Biography

Jean Simmons OBE is Notable.

Every actress has to face the facts there are younger, more beautiful girls right behind you. Once you've gone beyond the vanity of the business, you'll take on the tough roles. -- Jean Simmons^[1]

Jean Simmons was an actor and singer, appearing in dozens of British and Hollywood films. She 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). Other notable film appearances included Young Bess (1953), The Robe (1953), 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 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds.^[2]

Jean was born 31 January 1929 in Lower Holloway, London, the daughter ofCharles Simmons andWinifred Loveland.^[3] Her father was a bronze medallist in gymnastics at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

She married the film actor Stewart Granger 20 December 1950 in Tucson, Arizona.^[4] " British Stars Wed. Tucson, Ariz., Dec. 21--(AP)--"Somewhere in Arizona" British movie starts Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger are honeymooning today. They were married here last night in a quiet ceremony at a private home, then departed on a motor tour of the state. They are expected to return to Hollywood about Jan. 1. Miss Simmons plans to return to England late in January to make a picture."^[5] Jean and Stewart were the parents of a daughter born the same year. They were divorced 12 August 1960.

She was naturalized as a United States Citizen 8 June 1956, along with her then-husband, Stewart Granger.^[6] "Actor, Wife, Naturalized. Los Angeles, June 8 (AP)--Stewart Granger, movie actor, and his film-star wife, Jean Simmons, today became naturalized United States citizens. They are natives of England."^[7]

Secondly, she married the film director Richard Brooks 1 November 1960 in Monterey, California.^[8] "Newlyweds Happy. British Actress Jean Simmons and Hollywood director Richard Brooks are happy following their marriage Tuesday at Salina, Calif. They left immediately following a civil ceremony for an undisclosed honeymoon destination."^[9] They were the parents of a daughter, born a year after their marriage. They were divorced in 1980.

"In a 1984 interview, given in Copenhagen at the time she was shooting the film Yellow Pages, 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 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.'"^[10]

Jean died 22 January 2010 in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 81. She was buried at Highgate Cemetery in the London Borough of Camden.^[11]

New York Times Obituary:^[12]

Actress Jean Simmons Dies80-year-old had lung cancerBy Aljean Harmetz

"Jean Simmons, the English actress who made the covers of Time and Life magazines by the time she was 20 and became a major midcentury star alongside strong leading men such as Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Marlon Brando--often playing their demure helpmates--died Friday at her home in Santa Monica, California. She was 80."

"The cause was lung cancer, according to Judy Page, her agent."

"Simmons is one of the most quietly commanding actresses Hollywood has ever trashed," the critic Pauline Kael wrote when reviewing her performance as the half-genuine, half-fraudulent revivalist preacher who succumbs to Burt Lancaster's con man in "Elmer Gantry" (1960). Indeed, she rarely found roles to match the talent so many colleagues and critics recognized in her despite a dazzling start to her career."

"Plucked out of a dancing school class at 14, Simmons appeared in three classic movies before her 19th birthday. She was Estella, the mocking girl raised to break men's hearts, in David Lean's "Great Expectations" (1946). She was the sensual native girl whom five Anglican nuns sought to civilize in a convent high in the Himalayas in "Black Narcissus" (1947). And after seeing "Great Expectations," Olivier chose Simmons to play Ophelia to his title character in "Hamlet" (1948)."

"Her performance brought her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. She got one other Oscar nomination, for best actress, as the middle-aged housewife who runs away from her marriage in "The Happy Ending" (1969)."

Sources

1. ↑Jean Simmons Quotes on Brainy Quote.
2. ↑Jean Simmons on Wikipedia.
3. ↑ England and Wales Birth Index; Jean M. Simmons; registration: January 1929; registration district Islington, Greater London; mother's maiden name: Loveland; volume 1b, page 315.
4. ↑ "Arizona, County Marriages, 1871-1964," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1X-6FC7 : 29 November 2018), James Lablache Stewart and Jean Merilyn Simmons, 20 Dec 1950; citing Marriage, Tucson, Pima, Arizona, United States, Arizona Department of Libraries, Archives, and Public Records, Phoenix; FHL microfilm 007541682.
5. ↑ Providence Journal, Friday December 22, 1950 Providence =, RI, page 12.
6. ↑ U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, U.S. District Court at Los Angeles, California; date of birth 31 January 1929; residing at 728 Linda Flora Drive in Los Angeles; certificate issued 8 June 1956; Petition No. 191239. Signed Jean Stewart Granger.
7. ↑ Seattle Daily Times, 8 June 1956, Seattle, WA.
8. ↑ "California Marriage Index, 1960-1985," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V68T-RT1 : 27 November 2014), Richard Brooks and Jean M Simmons, 01 Nov 1960; from "California, Marriage Index, 1960-1985," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : 2007); citing Monterey, California, Center of Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento.
9. ↑ Seattle Post-Intelligencer Thursday, November 3, 1960, Seattle, WA, page 3.
10. ↑Jean Simmons on Wikipedia.
11. ↑Find a Grave Memorial for Jean Simmons.
12. ↑ Times Picauune, Sunday, January 24, 2010, New Orleans, LA, page 5.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Simmons
• IMDb: Jean Simmons

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