Jean Simmons

Jean Simmons

Birth : 1929-01-31, Crouch Hill, London, England, UK

Death : 2010-01-22

History

Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE (January 31, 1929 – January 22, 2010) was an English actress. She appeared predominantly in motion pictures, beginning with films made in Great Britain during and after World War II – she was one of J. Arthur Rank's 'well-spoken young starlets' – followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950.

Profile

Jean Simmons
Jean Simmons
Jean Simmons
Jean Simmons
Jean Simmons
Jean Simmons
Jean Simmons

Movies

Discovering Hamlet
Ophelia (archive footage)
Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great tragedy to life. Christopher Plummer, David Tennant, John Nettles, John Simm, Sir Trevor Nunn, Franco Zeffirelli, Philip Saville, and others explore the enduring appeal of the Prince of Denmark more than 400 years after his stage debut.
Shadows in the Sun
Hannah
A mysterious young loner changes the lives of one family and helps them rediscover their roots and deep affection for one another.
Winter Solstice
Countess Lucinda Rhives
When Elfrida Philips abandons London for a country village, she settles in quickly. She is very poor, but has a tiny cottage, her four-legged friend Horace, and friendships of good neighbors. Tragedy upsets her newfound tranquillity, and she takes refuge in a rambling house with a new gentleman friend in Corrydale. But the group proves to be greater than the sum of its ill-fitting parts, and as the solstice passes, and as Christmas approaches, the healing power of love, begins to work its magic. (Filmed at Dunrobin Castle, Golspie, Sutherland)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Council Member (voice)
Led by a strange dream, scientist Aki Ross struggles to collect the eight spirits in the hope of creating a force powerful enough to protect the planet. With the aid of the Deep Eyes Squadron and her mentor, Dr. Sid, Aki must save the Earth from its darkest hate and unleash the spirits within.
Her Own Rules
Katherine Stratton
Melissa Gilbert stars as Marygold/Meredith. A sad and lonely writer returning to her home town in England for the first time since she was about 6 or 7 years old,after being adopted and raised in America. While there she decides to look for her mother's grave,and finds out her memories are not exactly what she thought they were,her mother is alive. She then sets out to find her mother and some answers and finds both. She also falls in love, of course, but has a problem with long term commitments...
Daisies in December
Katherine Palmer
A seaside hotel for senior citizens is the setting for late-season love as costars Jean Simmons and Joss Ackland meet and make a match in this romantic human drama. Gerald's a stuffy ex-stockbroker who's been placed in the facility for his own best interest. Katherine's a warm and friendly resident with a soaring spirit and a zest for life. Their union is a transforming one, and also timely, as Katherine stands on the threshhold of a painful and very frightening battle with cancer. Poignant storytelling with a winning pair of costars.
How to Make an American Quilt
Em
Soon-to-be-wed graduate student Finn Dodd develops cold feet when she suspects her fiancé is cheating on her. In order to clear her head, Finn visits her grandmother, Hy, and great aunt, Glady Joe Cleary, in Grasse, Calif. There, Finn learns that Hy and Glady Joe are members of a group of passionate quilters, and over the course of her visit she is regaled with tales of love and life by women who have collected rich experiences and much wisdom.
Miss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors
Carrie-Louise Serrocold
At the insistence of Ruth Van Rydock, an old schoolfriend who is convinced that there is something wrong, Miss Marple agrees to visit 'Stonygates', the country house of Ruth's sister.
People Like Us
Peach Prindible Bailey
When a wealthy scriptwriter and socialite's daughter is murdered, he feels let down by the courts, and so decides to use his powerful position to enable his own form of justice.
A Friendship in Vienna
Narrator (voice)
Inge Dournenvald and Lise Mueller are best friends in pre-WW2 Austria, despite the fact that Inge is Jewish and Lise is the daughter of a Nazi sympathizer. When they are forbidden to see each other, they meet secretly. After the Germans invade Austria in 1938, Inge and her family escape to America with the help of Lise
Going Undercover
Maxine de la Hunt
Forever bungling private investigator Henry Brilliant (Chris Lemmon) has been hired by Maxine de la Hunt (Jean Simmons) to protect her step-daughter Marigold (Lea Thompson) during her trip to Denmark. A real caring parent should have hired an army of P.I.s to protect Marigold from Mr. Brilliant. His name, he's not.
The Dawning
Aunt Mary
An IRA gunman on the run from the government meets an idealistic young woman and attempts to win her support for his cause.
Inherit the Wind
Lucy Brady
Based on a real-life case in 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love
Laura Robertson
Perry must defend the husband of an old flame from a murder charge.
Midas Valley
Molly Hammond
Set in Silicon Valley, California, follows the lives of a group of people involved in the competitive world of computer electronics and the greed, passion and intrigue amongst them.
The Golden Gong: The Story of Rank Films - British Cinema's Legendary Studio
Herself - Interviewee
Documentary - After starting his career producing religious film shorts, J. Arthur Rank went on to become Britain's first and only movie mogul with his establishment of the legendary Pinewood Studios. Narrated by Michael Caine, THE GOLDEN GONG chronicles Pinewood's rise to success. - Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde, Betty E. Box
December Flower
Etta Marsh
Newly widowed Etta visits her beloved Aunt M and discovers her bedridden and listless. Etta's struggle to restore her aunt's dignity and cheer brings renewed meaning to the lives of both women, but also reveals family secrets and forces confrontations with her aunt's indifferent son and hostile daughter-in-law.
Down at the Hydro
Diedre
Diedre and The Colonel separately attend a health spa and find themselves falling in love.
A Small Killing
Margaret Lawrence
A college professor is recruited by an undercover cop to pose as a bag lady to track down a drug connection following the brutal killing of a skid row crone.
Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls
Helen Lawson
Updated version of the Jacqueline Susann best selling 1960's novel shows the lives of three very different women who come to New York City to achieve fame and fortune in show business and get all messed up in the process.
Golden Gate
Jane Kingsley
A venerable San Francisco publishing family becomes embroiled in a bitter power struggle between the iron-fisted, but ailing, patriarch's son and a ruthless businessman who tries for a takeover.
Beggarman, Thief
Gretchen Jordache Burke
In this sequel to "Rich Man, Poor Man," moviemaker Gretchen Jordache, the until-now unseen sister, strives to pull the family together after the murder of brother Tom and the disappearance of brother Rudy by first reestablishing contact with her soldier son, and then patching things up with her sister-in-law, Kate, Tom's widow.
Dominique
Dominique Ballard
The wife of a greedy man comes back to haunt him after he scares her to death.
Mr. Sycamore
Estelle Benbow
Jason Robards is a man who decides he'd rather be a tree.
The Easter Promise
Constance Payne
Addie and her friends are excited over the visit of a celebrity, a local woman who became a successful Broadway actress and has returned home for a short time following the death of her mother. She brings the woman home for the family Easter celebration, and the little girl's concern and kindness help the woman see the promise of better days ahead.
Decisions! Decisions!
Phoebe Masterson
A precedent-setting comedy-drama special in which a salesman (Bob Newhart) and a sexologist (Jill St. John) have misadventures with plot development determined by the votes of the studio audience.
Say Hello to Yesterday
Woman
Approaching middle-age and stuck in an unfulfilled marriage, a suburban British housewife allows herself a sexual fling with a brash young hunk she meets on a commuter train.
The Happy Ending
Mary Wilson
The triumphs and failures of middle age as seen through the eyes of runaway American housewife Mary Wilson, a woman who believes that ultimate reality exists above and beyond the routine procedures of conscious, uninspired, everyday life. She feels cheated by an older generation that taught her to settle for nothing less than storybook finales, people who are disillusioned and restless and don't know why, people for whom life holds no easy answers.
Heidi
Frl. Rottenmeier
Heidi is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland. In order to get a job in Frankfurt, Dete brings 5-year-old Heidi to her grandfather, who has been at odds with the villagers for years and lives in seclusion on the alm. He at first resents Heidi's arrival, but the girl manages to penetrate his harsh exterior and subsequently has a delightful stay with him and her best friend, young Peter the goat-herd.
Rough Night in Jericho
Molly Lang
The only business in the Wild West town of Jericho that corrupt sheriff Alex Flood doesn't control behind the scenes is the stagecoach owned by tough-willed widow Molly Lang and her right-hand man, Hickman. Former marshal Dolan, recently hired by Lang and Hickman as a driver, wants to stay out of the mess, but when he sees Flood's henchman Yarbrough assault Lang, he steps up to fight the corruption.
Divorce American Style
Nancy Downes
After 17 years of marriage in American suburbia, Richard and Barbara Harmon step into the new world of divorce.
Soldier in Love
Sarah Jennings
The story of the Churchills in the court of Queen Anne.
Mister Buddwing
The Blonde
An amnesiac wanders the streets of Manhattan, trying to solve the mystery of who he is.
Life at the Top
Susan Lampton
Successful businessman Joe Lampton is married to the wealthy Susan, has two children, and lives in the mill town of Warley in northern England. But his career seems to have plateaued, leaving him disillusioned. This feeling is only exacerbated when he discovers his wife's infidelity with local man Mark. So he takes up with attractive TV host Norah and moves with her to London, aiming to reignite the fire that drove him to the top.
All the Way Home
Mary Follet
In the early 1900's Tennessee, a loving family undergoes the shock of the father's sudden, accidental death. The widow and her young son must endure the heartache of life following the tragedy, but slowly rise up from the ashes to face the hope of renewed life.
The Grass Is Greener
Hattie Durant
Victor and Hillary are down on their luck to the point that they allow tourists to take guided tours of their castle. But Charles Delacro, a millionaire oil tycoon, visits, and takes a liking to more than the house. Soon, Hattie Durant gets involved and they have a good old fashioned love triangle.
Spartacus
Varinia
The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion. As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers swell as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they will cross the sea and return to their homes.
Elmer Gantry
Sister Sharon Falconer
When hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer, a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join her act as a passionate preacher. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. Both the show and their relationship are threatened, however, when one of Gantry's ex-lovers decides that she has a score to settle with the charismatic performer.
This Earth Is Mine
Elizabeth Rambeau
Set during the Prohibition era, when wine makers were financially challenged and had to decide whether or not they wanted to cooperate with bootleggers to survive.
Home Before Dark
Charlotte Bronn
A young woman returns home after being institutionalized in a mental hospital.
The Big Country
Julie Maragon
Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the vast expanse of the West to marry fiancée Pat Terrill. McKay is a man whose values and approach to life are a mystery to the ranchers and ranch foreman Steve Leech takes an immediate dislike to him. Pat is spoiled, selfish and controlled by her wealthy father, Major Henry Terrill. The Major is involved in a ruthless civil war, over watering rights for cattle, with a rough hewn clan led by Rufus Hannassey. The land in question is owned by Julie Maragon and both Terrill and Hannassey want it.
Fun in the Big Country
Self (narrator)
Behind-the-scenes look during the filming of William Wyler's 1958 western, "The Big Country."
Until They Sail
Barbara Leslie Forbes
Four sisters in New Zealand fall for four U.S. soldiers en route to the Pacific theater in WWII.
This Could Be the Night
Anne Leeds
To earn extra money, a prim schoolteacher takes a second job as secretary to the uncouth owner of a boisterous nightclub.
Hilda Crane
Hilda Crane Burns
After two failed marriages, a disillusioned woman returns to her hometown to start life anew.
Guys and Dolls
Sarah Brown
Gambler Nathan Detroit has few options for the location of his big craps game. Needing $1,000 to pay a garage owner to host the game, Nathan bets Sky Masterson that Sky cannot get virtuous Sarah Brown out on a date. Despite some resistance, Sky negotiates a date with her in exchange for bringing people into her mission. Meanwhile, Nathan's longtime fiancée, Adelaide, wants him to go legit and marry her.
Footsteps in the Fog
Lily Watkins
A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid that discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.
Désirée
Desiree Clary
In Marseilles, France in 1794, Desiree Clary, a young millinery clerk, becomes infatuated with Napoleon Bonaparte, but winds up wedding Genaral Jean-Baptiste Berandotte, an aid to Napoleon who later joins the forces that bring about the Emperor's downfall. Josephine Beauharnais, a worldly courtesan marries Napoleon and becomes Empress of France, but is then cast aside by her spouse when she proves unable to produce an heir to the throne.
A Bullet Is Waiting
Cally Canham
A plane carrying a sheriff and a man indicted for manslaughter is wrecked on a lonely California beach and the prisoner manages to escape, after a struggle, only to be taken in hand by the female manager of a remote sheep ranch.
The Egyptian
Merit
In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new Pharoah. Sinuhe's personal triumphs and tragedies are played against the larger canvas of the turbulent events of the 18th dynasty. As Sinuhe is drawn into court intrigues he learns the answers to the questions he has sought since his birth.
She Couldn't Say No
Corby Lane (Corby Johnson)
An heiress decides to pass out anonymous gifts in a small town.
The Actress
Ruth Gordon Jones
The true story of Ruth Gordon's early struggles on the road to stage stardom.
The Robe
Diana
Marcellus is a tribune in the time of Christ. He is in charge of the group that is assigned to crucify Jesus. Drunk, he wins Jesus' homespun robe after the crucifixion. He is tormented by nightmares and delusions after the event. Hoping to find a way to live with what he has done, and still not believing in Jesus, he returns to Palestine to try and learn what he can of the man he killed.
Affair with a Stranger
Carolyn Parker
Director Roy Rowland's 1953 drama, depicting the rocky marriage of a young model and her Broadway playwright-husband, stars Victor Mature, Jean Simmons, Jane Darwell, Dabbs Greer, Nicholas Joy, Lillian Bronson and George Cleveland.
Young Bess
Young Bess (Queen Elizabeth I)
The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch -- the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Jean Simmons portrays young Bess in this rich tapestry of a film that traces the tumultuous, danger-fraught years from Elizabeth's birth to her unexpected ascension to the throne at a mere 25. Charles Laughton reprises his Academy Award®-winning* role as her formidable father Henry VIII. Deborah Kerr plays her last stepmother (and Henry's last of six wives), gentle Catherine Parr. And Simmons' then real-life husband, Stewart Granger, adds heroics as Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour. In a resplendent world of adventure, romance and court intrigue, Young Bess reigns.
Angel Face
Diane Tremayne Jessup
An ambulance driver gets involved with a rich girl that might have a darker side.
Androcles and the Lion
Lavinina
George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.
The Clouded Yellow
Sophie Malraux
After leaving the British Secret Service, David Somers (played by Trevor Howard) finds work cataloging butterflies at the country house of Nicholas and Jess Fenton. After the murder of a local gamekeeper, suspicion (wrongfully) falls on their niece, Sophie Malraux (Jean Simmons). Somers helps Sophie to escape arrest and they go on the run together. After a cross-country chase they arrive at a coastal city with the intention of leaving the country by ship. All's well that ends well after the true identity of the murderer is revealed.
Trio
Evie Bishop (segment Sanatorium)
W. Somerset Maugham introduces three more of his stories about human foibles.
Cage of Gold
Judith Moray
A young woman, Judith Moray, deserts her prospective fiance, the nice doctor Alan Kearn, for an old flame, the dashing but roguish former wing commander Bill Glennan. Glennan makes her pregnant and marries her, but leaves her on the morning after the wedding when he learns that her father can't offer him financial support. Two years later she - having been told that Glennan is dead - has married Kearn and borne him a son. But then Glennan suddenly reappears and begins to blackmail her.
So Long at the Fair
Vicky Barton
Vicky Barton and her brother, Johnny, take a trip to the 1896 Paris Exhibition. They both sleep in seperate rooms in a hotel. When the sister gets up the next morning, she finds her brother and his room had disappeared and no one will even acknowledge that he was ever there. Now Vicky must find out what exactly happened to her brother.
Adam and Evelyne
Evelyne Wallace
The father of a girl in an orphanage, who doesn't remember him, has been writing to her with tales of his success in business. Actually, he is impersonating a friend, a handsome gambler. When the father dies, the gambler takes the girl from the orphanage and tells her the truth. But the girl is now a full-grown beauty and complications arise, including those provided by a black-sheep brother.
The Blue Lagoon
Emmeline Foster
In the Victorian period, two British children survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific. After days afloat, they are marooned on a lush tropical island in the company of kindly old sailor. Together they survive solely on their resourcefulness and the bounty of their remote paradise.
Hamlet
Ophelia - His Daughter
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
The Woman in the Hall
Jay Blake
Lorna Blake, (Ursula Jeans) is a widow with two daughters. She augments her slender income by using her children to extort money - visiting the houses of the rich to tell a pathetic story and beg for help. And Lorna makes a rich capture when Sir Halmar Bernard, (Cecil Parker), proposes to her. She tells him that she has only one daughter, Molly (Jill Freud, credited as Jill Raymond). When her other daughter, Jay (Jean Simmons), is arrested for forging a cheque, she refuses to help her.
Uncle Silas
Caroline Ruthyn
Following her father's death, a teenage heiress moves in with her guardian uncle who is broke and schemes to murder his niece for her vast inheritance.
Black Narcissus
Kanchi
A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. The climate in the region is hostile and the nuns are housed in an odd old palace. They work to establish a school and a hospital, but slowly their focus shifts. Sister Ruth falls for a government worker, Mr. Dean, and begins to question her vow of celibacy. As Sister Ruth obsesses over Mr. Dean, Sister Clodagh becomes immersed in her own memories of love.
Hungry Hill
Jane Brodrick
Life becomes a tragedy for the wife of an Irish heir to a 19th-century family feud and fortune.
Great Expectations
Young Estella
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Caesar and Cleopatra
Harpist (uncredited)
The aging Caesar finds himself intrigued by the young Egyptian queen. Adapted by George Bernard Shaw from his own play.
The Way to the Stars
A Singer
Life on a British bomber base, and the surrounding towns, from the opening days of the Battle of Britain, to the arrival of the Americans, who join in the bomber offensive. The film centres around Pilot Officer Peter Penrose, fresh out of a training unit, who joins the squadron, and quickly discovers about life during war time. He falls for Iris, a young girl who lives at the local hotel, but he becomes disillusioned about marriage, when the squadron commander dies in a raid, and leaves his wife, the hotel manageress, with a young son to bring up. As the war progresses, Penross comes to terms that he has survived, while others have been killed.
Meet Sexton Blake
Eva Watkins
The famous detective and his trusty side-kick, Tinker, are called in by the War Office to find some important papers that were stolen from a man killed during an air raid.
Kiss the Bride Goodbye
Molly Dodd
Working-class girl Joan Dodd's plan to marry Jack Fowler is thwarted when her mother Gladys interferes. Hoping to improve her daughter's social status, Gladys arranges for Joan to wed her boss Adolphus Pickering while Jack is away at war. Jack arrives home to discover his love is engaged to another man. Who will Joan decide to marry?
Mr. Emmanuel
Sally Cooper
An elderly Jewish man from Manchester, travels to Nazi Germany to seek the mother of a young German refugee that has attempted suicide. In Germany, Mr. Emmanuel’s efforts to seek out Hertha Rosenhein are greeted by a wall of silence from the scared Jewish community and anti-Semitic hatred from many Germans.
Give Us the Moon
Heidi
Set just after the end of WWII (but filmed in the middle of it) in a time of general euphoria at having won the war, with full employment and general happiness for all (or nearly all). Peter, the young wastrel son of a hard working hotel owner doesn't like the idea of having to work for a living. He discovers a society of "White Elephants" who are quite willing to be poor as long as they don't have to work. They are protected and guided by Nina (Margaret Lockwood) and her precocious sister Heidi (Jean Simmons).