Jean Simmons: sang with Marlon Brando

Jean Simmons, whose ethereal screen presence and starring roles with Hollywood's top actors made her a mid-century film icon, has died at age 80.

The actress, who sang with Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls, co-starred with Gregory Peck and played Ophelia to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet, died last Friday at her home in Santa Monica. She had lung cancer.

Simmons made her movie debut in the 1944 British production Give Us the Moon.

Several minor films followed before British director David Lean gave the London-born actress her breakthrough role of Estella, companion to the reclusive Miss Havisham in 1946's Great Expectations. That was followed by the exotic Black Narcissus, and then Olivier's Oscar-winning Hamlet in 1948, for which Simmons was nominated as best supporting actress.