Biography
Jean Simmons was a British actress. Born Jean Merilyn Simmons in London on 31 January 1929, she began her career after training at the Aida Foster School of Dancing and made her screen debut in Give Us the Moon (1944). She first gained notice playing Young Estella in David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946).
She appeared in several British films of the late 1940s, including Black Narcissus (1947) and Hamlet (1948), in which she played Ophelia opposite Laurence Olivier. From 1950 she worked mainly in Hollywood, appearing in films such as The Robe (1953), Guys and Dolls (1955), The Big Country (1958), Elmer Gantry (1960) and Spartacus (1960). She became a US citizen in 1956.
Later credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001). Simmons received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Hamlet and Best Actress for The Happy Ending (1969). She died in Santa Monica, California, on 22 January 2010.
