Gone With or Without fanfare

[JackFavell]

Jondaris, that was too funny! Sorry for laughing in a serious thread like this....

[Lzcutter]

For those who thought the sadness would pass with the ending of 2009, it looks, unfortunately, like it will continue through this year.

A true star, wonderful actress and, by all accounts, a gracious lady, Jean Simmons, has passed away. Perhaps she and Stewart Granger will find the eternal happiness in heaven that eluded them in real life.

From the LA Times:

Jean Simmons, a radiant British actress who as a teenager appeared opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in "Hamlet" and emerged a star whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s in such films as "Guys and Dolls, "Elmer Gantry" and "Spartacus," has died. She was 80.

Simmons, who won an Emmy Award for her role in the 1980s miniseries "The Thorn Birds," died Friday evening at her home in Santa Monica, said Judy Page, her agent. She had lung cancer.

"Jean Simmons' jaw-dropping beauty often obscured a formidable acting talent," Alan K. Rode, a writer and film historian, told The Times in an e-mail.

Plucked from a dance class by a talent scout at the age of 14, she had already made several movies before gaining attention for her portrayal of the young Estella in Sir David Lean's film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Great Expectations."

Considered one of the greatest British movies ever made, it had lasting impact on the actress, who was 17 the year it was released. Until then, movie-making had mainly been "fun and games," she later said, but she realized it could be a career.

"That's when I thought, 'Oh, yes, I think this is it,' " Simmons told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1990.

After Olivier cast her as Ophelia in his 1948 film “Hamlet,” she received the first of two Academy Award nominations. More than 20 years later, she was nominated for her searing portrayal of an alcoholic wife in "The Happy Ending."

Olivier urged the young actress to perfect her craft by acting on stage, but she chose a more romantic path -- and followed her future husband, dashing British screen idol Stewart Granger, to Hollywood.

Howard Hughes bought her film contract from a British company but nearly strangled her fledgling American career. After she became entangled in a contractual lawsuit with Hughes, then head of RKO Studios, he prevented her from appearing in many meaningful roles until the suit was settled.

"An outstanding exception of her time at RKO was 'Angel Face' [1952], a wonderfully dark film noir that had Simmons playing a femme fatale with murderous intentions opposite Robert Mitchum," Rode wrote.

Over a career that spanned more than 60 years, she appeared in about 55 feature films and nearly as many television productions. In the 1950s and 1960s, she made more than 30 movies and displayed her versatility by appearing in costume epics, romances, musicals and dramas.

She co-starred with such notable actors as Sir Richard Burton in "The Robe," Gregory Peck in the western "The Big Country," Marlon Brando in "Desiree," and Brando and Frank Sinatra in “Guys and Dolls.”

While playing the title character in "Desiree," the mistress of Brando's Napoleon, she was so in awe of the actor that "I was sort of forgetting what I was supposed to do," she said in 1990 in the Union-Tribune.

When Brando and Simmons next starred in "Guys and Dolls" in 1955, they were initially supposed to lip-sync their songs.

During rehearsal, "Samuel Goldwyn came on the set one day and he heard us and said, 'I think it's better you do your own singing. . . . Maybe you don't sound so good, but at least it's you,' " she recalled in the Union-Tribune interview.

Among her films, she favored 1953's "The Actress," which she said she "just loved" for "the "sheer heaven" of working with Spencer Tracy, who became a good friend, she said in the 1990 interview.

She also enjoyed "The Grass Is Greener," which co-starred Cary Grant, "because it was comedy and I usually play these uptight puddings," she said in 1988 in the Toronto Star.

In 1960, she and Granger divorced after a decade of marriage. The same year, she married Richard Brooks, who had just directed her as the saintly evangelist in "Elmer Gantry."

In 1987, Brooks told People magazine, "Every man I would meet would say to me, 'I have always loved your wife,' " who was considered one of the great screen beauties of her generation.

"For men of a certain age, the memory of seeing Simmons naked from the back in the 1960's 'Spartacus' ranks high among their early carnal thrills," the People article said. She had portrayed Kirk Douglas' love interest in the Roman epic.

Brooks directed her in the 1969 film "The Happy Ending," which he also wrote. He later said that he created the character of the alcoholic wife as a way to tell his real-life wife that she also had a drinking problem.

Of their breakup after about 18 years of marriage, Simmons later said, "It was simply that the mixture of an alcoholic and a workaholic just wasn't working."

In 1986, she underwent treatment for alcoholism at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage. "All I can say is thank God for Mrs. Ford," Simmons said in the People interview.

After marrying for the second time, she took a few years off. She had two daughters, one with Granger named Tracy, for her "Actress" co-star, and the other with Brooks, named Kate, for Katharine Hepburn.

Simmons returned to the big screen in 1963 in "All the Way Home," giving an "award-caliber performance" as a recently widowed mother, according to "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide."

But she found good roles harder to come by.

"Every actress has to face the facts there are younger, more beautiful girls right behind you," Simmons said in 1988 in the Toronto Star. "Once you've gone beyond the vanity of the business, you'll take on the tough roles."

Increasingly, she turned to television movies and miniseries.

In the 1980s, she appeared in the ABC historical drama "North and South" and its sequel; in a well-reviewed Disney Channel version of "Great Expectations" as the miserable recluse Miss Havisham; and as the mother, Fiona "Fee" Cleary, in the ABC miniseries “The Thorn Birds.”

"I didn't have a dominant personality. It helped me slip into character parts very easily," she told the Toronto Star in 1988. "I simply had to play the mother in 'The Thorn Birds.' I understood her pain. I badgered the producer until he gave in. He said it wasn't a star part. That's why I wanted it!"

Jean Merilyn Simmons was born Jan. 31, 1929, in London to Charles and Winifred Ada Simmons. Her father competed as a British gymnast in the 1912 Olympics and later coached the sport. He died when she was 16.

Her mother once described Cricklewood, the north London area where Simmons grew up, as "a place where they make lovely parts for automobiles."

At 15, Simmons appeared in five British films, including a role as a precocious teenager in "Give Us the Moon." She also appeared in such major British productions as "Black Narcissus" (1947) and "The Blue Lagoon" (1949).

In 1956, she became a U.S. citizen and while married to Granger lived on an Arizona ranch.

For years, she lived in a Santa Monica home that she decorated in a style she once described as "early mishmash."

"It was extraordinary for a Cockney kid from Cricklewood to have this happen," she said in a 1989 Times interview as she expressed amazement over the life she had lived. "If I hadn't gone to that dancing school, I would have married and had children like my mum and had a normal life.

"My career has had a lot of ups and downs," she said, "but basically it has been wonderful."

She is survived by her two daughters, Tracy Granger and Kate Brooks.

Instead of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to the Lange Foundation, a pet rescue organization, at http://www.langefoundation.com.

[rudyfan]

Oh wow, Jean Simmons. RIP a classic beauty.

[feaito]

Indeed very sad news, she was a beautiful and classy actress, and one of the beloved stars of a long-gone Era. Rest in peace dear lady.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Oh dear, another wonderful star and lady gone.
Perhaps she and Jennifer Jones are holding hands now journeying through the heavens!!
I understand they were friends for many years...

R.I.P. Miss Simmons.

Larry

[Lzcutter]

James Mitchell who seems to be known more for his role on All My Children than his roles in The Band Wagon and Oklahoma these days has passed away:

From Variety:

James Mitchell, an accomplished dancer, Broadway and film thesp who logged a 30-year run on ABC's "All My Children," died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 89.

Mitchell died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and complications from pneumonia, according to ABC. The thesp made his final appearance on "All My Children" on Jan. 5, on the episode that marked the sudser's 40th anniversary. Mitchell was a mainstay of the show from 1979-2008, playing Palmer Cortlandt, the wealthy patriarch of one of the fictional Pine Valley's most prominent families.

Born and raised in Sacramento, Calif., Mitchell began his career as a dancer. He landed leading roles in a number of Broadway tuners, including "Brigadoon," "Billion Dollar Baby," "Bloomer Girl," "Carousel," "Carnival" and "Paint Your Wagon."

He appeared with the American Ballet Theater in New York and toured Europe and South America and the Agnes de Mille Dance Theater, and he appeared in touring productions of "Funny Girl," opposite Carol Lawrence, and "The King and I," opposite Ann Blyth, among other legit productions. Later in his career, Mitchell taught dance and movement at Yale University and Drake University in Iowa.

Mitchell's film roles include the 1985 hoofer retrospective "That's Dancing" and 1977's "The Turning Point." Earlier film roles included 1953's "The Band Wagon" with Fred Astaire, 1954's "Deep in My Heart" with Cyd Charisse, and 1955's "Oklahoma."

Before "All My Children" Mitchell spent four years on the ABC daytime soap "Where the Heart Is."

Survivors include his longtime partner, Albert Wolsky. A memorial service is pending.

[feaito]

Another great actor gone, what a pity! I chiefly will remember him for "Colorado Territory" (1949), "Devil's Doorway" (1950) and "Stars in My Crown"(1950) -three great westerns to which I was introduced by Christine.

[charliechaplinfan]

It's sad to hear of Jean Simmons demise, yesterday I was listening to the cast recording of Guys and Dolls, I think Goldwyn made the right decision letting their voices remain on the soundtrack, Jean has a lovely voice and certainly didn't need someone to sing for her. She has starred in some of my favorite films Guys and Dolls, Hamlet and Black Narcissus. Another beauty gone to the heavens.

The report of her death carries one tiny error, Richard Burton was never made a Sir, had he lived long enough the honour might have been his, he did get a CBE.

[mrsl]

.
Something is screwy somewhere. I know I posted a comment about Jean Simmons yesterday. Basically it said my favorite memory of her was as Young Bess, and the final scene where she is standing on the balcony in that black velvet gown where she realizes she is now the Queen and no longer a young girl, it was a perfect ending to the movie, and an exquisite portrait of Miss Simmons. Perhaps I said something and it was removed but I doubt if that is the case, I most likely would have been notified, or. . . being the ditz I am, I may have put it on another thread.

Anyway, I've always loved the dream sequence in Oklahoma, and made a few inquiries into it. James Mitchell is the male dancer in that sequence. Apparently, like Patrick Swayze, he was hurt in a dancing bit, and forced to quit dancing. Quite a shame as he might have become even more known than he was, plus he had the looks to go with being a leading man.

So sorry to hear about both Miss Simmons and Mr. Mitchell. R.I.P.
.

[charliechaplinfan]

Anne it's on another thread, Stuart started a thread about Jean Simmons and I remember seeing your comment there.

[mrsl]

.
Thanks CCFan, I found it. For a minute there I really thought I had imagined typing the darn thing.
.

[charliechaplinfan]

It's happened to me before, so I'm glad I'm not alone.

[mrsl]

.
I just saw a note that Pernell Roberts died today. Handsome oldest 'son' on Bonanza, Adam Cartwright, and doctor on Trapper John, M.D. I wish that after he left Bonanza he had tried to continue with movie parts like the one he played in Ride Lonesome with Randolph Scott. He probably could have had his own show, as a self educated, saddle tramp looking for a place to settle.

R.I.P.
.

[klondike]

I am devastated - Adam Cartwright is dead !
My apologies to Mr. Roberts' legacy, I recall his deep disgruntlement with the "little blue room", and his growing indignity at the confinements within the "Bonanza" scripts, his desire to do theatre and, over time, "serious cinema".
But back when he was adventuring acrost the Ponderosa, he strode through my childhood imagination like some noble, deadly, lonely Child of a Lesser Frontier God, as smart & moody as Paladin, yet vulnerable & identifiable for all of his aloofness.
Ye Gods, who next? Robert Horton, Clint Walker, Robert Conrad?

[Lzcutter]

But back when he was adventuring acrost the Ponderosa, he strode through my childhood imagination like some noble, deadly, lonely Child of a Lesser Frontier God, as smart & moody as Paladin, yet vulnerable & identifiable for all of his
aloofness.

Klon,
You have put into words my sadness at his passing better than I.

In addition, along with James Drury from The Virginian, my mother thought they were the two hottest men on television.
James Garner and Clint Eastwood were a very close second back in those days.