Jean Simmons Passes Away At The Age Of 80
By Ronee, Gaea News NetworkSaturday, January 23, 2010
LOS ANGELES (GaeaTimes.com)- Jean Simmons aged 80 died on Friday in her home in Santa Monica, the Los Angeles Times reported. The much acclaimed British film actress was suffering from lung cancer for some time. Jean Simmons served the industry for more than 7 decades. She was born in the year 1929. While attending a dance class at the age of 14, she was offered to make her debut in “Give Us the Moon”, a British production. Following this, she appeared in lots of minor movies. In 1956, she became a US citizen when she followed her husband Stewart Granger to the US.
Jean Simmons is well known for her role in Ophelia in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet and her song with Marlon Brando in “Guys and Dolls.” She won Emmy Award for her role in “The Thorn Birds” in the 1980s. In Hollywood, she first left a mark with her role of Estella in “Great Expectations” of 1946. She gradually became one of the top actresses in Hollywood working with Paul Newman, Gregory Peck and Kirk Douglas. Her performance as Ophelia in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” made her an Oscar nominee. She received her second Oscar Nomination in 1969 for the movie “The Happy Ending”, which was directed by her ex-husband Richard Brooks where she played the role of a alcoholic. She was given to excessive drinking in her real life too.
In 1970s, 1980s and 1990s she shifted to television. The black-haired beautiful actress Jean Simmons met her first husband, a British star Stewart Granger at the sets of “Caesar and Cleopatra.” They divorced in the year 1960. Jean Simmons then married Richard Brooks which ended in a divorce in 1977.
