Jean Simmons
Active - 1944 - 2008 | Born - Jan 31, 1929 in London, England | Died - Jan 22, 2010 in Santa Monica, CA | Genres - Drama, Romance, Horror | Height: 5', 4"
A luminous beauty, Jean Simmons was a star in her native Britain and in the U.S. who first appeared onscreen at age 14 in Give Us the Moon (1944), but did not become a true star until she played Estella in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946).
In 1948, she was handpicked by Laurence Olivier to play the doomed Ophelia in his classic version of Hamlet and won a Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for her efforts. Simmons traveled to Hollywood in 1950 after marrying Stewart Granger. Their marriage lasted a decade and Simmons then became Mrs. Richard Brooks in 1960, the year he starred her in Elmer Gantry.
During the '50s and '60s, Simmons had an extremely busy film career appearing in everything from costume epics to romances to musicals to straight dramas. Simmons received an Oscar nomination in 1969 for The Happy Ending. By the mid-'70s, Simmons started working less frequently and divided her time between features and television work. In the late '80s, she had a burst of character roles, but thereafter, her forays into acting became increasingly sporadic. She died at age 80 in January 2010.
Available Films:
Active - 1944 - 2008 | Born - Jan 31, 1929 in London, England | Died - Jan 22, 2010 in Santa Monica, CA | Genres - Drama, Romance, Horror | Height: 5', 4"
A luminous beauty, Jean Simmons was a star in her native Britain and in the U.S. who first appeared onscreen at age 14 in Give Us the Moon (1944), but did not become a true star until she played Estella in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946).
In 1948, she was handpicked by Laurence Olivier to play the doomed Ophelia in his classic version of Hamlet and won a Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival and an Academy Award nomination for her efforts. Simmons traveled to Hollywood in 1950 after marrying Stewart Granger. Their marriage lasted a decade and Simmons then became Mrs. Richard Brooks in 1960, the year he starred her in Elmer Gantry.
During the '50s and '60s, Simmons had an extremely busy film career appearing in everything from costume epics to romances to musicals to straight dramas. Simmons received an Oscar nomination in 1969 for The Happy Ending. By the mid-'70s, Simmons started working less frequently and divided her time between features and television work. In the late '80s, she had a burst of character roles, but thereafter, her forays into acting became increasingly sporadic. She died at age 80 in January 2010.
Available Films:
Trivia:
In America from the early 1950s, Jean found out that RKO head Howard Hughes had purchased the remaining six months of her Rank Studio contract. When Hughes claimed that an oral agreement with Rank precluded her from being loaned out to any other studio, she sued RKO. The legal battle raged for over a year. When the suit was finally settled, RKO had a three-year contract for Jean's services, but was obligated to pay her $250,000 in addition to her legal fees. Furthermore, she won the right to work on loan to other studios at a substantial salary.
Was William Wyler's first choice for the role of Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953), but Howard Hughes, who owned her contract, would not loan her out to Paramount to do the film.
She and Marlon Brando were originally supposed to lip-sync their songs in the musical film Guys and Dolls (1955). Samuel Goldwyn heard them during rehearsal and decided the untrained stars should do their own singing for authenticity.
[on Spartacus (1960)] "Making Spartacus was enough acting to last anybody a lifetime. You know, after we had been filming a year Kirk Douglas sent me a magnum of champagne with a little note saying, "I hope our second year will be as happy as our first."."
[on Spartacus (1960)] " I remember a long, long day of filming and it took forever to get Kirk Douglas up on his cross. We played a terrible joke on him when, as he was safely installed, the assistant director called lunch and left him up there. He could have had the lot of us fired but he was very good about it. You have to have a sense of humor in this industry."
In America from the early 1950s, Jean found out that RKO head Howard Hughes had purchased the remaining six months of her Rank Studio contract. When Hughes claimed that an oral agreement with Rank precluded her from being loaned out to any other studio, she sued RKO. The legal battle raged for over a year. When the suit was finally settled, RKO had a three-year contract for Jean's services, but was obligated to pay her $250,000 in addition to her legal fees. Furthermore, she won the right to work on loan to other studios at a substantial salary.
Was William Wyler's first choice for the role of Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953), but Howard Hughes, who owned her contract, would not loan her out to Paramount to do the film.
She and Marlon Brando were originally supposed to lip-sync their songs in the musical film Guys and Dolls (1955). Samuel Goldwyn heard them during rehearsal and decided the untrained stars should do their own singing for authenticity.
[on Spartacus (1960)] "Making Spartacus was enough acting to last anybody a lifetime. You know, after we had been filming a year Kirk Douglas sent me a magnum of champagne with a little note saying, "I hope our second year will be as happy as our first."."
[on Spartacus (1960)] " I remember a long, long day of filming and it took forever to get Kirk Douglas up on his cross. We played a terrible joke on him when, as he was safely installed, the assistant director called lunch and left him up there. He could have had the lot of us fired but he was very good about it. You have to have a sense of humor in this industry."
