Jean Simmons, the demure British beauty was born January 31, 1929, in Crouch End, London. A 14 year old dance student plucked from her school to play Margaret Lockwood's precocious sister in Give Us the Moon (1944), Simmons went on to make a name for herself in such major British productions as Caesar and Cleopatra (1946), Great Expectations (also 1946, as the spoiled, selfish Estella), Black Narcissus (also 1946, as a sultry native beauty), Hamlet (1948, playing Ophelia to Laurence Olivier's great Dane and earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination), The Blue Lagoon (1949), and So Long at the Fair (1950), among others.

In 1950, Jean married actor Stewart Granger and that same year starred in the Sinatra musical "Guys and Dolls" (1955); Jean used her own singing voice and earned her first Golden Globe Award. Simmons divorced Granger in 1960, and almost immediately married writer-director Richard Brooks, who cast her as Sister Sharon opposite Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry (1960), a memorable adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel. That same year she costarred with Kirk Douglas in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus and played a would-be home-wrecker opposite Cary Grant in The Grass Is Greener.

Off the screen for a few years, she captivated moviegoers with a brilliant performance as the mother in All the Way Home (1963), a literate, tasteful adaptation of James Agee's "A Death in the Family." After that, however, she found quality projects somewhat harder to come by. Life at the Top (1965), Mister Buddwing (1966), Divorce American Style, Rough Night in Jericho (both 1967), The Happy Ending (1969, a Richard Brooks film for which she was again Oscar-nominated, this time as Best Actress)

Jean continued making films well into the 1970s. In the 1980s she mainly appeared in TV mini-series, such as "North and South" and "The Thorn Birds." Jean made a comeback to films in 1995 in "How to Make an American Quilt" co-starring Winona Ryder and Anne Bancroft and most recently played the elderly Sophie in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Howls Moving Castle. She now resides in Santa Monica, California with her dog Mr. Gates and her 2 cats Adisson and Megan.
Daughter, with Richard Brooks, Kate Brooks. Turned down the role of Jean Pargetter in the British TV series As Time Goes By. Naturalized U.S. citizen. Becoming depressed at the lack of quality parts being offered her, Jean became addicted to alcohol. In 1986, she sought professional treatment. Jean was made an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for services to acting in the 2003 New Year Honours List. Played Desiree Armfeldt singing "Send In the Clowns" in the London production of "A Little Night Music" in 1975. It ran for two years. In America from the early 50s, Jean found out that RKO head Howard Hughes had purchased the remaining six months of her Rank Studio contract. When Hughes claimed that an oral agreement with Rank precluded her from being loaned out to any other studio, she sued RKO. The legal battle raged for over a year. When the suit was finally settled, RKO had a three-year contract for Jean's services but was obligated to pay Jean $250,000 in addition to her legal fees. Furthermore, Jean won the right to work on loan to other studios at a substantial salary. In 1958, she accepted the Oscar for "Best Actor in a Leading Role" on behalf of Alec Guinness, who wasn't present at the awards ceremony Even before her American debut, she was revered and beloved by both the British critics and film goers. By the end of 1950, she was the No. 4 box office attraction, American or British, in British cinema.