ACTOR
Jean Simmons
42 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (42)
- #001
William Wyler, impressed by Jean Simmons's performance in The Blue Lagoon (1949), wanted her for the role of Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953), but Howard Hughes, who held her contract, refused to loan her to Paramount to make the film.
- #002
She was the only guest star on the television series Murder, She Wrote (1984) to be nominated for an Emmy Award (1989).
- #003
She and Marlon Brando were originally supposed to lip-sync their songs in the musical Guys and Dolls (1955). Samuel Goldwyn heard them during rehearsal and decided that the untrained stars should sing their own songs for authenticity.
- #004
She turned down the role of Jean Pargetter in the British series As Time Goes By (1992), which went to Judi Dench.
- #005
Depressed because she was not being offered quality parts, Jean became an alcoholic. In 1986 she sought professional treatment.
- #006
She became a Fellow of the British Film Institute for her outstanding contribution to film culture.
- #007
In America, from the early 1950s, Jean learned that RKO president Howard Hughes had bought the remaining six months of her Rank contract without her consent. She sued RKO when Hughes claimed a verbal agreement with Rank prevented him from loaning her to another studio. The legal battle lasted more than a year. When the case was finally decided, RKO held a three-year contract for Jean's services but had to pay her $250,000 in addition to legal costs. She also won the right to work as a freelancer at other studios for a substantial salary.
- #008
Even before her American debut, she was respected and loved by both British critics and filmgoers. At the end of 1950, she was the number four box-office draw in British cinema, whether American or British.
- #009
Director Richard Brooks claimed he wrote The Happy Ending (1969), the filmed story of an alcoholic wife (played by Simmons), as a way of telling his wife that he had a problem. The marriage eventually fell apart because of Simmons's drinking and Brooks's workaholic tendencies.
- #010
Simmons had two daughters: Kate Brooks (with Richard Brooks) and Tracy Granger (with Stewart Granger).
- #011
She quit smoking while filming Shadows in the Sun (2009).
- #012
Her mother was Winifred Aida Loveland. Her father, Charles Simmons, won a bronze medal in artistic gymnastics at the British Olympics and died of an ulcer when Jean was 16.
- #013
She became a United States citizen in 1956.
- #014
She gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Tracy Stewart Granger, also known as Tracy Granger, on 10 September 1956, at the age of 27. The child's father was her first ex-husband, Stewart Granger.
- #015
She was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2003 Queen's New Year Honours for her services to drama.
- #016
In the late 1970s, she and her daughter Kate Brooks lived in New Milford, a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut. They later returned to their long-time California home in Santa Monica.
- #017
As of 2013, she is one of six women to have received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a performance directed by her spouse, namely The Happy Ending (1969), directed by Richard Brooks. The other five are Elisabeth Bergner for Escape Me Never (1935) (director Paul Czinner), Joanne Woodward for Rachel, Rachel (1968) (director Paul Newman), Gena Rowlands for A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980) (both directed by John Cassavetes), Julie Andrews for Victor/Victoria (1982) (directed by Blake Edwards), and Frances McDormand for Fargo (1996) (director Joel Coen). Jules Dassin also directed his future wife Melina Mercouri in an Oscar-nominated Best Actress performance (Never on Sunday (1960)), but they were not yet married at the time of the nomination.
- #018
She won her role in Black Narcissus (1947) from among 1,600 applicants.
- #019
Jean Simmons was a little over 10 years younger than Teresa Wright, the actress who played her mother in The Actress (1953) and The Happy Ending (1969).
- #020
Simmons named her daughters after Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
- #021
In 1958, she accepted the Academy Award for Best Actor on behalf of Alec Guinness, who was not present at the ceremony.
- #022
She was considered for the role of Marion Crane in Psycho (1960).
- #023
She appeared in four Oscar Best Picture nominees: Great Expectations (1946), Hamlet (1948), The Robe (1953) and Elmer Gantry (1960). Hamlet won Best Picture in 1948.
- #024
A memorial service for her was held at St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden on 29 June 2010.
- #025
She was considered for Julie Andrews's roles in Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965).
- #026
She was chosen from roughly 200 applicants for the role of Heidi, Margaret Lockwood's on-screen sister in Give Us the Moon (1944).
- #027
She shares two roles with Helena Bonham Carter: Simmons played Ophelia in Hamlet (1948), while Bonham Carter played her in Hamlet (1990), and Simmons played Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (1989), while Bonham Carter played her in Great Expectations (2012). Simmons coincidentally appeared in two adaptations of the Dickens story: Great Expectations (1946) and Great Expectations (1989). She played Estella in the first and Miss Havisham in the second.
- #028
20th Century Fox offered her the lead in The Seven Year Itch (1955) in case Marilyn Monroe, the studio's biggest female star at the time and Billy Wilder's choice for the part from the start, proved unavailable, but she turned it down and thereby ended her non-exclusive contract with the company. Monroe's performance became iconic. As compensation for her turning down the film, Darryl F. Zanuck offered her the lead in Hilda Crane (1956). Monroe's film became a big hit; Simmons's film failed.
- #029
She received her first on-screen kiss from Tony Wager in Great Expectations (1946).
- #030
Darryl F. Zanuck wanted her for the role of Miss Casswell in All About Eve (1950) based on her performances in British films, but J. Arthur Rank refused to loan her to 20th Century Fox.
- #031
She was offered the roles of Gwendolen and Maria in Beat the Devil (1953), but she turned down both.
- #032
She was considered for the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967).
- #033
She was considered for the role of Brenda in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), but director Karel Reisz thought she was too famous as an actress.
- #034
She read for the lead in Miranda (1948) but was ultimately rejected for the role, which went to Glynis Johns.
- #035
When Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder could not find an actress for the role of Emmeline, she was cast in The Blue Lagoon (1949) on the recommendation of J. Arthur Rank, who had seen her performance at the world premiere of Great Expectations (1946). Gainsborough's project, which was to star Margaret Lockwood, had been announced in the late 1930s but was cancelled because of World War II. When it was revived in 1944 under Gilliat and Launder's newly formed production company Individual Pictures with Rank's backing, it was conceived as a comeback vehicle for Shirley Temple because Lockwood was considered too old, but due to cost overruns caused by the troubled production of Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), Launder chose to cast an unknown actress to keep costs down.
- #036
Jean Simmons interrupted filming of The Blue Lagoon (1949) to accept the Academy Award for Best Art Direction on behalf of J. Arthur Rank.
- #037
Jean Simmons was screen-tested for the role of Joan Huggett in Holiday Camp (1947).
- #038
In Italy, most of Jean Simmons's films were dubbed by Fiorella Betti. In the mid-1950s, she was occasionally dubbed by Dhia Cristiani, notably in The Robe (1953). Other actresses, including Miranda Bonansea, Rosetta Calavetta and Rina Morelli, also voiced Simmons at one point. From the 1960s onward, Maria Pia Di Meo became her official Italian voice.
- #039
Jean Simmons declined director Randal Kleiser's invitation to attend the world premiere of The Blue Lagoon (1980); she had appeared in The Blue Lagoon (1949).
- #040
Jean Simmons was considered for the role of Rose in Brighton Rock (1948), but the part went to Carol Marsh, a contract player at Rank.
- #041
Jean Simmons was considered for the role of Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (1968), but the part went to Natasha Parry.
- #042
Jean Simmons was a former student of the Aida Foster Theatre School.
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