In 1993 she told AFP she had never had an acting lesson, learning the art on the job, and said her career had been a series of surprises.
Born in London on January 31, 1929, the fourth child of a middle-class family, Jean Marilyn Simmons began her career in 1944, at the age of 15, in "Give Us the Moon".
She established her reputation with the role of young Estella in David Lean's film of "Great Expectations" in 1946 before Olivier cast her as Ophelia in 1948, a performance that won her an award at the Venice film festival and worldwide fame.
Despite the promising start to her career in Britain, Simmons quit the respected Rank studio and in 1950 moved to Hollywood with her husband, the actor Stewart Granger.
Simmons' talent and youthful grace made her a star at Twentieth Century Fox, though her angelic looks masked murderous intent in Otto Preminger's 1952 movie "Angel Face", where she starred alongside Robert Mitchum.
Her classical beauty earned her a number of roles as heroines from antiquity, notably in Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus", in which she played the rebel slave leader's love interest.
She played opposite Marlon Brando in the historical drama "Desiree" and the musical comedy "Guys and Dolls".
In 1960 she married the director Richard Brooks, who cast her as a captivating evangelist alongside Burt Lancaster in "Elmer Gantry" and then as an alcoholic wife in "The Happy Ending".
"The Happy Ending" earned Simmons her second Oscar nomination, after "Hamlet", but the prize escaped her on both occasions.
In all, Simmons starred in around 50 features, but after 1970 her big screen appearances were more limited, though she starred in Michael Anderson's 1978 movie "Dominique".
On television, where she starred in around 30 series, Simmons played the governess in "Heidi" and won an Emmy award in 1983 for "The Thorn Birds".
Simmons had two children, one with Granger and one with Brooks, whom she divorced in 1977.
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