Saturday, January 23, 2010

Goodbye, Jean Simmons...I was a fan. Rest in peace.

6 comments:

cube said...

We are losing all greats.

Z said...

sometimes it feels like we're losing everything, cube, my friend.

Anonymous said...

Jean Simmons will remain one of my favorite movie actresses. I'm surprised she was only 80, because she's had a career that reaches back into the 1940's. She played the young Estella (the strange, embittered Miss Havisham's ward) in Great Expectations. Valerie Hobson played Estella all grown up in the same film. Alec Guiness was also in that film.

Simmons was beautiful, highly aristocratic in the manner that Audrey Hepburn was aristocratic. The voice and diction off both women were exceptional -- just beautiful to hear. Dear Audrey only lived to age 63, as you may recall.

In her maturity Jean Simmons further distinguished herself in the television serialization of The Thorn Birds playing opposite Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Chamberlain, and other notables. She also did a magnificent job on the narration along with Richard Kiley for a distinguished series on The Bible for PBS.

Jean Simmons could play anything from drawing room comedy, musical comedy, melodrama to Shakespeare, Ibsen, Shaw and Oscar Wilde with equal aplomb.

I'm sorry she has died, but few could claim to have lived such a wonderfully fulfilled existence.

God bless you, Jean, we shall miss you, but you will live forever in the distinguished series of performances you gave -- and in our fond memories.

~ FreeThinke

Z said...

FT, she did some wonderful films..I, too, was amazed she was only 80.

Anonymous said...

I'm sad to see her gone as well. Wasn't she married to Stewart Granger at one time?

She was a lovely woman.

Pris

Anonymous said...

Well, if I had read the article first I would have been sure she was married to Granger.

Pris