Biographie

Often played mildly rebellious characters

Her captivating beauty

Natural brunette hair

Sparkling green eyes

Demure demeanor

Amazed with her performance in Le lagon bleu (1949), William Wyler wanted her for the role of Princess Ann in Vacances romaines (1953), but Howard Hughes, who owned her contract, would not loan her out to Paramount to do the film.

She was the only guest star on the television series Elle écrit au meurtre (1984) to receive an Emmy Award nomination (1989).

She and Marlon Brando were originally supposed to lip-sync their songs in the musical film Guys and Dolls (1955). Samuel Goldwyn heard them during rehearsal and decided the untrained stars should do their own singing for authenticity.

Her Hamlet (1948) co-star Laurence Olivier urged the young actress to perfect her craft on the stage; instead, she decided to follow her future husband Stewart Granger to Hollywood.

Turned down the role of Jean Pargetter on the British television series As Time Goes By (1992), which went to Judi Dench.

[on Spartacus (1960)] Making Spartacus was enough acting to last anybody a lifetime. You know, after we had been filming a year Kirk Douglas sent me a magnum of champagne with a little note saying, "I hope our second year will be as happy as our first.".

[on working with William Wyler in Les grands espaces (1958)] The atmosphere [on set] felt very dodgy - the sort of prevailing tension that invites paranoia, causes you to wonder, "What have I done?"... I guess Willy was in a position to know what it took to achieve great performances, but he also seemed bent on making things difficult... and there was all that constant rewriting. We'd have our lines learned, then receive a rewrite, stay up all night learning the new version, then receive yet another rewrite the following morning. It made the acting damned near impossible. In Willy's favor, he was very agreeable in allowing me to think, and think, and think, and then think some more before I made my reply to [Gregory Peck's] offer. I felt a prompt answer would not serve the moment, and Willy proved most open and agreeable on that count. He could make you worry - order take after take without ever telling you what you were doing to provoke the retakes - he could also cause you to feel a sense of collaboration.

[on Spartacus (1960)] I remember a long, long day of filming and it took forever to get Kirk Douglas up on his cross. We played a terrible joke on him when, as he was safely installed, the assistant director called lunch and left him up there. He could have had the lot of us fired but he was very good about it. You have to have a sense of humor in this industry.

[on the studio system] I had to do four pictures for [Howard Hughes], and then I was free. I never signed a contract with a studio after.

My career has had a lot of ups and downs, but basically it has been wonderful.