Jean Simmons

She married English film actor Stewart Granger on December 20, 1950, in Tucson, Arizona. She starred with Granger in many films. The couple became citizens of the United States in 1956 and their daughter Tracy Granger was born the same year. They got divorced in 1960.

She got married for the second time on November 1, 1960, to American film director and screenwriter Richard Brooks. In 1961, their daughter Kate Brooks was born. The couple divorced in 1980.

Though she lived and owned a home in New Milford, Connecticut in the late 1970s, later she settled for good in Santa Monica.

She was born on January 31, 1929, in Lower Holloway, London, to Charles Simmons and Winifred (née Loveland) Simmons as their youngest child among four children.

Her father was a gymnast who won a bronze medal at the 1912 Summer Olympics and later worked as a gymnastic instructor and physical education teacher.

She was a very exuberant and lively child and grew up with her three siblings Edna, Lorna and Harold.

She studied at ‘Orange Hill School for Girls’ in Golders Green.

As the ‘Second World War’ broke in 1939, her family was evacuated to Winscombe, a village in North Somerset, where her father taught at the ‘Sidcot School’ for a while. During this time, little Simmons used to accompany her elder sister and sing songs at the village stage.

During 1944-45 she worked in several other British films doing small roles including the most expensive British Technicolor film of that time, ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ (1945), directed and produced by Gabriel Pascal. Pascal signed Simmons to a seven year contract.

Her next prominent portrayal was that of Estela in the film ‘Great Expectations’ directed by David Lean. The film based on a novel by Charles Dickens was released on December 26, 1946. According to her, this film changed her perception about filming, which till such time was only ‘fun and games’ for her, and from that time onwards she seriously contemplated taking up acting as a career.

After seeing her performance as Estela, Laurence Olivier resolved to cast her as Ophelia in his film ‘Hamlet’ (1948) and requested ‘Rank Organisation’, with whom she was contract-bound, to allot thirty days of her time, which they granted. The film brought her into limelight earning her international stardom and also fetched her first ‘Academy Awards’ nomination. After the film was released in the US, she was featured on the cover of ‘Time’ magazine.

Her other notable performances during this period includes films like ‘Black Narcissus’ and ‘Uncle Silas’ in 1947; and ‘The Blue Lagoon’ and ‘Adam and Evelyne’ in 1949.

Although Laurence Olivier extended her the scope to work and study at the British theatre company ‘Bristol Old Vic’, ‘Rank Organisation’ with whom she was contract-bound disapproved the idea.

Simmons, who herself faced challenges and fought her own battle with alcohol addiction, never shied away from speaking publicly about her own ordeal due to the addiction. In 2003, she became a patron of ‘Release’, a British drug and human rights charity and the oldest independent drugs charity in the world.

She signed a petition in 2005 addressed to the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealing not to upgrade cannabis or marijuana from a class C drug to a class B one.