January 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
- ^ "Obituary: Jean Simmons". BBC News. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
- ^ "Jean Simmons". The Daily Telegraph. 23 January 2010. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
- ^ "Kiss the Bride Goodbye (1945)". IMDb. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
- ^ "Meet Sexton Blake (1945)". IMDb. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
- ^ a b Brown, David (2001). "James Kenelm Clarke". In Allon, Yoram; Cullen, Del; Patterson, Hannah (eds.). Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors. Wallflower Press. p. 60, viii. ISBN 9781903364215.
- ^ "Bob Hope Takes Lead from Bing In Popularity". Canberra Times. National Library of Australia. 31 December 1949. p. 2. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
- ^ "Tops At Home". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 31 December 1949. p. 4. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
- ^ "Bob Hope Best Draw In British Theatres". The Mercury. Hobart, Tasmania: National Library of Australia. 29 December 1950. p. 4. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
- ^ "Vivien Leigh Actress of the Year". Townsville Daily Bulletin. Queensland, Australia: National Library of Australia. 29 December 1951. p. 1. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
Bibliography
[edit]- Capua, Michelangelo (2022). Jean Simmons: Her Life and Career. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-8224-2.
- Daniel, Douglass K. (2011). Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 66, 141, 233. ISBN 978-0299251239.
External links
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to Jean Simmons.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jean Simmons.
- Jean Simmons at IMDb
- Jean Simmons and Claire Bloom at aenigma
- Jean Simmons at Memory Alpha
- Jean Simmons at the TCM Movie Database
- The Jean Simmons Memorial YouTube Page
- Jean Simmons – A Fan Resource
- Jean Simmons 1946 newsreel footage Archived 11 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine from British Pathe (newsreel search Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine)
- Jean Simmons in motorboat Britlsh Pathe
- Obituary in The New York Times (23 January 2010)
- In Appreciation of Jean Simmons (1929–2010)
- Photographs and literature
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