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January 26, 2010
Jean Simmons, 1929 – 2010
Jean Simmons
There are movie stars who who are movie stars because of the longevity of their careers, the high quality of their work, the charisma they project. I recognize the greatness of, say, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford without feeling any particular affection for these actresses. Their craft, their tenacity, and their ability to survive and thrive in Hollywood—a town of smiling cannibals—evokes my deepest admiration.
And then there are stars who have touched me in a way that is so profoundly personal that, when they pass away, I actually feel as if I have lost a central portion of myself.
I was just a child when I first saw Jean Simmons in David Lean's superb Great Expectations, (1946). As Young Estella, Simmons is coolly cruel and lovingly destructive to the orphan Pip. Simmons perfectly embodied Miss Havisham's monstrous creation. I loved and hated Estella/Simmons.
Simmons was just fifteen-years old when she appeared as Estella. As Pip observes, she is very proud, very pretty and very insulting.
After seeing Great Expectations, I made it my business to watch every movie in which Jean Simmons appeared. It was the beginning of my love affair with Hollywood stars. Or rather their shadows. As I soon learned as a screenwriter, Hollywood stars are just like you and me—only richer and crazier.
Angel Face (1952), paired a grown up Simmons with tough guy Robert Mitchum. Once again, Simmons plays a beautiful monster, a woman with serious daddy issues. It might be Simmons greatest performance. Even as she weaves her web of destruction, we glimpse a vulnerability that is heart-breaking. This was Simmons greatest asset, her ability to project warmth and yearning through that aloof mask of symmetrical beauty.
Here's a clip from Angel Face. The entire film is posted on youtube. Watch and listen. Simmons has a beautiful speaking voice, crisp and clear as a diamond.
In The Actress (1953) Simmons portrays a small town girl who yearns to move to New York to be an actress. Simmons is in pigtails and pinafores, light years away from the calculating femme fatale of Angel Face, and she perfectly embodies a dreamy young girl who yearns to escape her dreary life. It's a fresh and lively performance that was a mirror of my desire to escape Brooklyn and go to Hollywood.
In Elmer Gantry (1960) Simmons plays Sister Sharon Falconer, an evangelical preacher who travels through rural America. This is, perhaps, my favorite Simmons movie. Her religious convictions run deep and true, yet when she falls in love with the fast talking Elmer Gantry, Burt Lancaster, a charming huckster, her faith is sorely tested. Simmons is no saint, and she doesn't play it as such. Instead she endows Sister Sharon with a steely innocence that, eventually, leads to Gantry's moral awakening. It's a subtle, restrained performance, a great performance that should have been nominated for an Oscar.
in this clip from Elmer Gantry, Jean Simmons makes her appearance at about the four minute mark.
As Varinia, the beautiful slave girl in Spartacus (1960), Simmons loves Kirk Douglas with such depth that in the end, when she holds up her infant child for the crucified Spartacus to behold, I actually fell apart in the movie theater. Thick tears rolled down my cheeks, and I understood, perhaps for the first time, the emotional power of movies.
Here's the last scene from Spartacus. Watch and weep. The score, by the great Alex North, is one of the finest ever composed.
I've always thought of my wife Karen, as my very own Jean Simmons; the same regal bearing, penetrating eyes, ink black hair, tiny waist, and a cool, ferocious intelligence that masks a universe of deeply felt emotions.
Born in England, Simmons became an American citizen. She was married and divorced twice, to actor Stewart Granger (1950-1960) and director Richard Brooks (1960-1977). Both men were quite a bit older than Simmons and both were, ah, quite controlling. She had two daughters, one from each marriage. Simmons was an alcoholic and spent time in rehab.
In 1965, on the set of Life at the Top, Simmons was interviewed by photo journalist Eve Arnold. At age 36, Simmons was in a reflective mood, acutely aware that she was approaching that point in her career where starring roles dried up for aging beauties:
I cannot help but constantly think about that age thing. At thirty you start thinking about being forty, and pushing age. I hope to get over it soon, and then get on with it. I don't know what it is, but in this country, it is as though it is a crime to grow old. As though everybody isn't doing it. Or maybe it is just this business.
Jean Simmons passed away from lung cancer, age 80, on Friday January 22, in Santa Monica, surrounded by family.
Thank you for all your hard and beautiful work.
Rest in Peace.
For more articulate and touching Jean Simmons memorials please visit:
John Nolte at Big Hollywood.
Dan Callahan at Slant Magazine.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at January 26, 2010 08:54 AM
Comments
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I'm still a fledgling fan of classic film, so the only one of these I've seen is The Actress...but she was so wonderful in it - a beautiful portrayal of the impetuousness and longing of a woman-child ready to start her own life.
May she rest well and know she was loved.
Posted by: Jennifer at January 26, 2010 01:02 PM
I first became aware of Jean in The Big Country. She was the schoolmarm with the piercing blue eyes and the jet black hair.
Gregory Peck came out west to marry Carrol Baker's character and soon realized that she was a "daddy's girl" and spoiled. Jean was always there.
I think - what initially drew her to me was her perceived inner character - so strong - in addition to her beauty.
Peck's character had to choose between Simmon's character and Baker's character - no contest!
At the end of the film - after Peck comes to rescue her from the clutches of Burl Ives' character - she is looking longingly at him as he does with her.
In her other movies she still displays - THE LOOK. How could any man resist that?
At the end of the film, they are riding off together.
Sigh.
That she never received an Academy Award was a travesty.
Posted by: Bill Brandt at January 26, 2010 02:44 PM
Jennifer:
Yes, The Actress is a wonderful film. It was written by Ruth Gordon, and is, basically, her personal odyssey.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at January 26, 2010 07:07 PM
Bill:
Thanks so much for writing about The Big Country. Simmons is, indeed, wonderful in this fine film. Her performance is restrained and finely shaded. Her work is a perfect counterpoint to the much bigger and more theatrical Gregory Peck, who has a tendency to chew the scenery to shreds.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at January 26, 2010 07:10 PM
Ah, Jean Simmons. I fell for her too after seeing 'Great Expectations.' By the time I discovered the film, she was already older than I am now, but that didn't matter; she would always be Estella to me. But, what was really impressive was how well she could reinvent herself as she aged and improved. So many great films: Black Narcissus (1947), Hamlet (1948), Guys and Dolls (1955). She deserved better, I think from Hollywood, which all but jettisoned her (like so many other great actresses) at 30, over the hill, shipped off to television. She managed a few more great roles but her heyday was clearly over after The Grass Is Greener (1960). Such a shame that now that she's gone, her body of work is all but forgotten by today's movie-going audience, far more interested in vampires and apocalyptic special effects extravaganzas than thoughtful, well-acted dramas. Excuse me now while I pop Great Expectations into the DVD player.
Posted by: Morey Altman at January 27, 2010 01:48 AM
Remember the scene in THE BIG COUNTRY where Jean Simmons and Gregory Peck are grossing each other out with horror stories, his about a sailor eaten by sharks and hers about some Indians who buried settlers, survivors of a massacre, in RED ant hills? When I watched THE BIG COUNTRY on TV, I turned off the sound during that scene.
I didn't care for the end of SPARTICUS. It was, as my father, of blessed memory said, corn soufle.
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at January 27, 2010 02:15 AM
She was wonderful in Spartacus. And she was a great beauty.
Posted by: Alice at January 27, 2010 01:29 PM
Miss Havisham: Come close. Look at me. You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the sun since you were born.
Pip: Umm, no?
Love that scene.
Posted by: Alice at January 27, 2010 01:38 PM
Jean Simmons had a graceful, regal, quality that is rarely seen anymore. I'm surprised no one mentioned "Guys and Dolls?" I thought she was amazing in that movie.
She truly was a Movie Star! They don't make them like her anymore.
I can't believe she is only 7 years older than I am! When my friends and I watched her movies during our teen years, we never dreamed she was so close to us age wise.
Posted by: JoJean at January 27, 2010 06:05 PM
“Kiss The Bride Goodbye”
Written in memory of
Jean Simmons
(using all her film titles)
“The Clouded Yellow” “Hamlet” upon “Hungry Hill”
Awaits “The Woman In The Hall” to act and to thrill
“A Bullet Is Waiting” in every word she makes swoon
As she dances, in “Trio”, upon “The Blue Lagoon”
Yes, “Desiree” or Sister Sharon or “Young Bess” would know
That “Heidi” or “Hilda Crane” would like one more show
Cause this great actress “She Couldn’t Say No”
But I think her final words would be, let’s get on with the show
And she’d say...
I hear “Footsteps In The Fog” let’s get “Home Before Dark”
The “Guys and Dolls” are dancing there in the park
You Know, “The Grass Is Greener” “All The Way Home”
And that “Rough Night In Jericho” we’ll leave it alone
Because “Life At The Top” may “Give Us The Moon”
But that “Cage Of Gold” makes “Angels Fall” much too soon
Know “In The Heat Of The Night” there are “People Like Us”
“The Beggar Man, Thief” “The Odd Couple” we love
Yes, we think times forever “Until They Sail”
But “This Could Be The Night” - and we’re gone - because life is so frail
Now there’s “One More Mountain” showing “The Way To The Stars”
“The Actress” takes “The Robe” for her final part
Yes in the “Midas Valley” my “Angel Face” shines
With “Great Expectations” I rise and I rise
“Say Hello To Yesterday” and remembering the lines
At “The Golden Gate” “Kiss The Bride Goodbye”
But I wonder, is there a comeback on “The Big Country” side?
Remember, old actresses never die. They just change roles!
In Lasting Memory,
Eric Sander Kingston & Family
Posted by: Eric Sander Kingston at January 28, 2010 09:10 PM
All that, and she still found time to play bass for KISS. What a trouper!
Posted by: Earl at January 28, 2010 11:20 PM
How about her work as DESIREE opposite Brando's Napoleon.
I was 14 when I saw her as DESIREE, my favorite film for different reasons. After seeing her die, in HAMLET, ANGELFACE, THE ROBE and THE EGYPTIAN I was overjoyed that she MADE IT alive through the film.So I did not have use my sleeves to wipe away my tears........of course I was extremely jealous watching Brando kissing her with such pleasure.... I envied him!!
Jean mi amor....this German will never forget you for as long as I live. Rest in peace...
Auf wiedersehen.....and I hope we will!!
Posted by: christian Simmons at January 29, 2010 01:03 PM
This piece is also a wonderful tribute to the elegance of soul in the man who wrote it. Thank you, Robert.
Posted by: David Yeagley at January 31, 2010 07:16 PM