Simmons began acting spell however inside her teens. Her number one major film was Great Expectations, in which she played a immature Estella. Inside 1948, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Ophelia around Hamlet, opposite Laurence Olivier.

Within 1950, she married the British actor, Stewart Granger, with whom she appeared within many films, with success making a transition to Hollywood. Among her right-known leading roles come Guys and Dolls (1955), Elmer Gantry (directed by her second hubby, Richard Brooks) and Spartacus, and The Happy Ending, again directed by Brooks & for which she received her 2nd Oscar nomination.

Per 70s, her screen career had tapered off. A screen's loss was a stage & television's benefit. To glowing reviews, Simmons toured a U.S. in A Little Night Music, then took the show to London. For her appearance in the mini-series, The Thorn Birds, she won an Emmy Award. Within 1989, she agawithin starred in the miniseries version of Great Expectations, where she performed a role of Miss Havisham, Estella's adoptive mother, besides when inside 1985 and 1986 in North & South.

She was married twice: 1) Stewart Granger (1950-1960); (one tyke) 2) Richard Brooks (1960-1977); (one girl Kate Brooks)

Filmography
Sports Day (1944) Give Us the Moon (1944) Mr. Emmanuel (1944) Kiss the Bride Goodbye (1945) Meet Sexton Blake (1945) The Way to the Stars (1945) Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) Great Expectations (1946) The Woman in the Hall (1947) Uncle Silas (1947) Black Narcissus (1947) Hungry Hill (1947) Hamlet (1948) The Blue Lagoon (1949) Adam and Evelyne (1949) So Long at the Fair (1950) Cage of Gold (1950) Trio (1950) The Clouded Yellow (1951) Angel Face (1952) Androcles and the Lion (1952) Young Bess (1953) Affair with a Stranger (1953) The Robe (1953) The Actress (1953) ''She Couldn't Say No (1954) Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) The Egyptian (1954) A Bullet Is Waiting (1954) Desiree (1954) Footsteps in the Fog (1955) Guys and Dolls (1955) Hilda Crane (1956) This Could Be the Night (1957) Until They Sail (1957) The Big Country (1958) Home Before Dark (1958) This Earth Is Mine (1959) Elmer Gantry (1960) Spartacus (1960) The Grass Is Greener (1960) All the Way Home (1963) Life at the Top (1965) Mister Buddwing (1966) Divorce American Style (1967) Rough Night in Jericho (1967) The Happy Ending (1969) Say Hello to Yesterday (1971) Mr. Sycamore (1975) Dominique (1978) The Dawning (1988) Going Undercover (1988) Star Trek: The Next Generation (1991) They do it with Mirrors (1991) How to Make an American Quilt (1995) Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) (voice) Jean Simmons: Rose of England (2004) (documentary) Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro) (2004) (voice) Through the Moebius Strip'' (2005) (voice) (currently within post-production)