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Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE (31 January 1929 – 22 January 2010) was a British actress.〔Jean Simmons obituary, ''Los Angeles Times'', 23 January 2010 ().〕〔Obituary ''The Independent'', 26 January 2010 (jean simmons actress who dazzled )〕 One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets", she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Great Britain during and after the Second World War, followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950 onwards. ==Early life and career== Simmons was born in Lower Holloway, London, to Charles Simmons, a bronze medalist in gymnastics at the 1912 Summer Olympics, and his wife, Winifred (née Loveland) Simmons. Jean was the youngest of four children with siblings Edna, Harold and Lorna. She began acting at the age of 14.〔 〕 During the Second World War, the Simmons family was evacuated to Winscombe, Somerset.〔"Are They Being Fair To Jean Simmons?", ''Picturegoer'', 2 August 1947.〕 Her father, a physical education teacher,〔Per Gloria Hunniford in ''Sunday, Sunday'' television interview LWT, Autumn 1985〕 taught briefly at Sidcot School, and some time during this period Simmons followed her elder sister on to the village stage and sang songs such as "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow". Returning to London and just enrolled at the Aida Foster School of Dance, Simmons was spotted by the director Val Guest, who cast her in the Margaret Lockwood vehicle ''Give Us the Moon''.〔''So You Want to be in Pictures?'' by Val Guest, p. 58; ISBN 1-90311-115-3〕 Small roles in several other films followed including the high profile ''Caesar and Cleopatra'', produced by Gabriel Pascal. Pascal saw potential in Simmons and in 1945 he signed her to a seven-year contract. Prior to moving to Hollywood, she played the young Estella in David Lean's version of ''Great Expectations'' (1946) and Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's ''Hamlet'' (1948), for which she received her first Oscar nomination. She played an Indian girl in the Powell-Pressburger film ''Black Narcissus'' (1947).〔(Biography ), reelclassics.com; accessed 24 April 2014.〕 It was the experience of working on ''Great Expectations'' that caused her to pursue an acting career more seriously: Playing Ophelia to Olivier's ''Hamlet'' made her a star while still in her teens, although she was already well known for her work in other British films, including her first starring role in the film adaptation of ''Uncle Silas'', and ''Black Narcissus'' (both 1947). Olivier offered her the chance to work and study at the Bristol Old Vic, advising her to play anything they threw at her to get experience; she was under contract to the Rank Organisation who vetoed the idea. In 1949 Simmons starred with Stewart Granger in ''Adam and Evelyne''. In 1950 she was voted the fourth most popular star in Britain. In 1951 Rank sold her contract to Howard Hughes,〔Howard Hughes, The Untold story, Peter Brown, Pat Broeske, p.241 Sphere 2005〕 who then owned the RKO Pictures.〔The Guardian, interview with Peter Lennon, November 1999 ()〕 In 1950 she married Stewart Granger, with whom she appeared in several films, and the transition to an American career began. She made four films for Hughes, including ''Angel Face'', directed by Otto Preminger. According to David Thomson "if she had made only one film – ''Angel Face'' – she might now be spoken of with the awe given to Louise Brooks." A court case freed her from the contract with Hughes in 1952.〔 In 1953 she starred alongside Spencer Tracy in ''The Actress'', a film that was one of her personal favourites. Among the many films she appeared in during this period were ''The Robe'' (1953), ''Young Bess'' (1953), ''Désirée'' (1954), ''The Egyptian'' (1954), ''Guys and Dolls'' (1955), ''The Big Country '' (1958), ''Elmer Gantry'' (1960), (directed by her second husband, Richard Brooks), ''Spartacus'' (1960), ''All the Way Home'' (1963) and ''The Happy Ending'' (1969), for which she received her second Oscar nomination. In the opinion of film critic Philip French, ''Home Before Dark'' (1958) saw her give '"perhaps her finest performance as a housewife driven into a breakdown in Mervyn LeRoy's psychodrama"''. By the 1970s Simmons turned her focus to stage and television acting. She toured the United States in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'', then took the show to London, and thus originated the role of Desirée Armfeldt in the West End. Performing in the show for three years, she said she never tired of Sondheim's music; "No matter how tired or ''off'' you felt, the music would just pick you up."〔(Sondheim Guide – A Little Night Music ); accessed 24 April 2014.〕 She portrayed Fiona "Fee" Cleary, the Cleary family matriarch, in the 1983 mini-series, ''The Thorn Birds''; she won an Emmy Award for her role. In 1985-86 she appeared in ''North and South'', again playing the role of the family matriarch as Clarissa Main. In 1988 she starred in ''The Dawning'' with Anthony Hopkins and Hugh Grant, and in 1989 she appeared in a remake of ''Great Expectations'', in which she played the role of Miss Havisham, Estella's adoptive mother.〔 She made a late career appearance in the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode "The Drumhead" (1991) as a retired Starfleet admiral and hardened legal investigator who conducts a witch-hunt. In 1991 she appeared in the short-lived revival of the 1960s daytime series ''Dark Shadows'', in roles originally played by Joan Bennett. From 1994 until 1998 Simmons narrated the A&E documentary television series, ''Mysteries of the Bible''. In 2004 Simmons voiced the lead-role of Sophie in the English dub of ''Howl's Moving Castle''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Jean Simmons」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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