Young Bess is a 1953 Technicolor biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about the early life of Elizabeth I, from her turbulent childhood to the eve of her accession to the throne of England. It stars Jean Simmons as Elizabeth and Stewart Granger as Thomas Seymour, with Charles Laughton as Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, a part he had played 20 years before in The Private Life of Henry VIII. The film was directed by George Sidney and produced by Sidney Franklin, from a screenplay by Jan Lustig and Arthur Wimperis based on the novel of the same title by Margaret Irwin (1944).
Lobby card
Image: Jean Simmons in Young Bess trailer
Image: Stewart Granger in Young Bess trailer
Image: Deborah Kerr in Young Bess trailer
Jean Merilyn Simmons was a British actress and singer. One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets," she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Britain during and after the Second World War, followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950 onwards.
Simmons in a 1955 studio publicity shot
Simmons with Victor Mature in Androcles and the Lion (1952)
Grave of Jean Simmons in Highgate Cemetery, London