Her next films were Black Narcissus and Hamlet, the latter one opposite Laurence Olivier in 1948, for which she received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. Her next Oscar nomination came in 1969, when she was nominated for best actress for The Happy Ending.

Jean Simmons was renowned for her roles opposite Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls, opposite Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry, with Paul Newman in Until They Sail, with Gregory Peck in The Big Country, with Kirk Douglas in Spartacus, with Rock Hudson in This Earth Is Mine, with Robert Preston in All the Way Home, with James Garner in Buddwing and with Dean Martin in Rough Night in Jericho.

After The Happy Ending she moved on to largely take up television roles in the seventies, eighties and ninties. She was in television shows like Murder, She Wrote, In the Heat of the Night and Xena: Warrior Princess. She was also in a lot of miniseries like The Thorn Birds in 1980s for which she won an Emmy award and TV movies like a 1991 version of Great Expectations, in which she played Miss Havisham.

Jean Simmons got married to Stewart Granger sometime in 1950 and they had a daughter Tracy. But long absences due to the rising careers of both husband and wifge caused a strain on their marriage and they divorced in 1960. She later got married to director Richard Brooks and also had a daughter with him, Kate. However, even this marriage did not survive and they divorced in 1977.