The death of Jean Simmons at 80 beckons memories of an angelic looking woman who got her first major break exuding the look of youth's sweet exuberance in David Lean's "Great Expectations" (1946).  

Simmons appeared in numerous hit films, including "Elmer Gantry" (1960) as a woman infatuated by Burt Lancaster's rousing preacher's demeanor under her husband to be Richard Brooks' direction.  Working in another Brooks film, the 1969 release "The Happy Ending" she received a "Best Actress" Oscar nomination.

A hallmark of a talented performer is to extend one's range, and this occurred with Simmons when she undertook the role of the deeply disturbed Diane Tremayne for Howard Hughes at RKO under the direction of Otto Preminger in the 1953 film noir release "Angel Face."

The title played into the film's irony, extended by the fact that Preminger was noted to be filmdom's exponent of the thematic concept of moral ambiguity.  How could one better display moral ambiguity than by casting a beautiful woman with an angelic face to play a sociopath who will stop at nothing, including murder?