Biography
Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE was an English actress. She appeared predominantly in motion pictures, beginning with films made in Great Britain during and after World War II – she was one of J. Arthur Rank's 'well-spoken young starlets' – followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Discovering Hamlet
2011
as Ophelia (archive footage)
Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great trag...

Shadows in the Sun
2009
as Hannah
A mysterious young loner changes the lives of one family and helps them rediscover their roots and deep affection for one another.

Winter Solstice
2003
as Countess Lucinda Rhives
When Elfrida Philips abandons London for a country village, she settles in quickly. She is very poor, but has a tiny cottage, her four-legged friend H...

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
2001
as Council Member (voice)
Led by a strange dream, scientist Aki Ross struggles to collect the eight spirits in the hope of creating a force powerful enough to protect the plane...

On Cukor
2000
as Narrator
Widely thought of as “a woman’s director,” legendary film director George Cukor is profiled with the use of film clips and interviews with his friends...
Her Own Rules
1998
as Katherine Stratton
Melissa Gilbert stars as Marygold/Meredith. A sad and lonely writer returning to her home town in England for the first time since she was about 6 or ...

Daisies in December
1995
as Katherine Palmer
A seaside hotel for senior citizens is the setting for late-season love as costars Jean Simmons and Joss Ackland meet and make a match in this romanti...

How to Make an American Quilt
1995
as Em
Soon-to-be-wed graduate student Finn Dodd develops cold feet when she suspects her fiancé is cheating on her. In order to clear her head, Finn visits ...

Miss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors
1991
as Carrie-Louise Serrocold
At the insistence of Ruth Van Rydock, an old schoolfriend who is convinced that there is something wrong, Miss Marple agrees to visit 'Stonygates', th...

People Like Us
1990
as Peach Prindible Bailey
When a wealthy scriptwriter and socialite's daughter is murdered, he feels let down by the courts, and so decides to use his powerful position to enab...

Laker Girls
1990
as Connie Harrison
Three hopefuls — a college grad, a dance teacher from Watts, and an incognito heiress — vie for a spot on the Los Angeles Lakers cheerleading team.

Sensibility and Sense
1990
as Older Elinor
Three friends who bonded over their radical beliefs in the 1930s reunite after becoming estranged over a book one of them wrote.

A Friendship in Vienna
1988
as Narrator (voice)
Inge Dournenvald and Lise Mueller are best friends in pre-WW2 Austria, despite the fact that Inge is Jewish and Lise is the daughter of a Nazi sympath...

Going Undercover
1988
as Maxine de la Hunt
Forever bungling private investigator Henry Brilliant has been hired by Maxine de la Hunt to protect her step-daughter Marigold during her trip to Den...

The Dawning
1988
as Aunt Mary
An IRA gunman on the run from the government meets an idealistic young woman and attempts to win her support for his cause.

Inherit the Wind
1988
as Lucy Brady
Based on a real-life case in 1925, two great lawyers argue the case for and against a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.

Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love
1987
as Laura Robertson
Perry must defend the husband of an old flame from a murder charge.

Midas Valley
1985
as Molly Hammond
Set in Silicon Valley, California, follows the lives of a group of people involved in the competitive world of computer electronics and the greed, pas...
The Golden Gong: The Story of Rank Films - British Cinema's Legendary Studio
1985
as Self
Documentary - After starting his career producing religious film shorts, J. Arthur Rank went on to become Britain's first and only movie mogul with hi...

December Flower
1984
as Etta Marsh
Newly widowed Etta visits her beloved Aunt M and discovers her bedridden and listless. Etta's struggle to restore her aunt's dignity and cheer brings ...

Down at the Hydro
1983
as Diedre
Diedre and The Colonel separately attend a health spa and find themselves falling in love.

A Moment in Time
1983
as Deidre Mackay
Colonel Hunt is a widower in his 60s. It is in search of health, not romance, that he books in for a week at the Elm Park Hydro and submits himself to...

A Small Killing
1981
as Margaret Lawrence
A college professor is recruited by an undercover cop to pose as a bag lady to track down a drug connection following the brutal killing of a skid row...

Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls
1981
as Helen Lawson
Updated version of the Jacqueline Susann best selling 1960's novel shows the lives of three very different women who come to New York City to achieve ...

Golden Gate
1981
as Jane Kingsley
A venerable San Francisco publishing family becomes embroiled in a bitter power struggle between the iron-fisted, but ailing, patriarch's son and a ru...

Dominique
1980
as Dominique Ballard
The wife of a greedy man comes back to haunt him after he scares her to death.

Beggarman, Thief
1979
as Gretchen Jordache Burke
In this sequel to "Rich Man, Poor Man," moviemaker Gretchen Jordache, the until-now unseen sister, strives to pull the family together after the murde...

Mr. Sycamore
1975
as Estelle Benbow
Jason Robards is a man who decides he'd rather be a tree.

The Easter Promise
1975
as Constance Payne
Addie and her friends are excited over the visit of a celebrity, a local woman who became a successful Broadway actress and has returned home for a sh...

Decisions! Decisions!
1971
as Phoebe Masterson
A salesman and a sexologist have misadventures with plot development determined by the votes of the studio audience.

Say Hello to Yesterday
1971
as Woman
Approaching middle-age and stuck in an unfulfilled marriage, a suburban British housewife allows herself a sexual fling with a brash young hunk she me...

The Happy Ending
1969
as Mary Wilson
When Fred asked for Mary's hand in marriage, she thought she had the happy ending she only read about in fairy tales. Now it's 16 years later; Fred ha...

Heidi
1968
as Frl. Rottenmeier
Heidi is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland. In order to get a job in Frankfurt, Dete brings 5-year-old Heid...

Rough Night in Jericho
1967
as Molly Lang
The only business in the Wild West town of Jericho that corrupt sheriff Alex Flood doesn't control behind the scenes is the stagecoach owned by tough-...

Divorce American Style
1967
as Nancy Downes
After 17 years of marriage in American suburbia, Richard and Barbara Harmon step into the new world of divorce.

Soldier in Love
1967
as Sarah Jennings
The story of the Churchills in the court of Queen Anne.

Mister Buddwing
1966
as The Blonde
An amnesiac wanders the streets of Manhattan, trying to solve the mystery of who he is.

Life at the Top
1965
as Susan Lampton
Successful businessman Joe Lampton is married to the wealthy Susan, has two children, and lives in the mill town of Warley in northern England. But hi...

All the Way Home
1963
as Mary Follet
In the early 1900's Tennessee, a loving family undergoes the shock of the father's sudden, accidental death. The widow and her young son must endure t...

The Grass Is Greener
1960
as Hattie Durant
Victor and Hillary are down on their luck to the point that they allow tourists to take guided tours of their castle. But Charles Delacro, a millionai...

Spartacus
1960
as Varinia
The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena,...

Elmer Gantry
1960
as Sister Sharon Falconer
A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside evangelist to sell religion to 1920s America. Based...

This Earth Is Mine
1959
as Elizabeth Rambeau
Set during the Prohibition era, when wine makers were financially challenged and had to decide whether or not they wanted to cooperate with bootlegger...

Home Before Dark
1958
as Charlotte Bronn
A young woman returns home after being institutionalized in a mental hospital.

The Big Country
1958
as Julie Maragon
Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the Old West, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between his future father-in-law, Major Terrill, a...

Fun in the Big Country
1958
as Self (narrator)
Behind-the-scenes look during the filming of William Wyler's 1958 western, "The Big Country."

Until They Sail
1957
as Barbara Leslie Forbes
Four sisters in New Zealand fall for soldiers en route to the Pacific theater in WWII.

This Could Be the Night
1957
as Anne Leeds
To earn extra money, a prim schoolteacher takes a second job as secretary to the uncouth owner of a boisterous nightclub.

Hilda Crane
1956
as Hilda Crane Burns
After two failed marriages, a disillusioned woman returns to her hometown to start life anew.

Guys and Dolls
1955
as Sarah Brown
Gambler Nathan Detroit has few options for the location of his big craps game. Needing $1,000 to pay a garage owner to host the game, Nathan bets Sky ...

Footsteps in the Fog
1955
as Lily Watkins
A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid who discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.

Désirée
1954
as Desiree Clary
In Marseilles, France in 1794, Desiree Clary, a young millinery clerk, becomes infatuated with Napoleon Bonaparte, but winds up wedding Genaral Jean-B...

A Bullet Is Waiting
1954
as Cally Canham
A plane carrying a sheriff and a man indicted for manslaughter is wrecked on a lonely California beach and the prisoner manages to escape, after a str...

The Egyptian
1954
as Merit
In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new ...

She Couldn't Say No
1954
as Corby Lane (Corby Johnson)
An heiress decides to pass out anonymous gifts in a small town.

The Actress
1953
as Ruth Gordon Jones
The true story of Ruth Gordon's early struggles on the road to stage stardom.

The Robe
1953
as Diana
Drunk and disillusioned Roman, Marcellus Gallio, wins Jesus' robe in a dice game after the crucifixion. Marcellus has never been a man of faith like h...

Affair with a Stranger
1953
as Carolyn Parker
Depicts the rocky marriage of a young model and her Broadway playwright-husband.

Young Bess
1953
as Young Bess (Queen Elizabeth I)
The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch -- the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Je...

Angel Face
1953
as Diane Tremayne Jessup
Ambulance driver Frank Jessup is ensnared in the schemes of the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne.

Androcles and the Lion
1952
as Lavinina
George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared...

The Clouded Yellow
1950
as Sophie Malraux
After leaving the British Secret Service, David Somers (played by Trevor Howard) finds work cataloging butterflies at the country house of Nicholas an...

Cage of Gold
1950
as Judith
The love that Judy, a young painter, feels for Alan, a promising doctor to whom she is engaged, falters when Bill, an old friend, suddenly appears.

Trio
1950
as Evie Bishop (segment Sanatorium)
W. Somerset Maugham introduces three more of his stories about human foibles.

So Long at the Fair
1950
as Vicky Barton
Vicky Barton and her brother Johnny travel from Naples to visit the 1889 Paris Exhibition. They both sleep in seperate rooms in their hotel. When the ...

Adam and Evelyne
1949
as Evelyne Wallace
A handsome gambler unwittingly becomes guardian of an orphaned, teenaged girl.

The Blue Lagoon
1949
as Emmeline Foster
In the Victorian period, two British children survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific. After days afloat, they are marooned on a lush tropical island...

Hamlet
1948
as Ophelia
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Sha...

The Woman in the Hall
1947
as Jay Blake
Lorna Blake, (Ursula Jeans) is a widow with two daughters. She augments her slender income by using her children to extort money - visiting the houses...

Uncle Silas
1947
as Caroline Ruthyn
Following her father's death, a teenage heiress moves in with her guardian uncle who is broke and schemes to murder his niece for her vast inheritance...

Black Narcissus
1947
as Kanchi
A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. The climate in the region is hostile and the nuns are housed...

Hungry Hill
1947
as Jane Brodrick
Life becomes a tragedy for the wife of an Irish heir to a 19th-century family feud and fortune.

Great Expectations
1946
as Young Estella
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman....

Caesar and Cleopatra
1945
as Harpist (uncredited)
The aging Caesar finds himself intrigued by the young Egyptian queen. Adapted by George Bernard Shaw from his own play.

The Way to the Stars
1945
as A Singer
Life on a British bomber base, and the surrounding towns, from the opening days of the Battle of Britain, to the arrival of the Americans, who join in...

Meet Sexton Blake
1945
as Eva Watkins
The famous detective and his trusty side-kick, Tinker, are called in by the War Office to find some important papers that were stolen from a man kille...

Kiss the Bride Goodbye
1945
as Molly Dodd
Working-class girl Joan Dodd's plan to marry Jack Fowler is thwarted when her mother Gladys interferes. Hoping to improve her daughter's social status...

Mr. Emmanuel
1944
as Sally Cooper
An elderly Jewish man from Manchester, travels to Nazi Germany to seek the mother of a young German refugee that has attempted suicide. In Germany, Mr...

Give Us the Moon
1944
as Heidi
Set just after the end of WWII (but filmed in the middle of it) in a time of general euphoria at having won the war, with full employment and general ...