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Auction History Result 5a278 JEAN SIMMONS signed hardcover program book '61 from Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus! Date Sold 11/15/2012 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Original Vintage Autographed Movie Program Book (measures 8 3/4" x 11 1/4" [22 x 29 cm]; 40 pages) (Learn More) Jean Simmons was born in London, England in 1929. When she was just 14 she got her first movie role and after some minor parts over the next two years she was Young Estella in David Lean's Great Expectations, and that led to much bigger and better roles. The next year she was in Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus, the following year she was Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this film), and the following year she was the girl stranded on a desert island in The Blue Lagoon. She was under contract to Rank, but they sold her contract to eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes in 1950, and she also then married actor Stewart Granger, who was 16 years older than her, and had appeared in Caesar and Cleopatra with her when she was just 16, and again in Adam and Evelyne when she was 20 (which oddly enough, was a movie about a man in his thirties who falls in love with a teenager). Hughes really had no clue what to do with her, but she did make the excellent film noir Angel Face, directed by Otto Preminger. But her other roles for Hughes were so lackluster that she sued to be let out of her contract and won, and remained independent the rest of her career, so she could never again be forced to make a lesser movie. In the later 1950s she appeared in many major Hollywood productions, but the two that stand out the most for me are as Sergeant Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, and as Julie Maragon in The Big Country. In 1960 she was at the top of her stardom, but husband's Stewart Granger's career was on the skids, and they divorced, and she immediately re-married director Richard Brooks (who was 17 years her senior) and she starred in his adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' Elmer Gantry, as Sister Sharon Falconer, and that same year she starred opposite Kirk Douglas in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, and also found time to co-star in Stanley Donen's romantic comedy The Grass Is Greener! That was the peak of her career, but she continued acting for decades in films such as Happy Ending (nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for this film), before passing away on January 22, 2010, just shy of her 81st birthday. If you know who did the art (if any), please let us know. Important Added Info: Note that this item has been personally autographed (signed) by Jean Simmons! Our consignor purchased this item at Cinecon many years ago (he was told it was acquired by one of the organizers of the show who had obtained the autograph from Miss Simmons in person, and she donated the program book to Cinecon to help them raise money). Both we and our consignor feel that the autograph on this item is authentic, but he does not have a certificate of authenticity. Also note that we have pictured the front cover and one or more interior 2-page spreads from this program. Condition: good. The bottom of the spine of the book is cracked in the back and there is a thin plastic covering of the covers that is partially lost at the bottom of the spine and in the bottom left of the cover. Learn More about condition grades 
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