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Y&R Discussion Group
James Mitchell died today.. he was 89.. he played "Palmer Cortlandt" on AMC..for decades.
Jean Simmons also passed today..she had lung cancer. I just heard this on The View.
I once met James Mitchell at a soap opera fanfair..they were all playing softball..lots of other actors were there..James Mitchell walked near where I was sitting..I had brief talk with him. This was soooo long ago.. back in the early days of AMC.. I was living in Orlando Florida at the time.
Wow... Jean Simmons... one of my favorites when I was younger. She died of complications from smoking? I wonder if that was COPD? I have that and there's no doubt it's gona get me sooner or later... hope it's later. LOL
RIP Jean Simmons... you brought a lot of pleasure to many.
Mitch
I've seen quite a few of Jean Simmons movies.. she was indeed a great beauty. I do remember the ones you mentioned. I'm a fan of old movies.. they were made right. I've posted a message on the AMC board about James Mitchell. I've made it a habit to get to meet high profile celebs..you never know what the future my hold.
I only watched AMC briefly in the late '90's, so I remember James Mitchell more for his film roles at the beginning of his career, the ballets in Carousel and Desert Song. He was incredibly talented .... and good looking!
I'll post here what I said on the AMC Board:
She was absolutely gorgeous as a young girl. Ophelia to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet. Elizabeth I to Charles Laughton's Henry VIII in Young Bess. The Young Estella in David Lean's Great Expectations. The terrorized heroine in Uncle Silas. Even at an early age, she could hold her own with some of the stage's and screen's heavyweights. (In Laughton's case, literally so.)
She's in what one critic called, "the most beautiful Technicolor™ movie ever made", Black Narcissus.
I think one of the most perverse bits of casting was having her play the vengefull Miss Haversham in the 1989 TV version of Great Expectations, after playing Estella in the 1946 version of the same story.
I loved her costume dramas, Spartacus and The Robe. But my favorite Jean Simmons movie is Elmer Gantry. I've heard it said that her role was based on Aimee Semple McPherson and Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) was based on Billy Sunday. She deserved a best acting Oscar™ but Shirley Jones got it for playing an against-type prostitute. One particularly fond memory was going to see this picture in the theatre with my mother. The manager stopped us and told my mother that I was to young and wouldn't be allowed into the theatre.
Definitely another time and place.
RIP Jean Simmons.