Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE (born 31 January 1929) is an English actress. Simmons was named an Officer in the Order of the British Empire in 2003.
Born in Lower Holloway, London, England, to Charles Simmons and his wife Winifred (Loveland) Simmons, Jean Simmons began acting at the age of 14. During WWII, the Simmons family had been evacuated to Winscombe in Somerset. Her father, a physical education teacher (who had represented Great Britain in the...
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Jean Merilyn Simmons, OBE (born 31 January 1929) is an English actress. Simmons was named an Officer in the Order of the British Empire in 2003.
Born in Lower Holloway, London, England, to Charles Simmons and his wife Winifred (Loveland) Simmons, Jean Simmons began acting at the age of 14. During WWII, the Simmons family had been evacuated to Winscombe in Somerset. Her father, a physical education teacher (who had represented Great Britain in the 1912 Summer Olympics), taught briefly at Sidcot School, and sometime during this period Jean followed her older sister on to the village stage and sang songs like 'Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow'. Returning to London and just enrolled at the Aida Foster School of Dance, she was talent-spotted by the director Val Guest, who cast her in the Margaret Lockwood vehicle Give us the Moon. 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)....
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