Actress. She was a leading lady who appeared in British and American motion pictures. Born Jean Merilyn Simmon, she was educated at the Aida Foster School of Dancing. Her father, Charles Simons, earned a bronze medal for Great Britain in artistic gymnastics in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, and her father died when she was sixteen. Simmons was only 15 when chosen for the role of "Heidi" in the 1944 picture "Give Us the Moon," followed by performances in "Great Expectations" in the role of "Young Estella" in 1946 and "Black Narcissus" in 1947. She was picked by Laurence Olivier for the role of "Ophelia" in the 1948 film adaptation of "Hamlet," for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1950, she married actor Stewart Granger, divorcing in 1960. She would marry director Richard Brooks later that year. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1977. She had a child with each marriage and became an American citizen in 1956. During the 1950s and 1960s, she achieved star status with an abundance of memorable roles in such popular pictures as "The Robe" in 1953, "Guys and Dolls" in 1955, "The Big Country" in 1958, "Elmer Gantry" and "Spartacus" both in 1960. She earned a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in her performance in the picture "The Happy Ending" in 1969. During the 1970s throughout the 1990s, she appeared on the small screen in numerous programs, including the 1983 mini-series "The Thorn Birds," for which she received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Special; "North and South" in 1985; and "North and South, Book II" in 1986. She received a 1989 Emmy Award nomination for her role as a guest star in one episode of the television series "Murder She Wrote." She played the role of "Elizabeth Collins Stoddard" in the short-lived 1991 version of the TV series "Dark Shadows." Her last made-for-television movie was "Winter Solstice" in 2003. She stopped smoking in 2009 while filming "Shadows in the Sun," in which she had a lead role. The next year, she died from lung cancer. She was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2003 Queen's New Year Honours List for her services to drama and was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute.