The late actor was celebrated for her beauty and talent, but she had a streak of mischief that made her unforgettable
Jean Simmons was only 12 years older than me, and as I grew up I cut out a lot of pictures of her from magazines like Picturegoer and the Sunday papers. Can you credit that in those days – the late 40s and the early 50s – there were Sunday papers in Britain (such as the Pictorial, the Graphic, the Dispatch) that ran pictures of pretty movie stars in their underwear or swimsuits?
Well, Jean was pretty; I believe the captions also added that she was "saucy" (and I supposed they knew). The big picture for Jean's fans, who had scissors and a scrapbook ready, was The Blue Lagoon. That was 1949, and it had Jean and Donald Houston washed up on a desert island, doing their best for clothes and falling in love.
Jean Simmons was only 12 years older than me, and as I grew up I cut out a lot of pictures of her from magazines like Picturegoer and the Sunday papers. Can you credit that in those days – the late 40s and the early 50s – there were Sunday papers in Britain (such as the Pictorial, the Graphic, the Dispatch) that ran pictures of pretty movie stars in their underwear or swimsuits?
Well, Jean was pretty; I believe the captions also added that she was "saucy" (and I supposed they knew). The big picture for Jean's fans, who had scissors and a scrapbook ready, was The Blue Lagoon. That was 1949, and it had Jean and Donald Houston washed up on a desert island, doing their best for clothes and falling in love.
- 1/27/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
British-born film star known for her roles in Great Expectations and Spartacus
Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, had a bounteous moment, early in her career, when she seemed the likely casting for every exotic or magical female role. It passed, as she got out of her teens, but then for the best part of 15 years, in Britain and America, she was a valued actress whose generally proper, if not patrician, manner had an intriguing way of conflicting with her large, saucy eyes and a mouth that began to turn up at the corners as she imagined mischief – or more than her movies had in their scripts. Even in the age of Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, she was an authentic beauty. And there were always hints that the lady might be very sexy. But nothing worked out smoothly, and it is somehow typical of Simmons that her most astonishing...
Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, had a bounteous moment, early in her career, when she seemed the likely casting for every exotic or magical female role. It passed, as she got out of her teens, but then for the best part of 15 years, in Britain and America, she was a valued actress whose generally proper, if not patrician, manner had an intriguing way of conflicting with her large, saucy eyes and a mouth that began to turn up at the corners as she imagined mischief – or more than her movies had in their scripts. Even in the age of Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, she was an authentic beauty. And there were always hints that the lady might be very sexy. But nothing worked out smoothly, and it is somehow typical of Simmons that her most astonishing...
- 1/24/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
Actress Jean Simmons has died from cancer at age 80. Simmons began acting in the mid-1940s and won acclaim for her performance as Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's Oscar-winning screen version of Hamlet in 1948. Major roles followed in films such as The Blue Lagoon, The Robe, Guys and Dolls, The Big Country, Spartacus, Elmer Gantry and The Happy Ending. By the late 1960s, however, the major roles in big screen productions stopped coming her way, although she did continue to act (often in independent films) up until last year.In the 1980s, she won an Emmy for her performance in the hit TV mini-series The Thorn Birds. Simmons had been married to Stewart Granger, and later to director Richard Brooks. For more click here...
- 1/23/2010
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
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