[Deathwatch] Jean Simmons, actress, 80

[Notification of departing celebrities]

  British Hollywood star Jean Simmons dies at 80

by Rebecca Frasquet Rebecca Frasquet

PARIS (AFP) -- The British actress Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, 
established her reputation with an unforgettable performance as Ophelia 
in Laurence Olivier's film "Hamlet" before becoming one of the Twentieth 
Century Fox studio's leading stars.

Simmons, who died in Santa Monica, California Friday, after suffering 
lung cancer, was twice nominated for an Oscar and reached the height of 
her fame in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1993 she told AFP she had never had an acting lesson, learning the 
art on the job, and said her career had been a series of surprises.


Born in London on January 31, 1929, the fourth child of a middle-class 
family, Jean Marilyn Simmons began her career in 1944, at the age of 15, 
in "Give Us the Moon".

She established her reputation with the role of young Estella in David 
Lean's film of "Great Expectations" in 1946 before Olivier cast her as 
Ophelia in 1948, a performance that won her an award at the Venice film 
festival and worldwide fame.

Despite the promising start to her career in Britain, Simmons quit the 
respected Rank studio and in 1950 moved to Hollywood with her husband, 
the actor Stewart Granger.

Simmons' talent and youthful grace made her a star at Twentieth Century 
Fox, though her angelic looks masked murderous intent in Otto 
Preminger's 1952 movie "Angel Face", where she starred alongside Robert 
Mitchum.

Her classical beauty earned her a number of roles as heroines from 
antiquity, notably in Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus", in which she played 
the rebel slave leader's love interest.

She played opposite Marlon Brando in the historical drama "Desiree" and 
the musical comedy "Guys and Dolls".

In 1960 she married the director Richard Brooks, who cast her as a 
captivating evangelist alongside Burt Lancaster in "Elmer Gantry" and 
then as an alcoholic wife in "The Happy Ending".

"The Happy Ending" earned Simmons her second Oscar nomination, after 
"Hamlet", but the prize escaped her on both occasions.

In all, Simmons starred in around 50 features, but after 1970 her big 
screen appearances were more limited, though she starred in Michael 
Anderson's 1978 movie "Dominique".

On television, where she starred in around 30 series, Simmons played the 
governess in "Heidi" and won an Emmy award in 1983 for "The Thorn Birds".

Simmons had two children, one with Granger and one with Brooks, whom she 
divorced in 1977.

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