To top that off, Simmons was playing what she calls a "second-hand role." "I inherited it from not only from a Japanese actress (Chieko Baisho) but from Emily as well. That left me feeling a little odd."

Speaking of Mortimer, she and Simmons met recently at the film's New York premiere. "Emily is such a young, lovely girl. I think she even looks a bit like I did when I was her age. At least that's how I'd like to remember myself."

That event also allowed Simmons to catch up with an old friend, Lauren Bacall, who provides the voice for the Witch of the Waste in the film. "I had such a tremendous time out there catching up with Betty (Bacall). I hadn't really seen her since the Bogie days, and she's always such a hoot."

Over the course of 60-plus years, Simmons has worked with plenty of great actors — Kirk Douglas in "Spartacus," Burt Lancaster in "Elmer Gantry," Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum in "The Grass Is Greener," Laurence Olivier in the 1948 version of "Hamlet." For the latter film, she received the first of two Academy Award nominations (the second was for "The Happy Ending").

She said her career has been successful enough to afford her a comfortable "semi-retirement." "I only do things that really interest me now, which is a luxury I sometimes wish I'd had when I was younger."

Simmons will next be heard as a voice in another animated film, "Thru the Moebius Strip," alongside science-fiction veteran Mark Hamill.

"And I'm hoping that sometime soon I'll be in a project where I actually get to see my co-stars — and that everyone will get to see me," she said with a laugh.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com