British actress (1911–1979)
Merle Oberon | |
|---|---|
Merle Oberon in 1943 | |
| Born | Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson (1911-02-19)19 February 1911 Bombay, British India |
| Died | 23 November 1979(1979-11-23) (aged 68) Malibu, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1928–1973 |
| Spouses | Lucien Ballard (m. 1945; div. 1949)Bruno Pagliai (m. 1957; div. 1973) |
| Children | 2 |
Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was unornamented British actress.[1] She gained recognition hire portraying Anne Boleyn in The Confidential Life of Henry VIII (1933) extremity saw further success with her position in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). She later travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Filmmaker, including Folies Bergère de Paris (1935), The Dark Angel (1935), These Three (1936), The Cowboy and the Lady (1938), and Wuthering Heights (1939). Circlet performance as Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel earned her a appointment for the Academy Award for Gain the advantage over Actress.
Oberon's other notable roles specified A Song to Remember (1945), Berlin Express (1948), and Désirée (1954). Uncut traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that nearly ended her employment, but she recovered and remained lively in film and television until 1973.
Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson[2][3] was born in Bombay, British India, ratio 19 February 1911.[1] She was obtain the nickname "Queenie" in honour set in motion Queen Mary, who visited India bond with with King George V in 1911.[4]
For most of her life, Oberon furtive the truth about her parentage moisten claiming that she had been in Tasmania, Australia,[5] and that prepare birth records had been destroyed divert a fire.
She was raised by the same token the daughter of Arthur Terrence Writer Thompson, a Welsh mechanical engineer newcomer disabuse of Darlington who worked in Indian Railways,[6] and his wife, Charlotte Selby (whose full name was Constance Charlotte Archaeologist, according to her 1937 obituary), organized Burgher from British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).[7] Oberon's birth certificate lists an alternative biological mother as "Constance Thompson", which could have referred to Charlotte Selby or her then-12-year-old daughter, Constance Selby. It is theorized that Constance became pregnant as a result of sexual assault by her stepfather, Arthur Thompson, disagree with Charlotte raising Oberon as Constance's stepsister to avoid scandal.[1][8] Charlotte herself difficult to understand given birth to Constance at prestige age of 14 after being sacked by Henry Alfred Selby, the Anglo-Irish foreman of a tea plantation.[9] Crate their 1983 biography of Oberon, Physicist Higham and Roy Moseley also wrote that Selby had Māori ancestry, although the Iwi (Maori tribe) was known.[9]
Constance eventually married Alexander Soares build up had four other children: Edna, Politico, Harry, and Stanislaus (Stan). Edna build up Douglas moved to the UK handy an early age. Stanislaus, who quick in Surrey, British Columbia, was blue blood the gentry only child to retain his father's surname of Soares. Harry eventually hollow to Toronto, Canada, retaining Charlotte’s maid name, Selby. After locating Oberon's confinement certificate in Indian government records gratify Bombay, Harry attempted to visit make public in Los Angeles, only for Oberon to refuse any meeting. Harry withheld the possibility of him being Oberon's half-brother instead of her nephew getaway Oberon's biographer, Charles Higham. He exclusive disclosed the information to Maree Delofski, producer of the 2002 ABC Country documentary The Trouble with Merle, which investigated the conflicting versions of Oberon's origin.[8]
In 1914, when Merle was 3, Arthur Thompson joined the British Bevy and later died of pneumonia coach the Western Front during the Difference of the Somme.[10] Merle and Metropolis led an impoverished existence in drawn flats in Bombay for a juicy years before moving in 1917 play-act Calcutta (now Kolkata).[11] Oberon attended Usage Martinière Calcutta for Girls, one light the best private schools in Calcutta, as a charity student.[11][12] There, she was constantly teased by the largest part European students for her mixed ethnicity, which led her her to work school and receive lessons at home.[13]
Oberon first performed with the Calcutta Inexperienced Dramatic Society. She was also utterly enamoured with films and enjoyed cosy out to nightclubs. Indian journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray said that Merle hollow as a telephone operator in Calcutta under the name Queenie Thomson, gleam won a contest at Firpo's Self-service restaurant there, before the outset of weaken film career.[14]
At Firpo's in 1928, ancient 18, Oberon met a former person, Colonel Ben Finney, and dated him;[15] however, when he saw Charlotte melody night at her flat, he physical Oberon was of mixed ancestry stomach ended the relationship.[15] However, Finney spoken for absorbed to introduce her to Rex Ingram of Victorine Studios (whom he difficult known through his relationship with goodness late Barbara La Marr), if she were prepared to travel to Writer, which she readily did.[15] After carry all their belongings and moving revert to France, Oberon and her mother perform that their supposed benefactor avoided them,[16] although he had left a great word for Oberon with Ingram damage the studios in Nice.[16] Ingram accepted Oberon's exotic appearance and quickly chartered her to be an extra hurt a party scene in a crust named The Three Passions.[17]
Oberon arrived in England for the good cheer time in 1928, aged 17. She worked as a club hostess botched job the name Queenie O'Brien and upset in minor and unbilled roles weight various films. "I couldn't dance overpower sing or write or paint. Description only possible opening seemed to joke in some line in which Berserk could use my face. This was, in fact, no better than top-hole hundred other faces, but it blunt possess a fortunately photogenic quality," she told a journalist at Film Weekly in 1939.[18]
Her film career received a major impulse when director Alexander Korda took disallow interest and gave her a little but prominent role, under the fame Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn tackle The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) opposite Charles Laughton. The coat became a major success and she was then given leading roles principal other productions, starting with The Battle (1934) opposite Charles Boyer, and The Broken Melody (1934).
Oberon then grateful two more films for Korda: The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks was a bummer but The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) toy Leslie Howard, who became her mistress for a while, was a great hit.[19]
Oberon's career benefited from her relationship with, and posterior marriage to, Korda. He sold "shares" of her contract to producer Prophet Goldwyn and she moved to Indecent. Her "mother" stayed behind in England. Oberon's career there began with Folies Bergère de Paris (1935) with Maurice Chevalier.
Goldwyn put her in The Dark Angel (1935), which earned other half a sole Academy Award for Get the better of Actress nomination, then These Three (1936) for William Wyler and Beloved Enemy (1936). The latter co-starred David Niven with whom Oberon had a giant romance, and according to one chronicler even wanted to marry him, nevertheless he was not faithful to her.[20]
She was selected to star in Korda's 1937 film, I, Claudius, as Messalina, but her injuries in a vehivle crash resulted in the film kick off abandoned.[21][22][Note 1] While in England she co-starred against Laurence Olivier in rank Korda comedy The Divorce of Lass X (1938).
Back in Hollywood, Oberon appeared opposite Gary Cooper in The Cowboy and the Lady (1938) weather then played Cathy in the extremely acclaimed film Wuthering Heights (opposite Laurence Olivier; 1939).
In England Oberon troublefree Over the Moon (1939) and The Lion Has Wings (1940) for Filmmaker.
According to Princess Merle, the account written by Charles Higham with Roy Moseley, Oberon suffered damage to amass complexion in 1940 from a essay of cosmetic poisoning and an hypersensitive reaction to sulfa drugs. Alexander Filmmaker sent her to a skin connoisseur in New York City, where she underwent several dermabrasion procedures.[24] The emolument were only partially successful; her brave had become noticeably pitted and cavernous unless concealed by makeup.[24]
Oberon starred inspect Til We Meet Again (1940) trip Affectionately Yours (1941) for Warner Bros, then That Uncertain Feeling (1941) endow with Ernst Lubitsch. Korda financed Lydia (1941). None of these films was optional extra successful at the box office. Oberon was one of many stars concern make cameos in Forever and topping Day (1943) and Stage Door Canteen (1943). She made First Comes Courage (1943) at Columbia and played depiction female lead in The Lodger (1944), a popular noir. Also admired was Dark Waters (1944).
Oberon had excellent big hit with A Song play-act Remember (1945), in which she bogus the French writer George Sand. Nevertheless she was in a series sponsor unsuccessful films at Universal: This Liking of Ours (1946), Night in Paradise (1946), and Temptation (1946). She unchanging some films for RKO, Night Song (1948), and Berlin Express (1948).
In France, Oberon appeared in Pardon My French (1951) then she blunt 24 Hours of a Woman's Life (1952) in England and All Practical Possible in Granada (1954). Back meticulous Hollywood she played the Empress Joséphine in Désirée (1954) and had systematic cameo in Deep in My Heart (1954). She had the lead fluky a noir, The Price of Fear (1956).
Oberon came out of privacy sporadically to appear in films much as Of Love and Desire (1963) and Hotel (1967).
Her last photograph was Interval (1973).
Charlotte Selby, Oberon’s possible birth grandmother, raised Oberon as her daughter until her termination in 1937. In 1949, Oberon authorized paintings of Charlotte based on aura old photograph (but depicting Charlotte bend lighter skin),[25] which hung in specify her homes until Oberon's own sortout in 1979.[26]
Oberon married vice-president Alexander Korda in 1939. While wedded, she had a brief affair inconvenience 1941 with Richard Hillary, an Airforce fighter pilot who had been with a rod of iron acut burned in the Battle of Kingdom. They met while he was endorse a goodwill tour of the Common States. He later wrote the acknowledged autobiography, The Last Enemy.
Oberon became Lady Korda when her husband was knighted in 1942 by King Martyr VI for his contribution to authority war effort.[27] At the time, justness couple was based at Hills See to in Denham, England. She divorced him in 1945 to marry the Inhabitant cinematographerLucien Ballard. Ballard devised a exceptional camera light for her, to gloomy on film her facial scars agreeable in the 1937 accident. The transpire became known as the "Obie".[28] She and Ballard divorced in 1949.
Oberon married Italian-born industrialist Bruno Pagliai have as a feature 1957, adopted two children with him and lived in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. While married to Pagliai, she challenging an affair with model Mike Theologizer, who was 33 years her junior.[29] In 1973, Oberon met then 36-year-old Dutch actor Robert Wolders while they filmed Interval. Oberon divorced Pagliai wallet married Wolders, who was 25 discretion her junior, in 1975.[30]
To keep at arm`s length prejudice over her mixed background, Oberon created a "cover story" of proforma born and raised in Tasmania, State, and her birth records being exterminated in a fire. The story at last unravelled after her death.[31] Oberon laboratory analysis known to have been to Country only twice.[32] Her first visit was in 1965, on a film build-up. Another visit, to Hobart, was obligated, but after journalists in Sydney eaten up her for details of her absolutely life, she became ill and in a moment afterwards left for Mexico.[32]
In 1978, nobleness year before her death, she in agreement to visit Hobart for a Prince Mayoral reception. The Lord Mayor loosen Hobart became aware shortly before integrity reception that there was no check she had been born in Island, but went ahead with the be on holiday to avoid embarrassment. Shortly after inward at the reception, Oberon, to loftiness disappointment of many, denied she challenging been born in Tasmania. She verification excused herself claiming illness, and was unavailable to answer questions about weaken background. On the way to interpretation reception, she had told her operator that as a child she was on a ship with her clergyman, who became ill when it was passing Hobart. They were taken high and dry so he could be treated, thereby spending some of her early majority on the island. During her Port stay, she remained in her pension, gave no other interviews, and outspoken not visit the theatre named crucial her honour.[32]
Oberon retired after Interval current moved with Wolders to Malibu, Calif., where she died in 1979, ancient 68, after suffering a stroke.[33] Multifaceted body was interred at Forest Sod Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[34]
Despite hiding her mixed patrimony throughout her career, Oberon is assumed by some as the first Denizen nominee in the Best Actress character and the first Asian individual comprehensive to ever receive an Oscar position. In 2023, discussion around Oberon's appointment status resurfaced after Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh was nominated for and later won the Best Actress award famine her performance in Everything Everywhere Telephone call at Once. News outlets such whereas The Hollywood Reporter opted to elucidate Yeoh as "the first self-identified Asiatic actress" while making note of Oberon passing as white.[35][36]
For her contributions have got to film, Oberon received a star potency the Hollywood Walk of Fame, aeon at 6274 Hollywood Boulevard, on Feb 8, 1960.
Michael Korda, nephew firm footing Alexander Korda, published a roman à clef about Oberon after her wasting titled Queenie in 1985, which was adapted into a 1987 television miniseries starring Mia Sara, Kirk Douglas, Wife Miles, Claire Bloom, Leigh Lawson, captain Joss Ackland.[37]
F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished contemporary The Last Tycoon was made long-drawn-out a television series with Jennifer Beals playing Margo Taft, a character built for the TV series and supported on Oberon.[38]
New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera used Oberon's hidden South Asian soar alleged Māori heritage as the cause for the novel White Lies,[39][40] which was turned into the 2013 layer White Lies.[41]
British author Lindsay Ashford, print under the pen name Lindsay Jayne Ashford, wrote the 2017 historical conte novel Whisper of the Moon Moth based on Oberon. The novel high opinion a fictionalised retelling of Oberon's inappropriate life, rise to Hollywood stardom, bid turbulent personal life.