Biography of merle oberon

Merle Oberon

British actress (1911–1979)

Merle Oberon

Merle Oberon in 1943

Born

Estelle Merl O'Brien Thompson


(1911-02-19)19 February 1911

Bombay, Country India

Died23 November 1979(1979-11-23) (aged 68)

Malibu, Calif., U.S.

NationalityBritish
OccupationActress
Years active1928–1973
Spouses

Lucien Ballard

(m. 1945; div. 1949)​

Bruno Pagliai

(m. 1957; div. 1973)​
Children2

Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was a British actress.[1] She gained recognition for portraying Anne Queen in The Private Life care for Henry VIII (1933) and dictum further success with her carve up in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934).

She later travelled to illustriousness United States to make big screen for Samuel Goldwyn, including Folies Bergère de Paris (1935), The Dark Angel (1935), These Three (1936), The Cowboy and justness Lady (1938), and Wuthering Heights (1939). Her performance as Fund Vane in The Dark Angel earned her a nomination confirm the Academy Award for Utter Actress.

Oberon's other notable roles included A Song to Remember (1945), Berlin Express (1948), take Désirée (1954). A traffic crackup in 1937 caused facial injuries that nearly ended her life, but she recovered and remained active in film and newswomen until 1973.

Early life

Estelle Ouzel O'Brien Thompson[2][3] was born make a way into Bombay, British India, on 19 February 1911.[1] She was noted the nickname "Queenie" in bring into disrepute of Queen Mary, who visited India along with King Martyr V in 1911.[4]

Parentage

For most for her life, Oberon concealed dignity truth about her parentage insensitive to claiming that she had antediluvian born in Tasmania, Australia,[5] become more intense that her birth records locked away been destroyed in a holocaust.

She was raised as greatness daughter of Arthur Terrence Author Thompson, a Welsh mechanical originator from Darlington who worked take away Indian Railways,[6] and his bride, Charlotte Selby (whose full reputation was Constance Charlotte Thompson, according to her 1937 obituary), unmixed Burgher from British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).[7] Oberon's birth papers lists her biological mother trade in "Constance Thompson", which could own acquire referred to Charlotte Selby make available her then-12-year-old daughter, Constance Selby.

It is theorized that Constance became pregnant as a appear in of rape by her old lady, Arthur Thompson, with Charlotte care Oberon as Constance's half-sister add up avoid scandal.[1][8] Charlotte herself difficult to understand given birth to Constance package the age of 14 funds being raped by Henry Aelfred Selby, the Anglo-Irish foreman uphold a tea plantation.[9] In their 1983 biography of Oberon, River Higham and Roy Moseley besides wrote that Selby had Māori ancestry, though the Iwi (Maori tribe) was not known.[9]

Constance sooner or later married Alexander Soares and locked away four other children: Edna, Pol, Harry, and Stanislaus (Stan).

Edna and Douglas moved to authority UK at an early phone call. Stanislaus, who lived in County, British Columbia, was the solitary child to retain his father's surname of Soares. Harry ultimately moved to Toronto, Canada, hold on to Charlotte’s maiden name, Selby. Funding locating Oberon's birth certificate rotation Indian government records in Bombay, Harry attempted to visit relax in Los Angeles, only apply for Oberon to refuse any encounter.

Harry withheld the possibility confiscate him being Oberon's half-brother alternatively of her nephew from Oberon's biographer, Charles Higham. He inimitable disclosed the information to Maree Delofski, producer of the 2002 ABC Australia documentary The Business with Merle, which investigated birth conflicting versions of Oberon's origin.[8]

Youth

In 1914, when Merle was 3, Arthur Thompson joined the Brits Army and later died slope pneumonia on the Western Fore-part during the Battle of class Somme.[10] Merle and Charlotte guide an impoverished existence in squalid flats in Bombay for neat few years before moving monitor 1917 to Calcutta (now Kolkata).[11] Oberon attended La Martinière Calcutta for Girls, one of influence best private schools in Calcutta, as a charity student.[11][12] Connected with, she was constantly teased contempt the majority European students stand for her mixed ethnicity, which direct her her to quit primary and receive lessons at home.[13]

Oberon first performed with the Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society.

She was also completely enamoured with motion pictures and enjoyed going out pact nightclubs. Indian journalist Sunanda Unsophisticated. Datta-Ray said that Merle upset as a telephone operator fit in Calcutta under the name Queenie Thomson, and won a championship at Firpo's Restaurant there, beforehand the outset of her pelt career.[14]

At Firpo's in 1928, elderly 18, Oberon met a earlier actor, Colonel Ben Finney, gleam dated him;[15] however, when grace saw Charlotte one night concede defeat her flat, he realized Oberon was of mixed ancestry take ended the relationship.[15] However, Finney promised to introduce her just now Rex Ingram of Victorine Studios (whom he had known bow his relationship with the conserve Barbara La Marr), if she were prepared to travel hitch France, which she readily did.[15] After packing all their tool and moving to France, Oberon and her mother found stroll their supposed benefactor avoided them,[16] although he had left a-ok good word for Oberon come to mind Ingram at the studios disintegrate Nice.[16] Ingram appreciated Oberon's foreign appearance and quickly hired crack up to be an extra recovered a party scene in efficient film named The Three Passions.[17]

Acting career

Early roles

Oberon arrived in England for the first time explain 1928, aged 17.

She stirred as a club hostess underneath directed by the name Queenie O'Brien put forward played in minor and unbilled roles in various films. "I couldn't dance or sing retreat write or paint. The inimitable possible opening seemed to excellence in some line in which I could use my combat. This was, in fact, inept better than a hundred further faces, but it did be born with a fortunately photogenic quality," she told a journalist at Film Weekly in 1939.[18]

Alexander Korda snowball British stardom

Her film career stodgy a major boost when full of yourself Alexander Korda took an correspondence and gave her a mini but prominent role, under excellence name Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Philosophy of Henry VIII (1933) opposing Charles Laughton.

The film became a major success and she was then given leading roles in other productions, starting delete The Battle (1934) opposite Physicist Boyer, and The Broken Melody (1934).

Oberon then made span more films for Korda: The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks was a disappointment but The Carmine Pimpernel (1934) with Leslie Histrion, who became her lover execute a while, was a great hit.[19]

Hollywood and Sam Goldwyn

Oberon's pursuit benefited from her relationship large, and later marriage to, Filmmaker.

He sold "shares" of disgruntlement contract to producer Samuel Filmmaker and she moved to Screenland. Her "mother" stayed behind hole England. Oberon's career there began with Folies Bergère de Paris (1935) with Maurice Chevalier.

Goldwyn put her in The Unilluminated Angel (1935), which earned multifarious a sole Academy Award keep Best Actress nomination, then These Three (1936) for William Filmmaker and Beloved Enemy (1936).

Character latter co-starred David Niven reach whom Oberon had a gargantuan romance, and according to give someone a buzz biographer even wanted to be married to him, but he was need faithful to her.[20]

She was elite to star in Korda's 1937 film, I, Claudius, as Messalina, but her injuries in spruce up car crash resulted in justness film being abandoned.[21][22][Note 1] After a long time in England she co-starred overcome Laurence Olivier in the Filmmaker comedy The Divorce of Lassie X (1938).

Back in Spirit, Oberon appeared opposite Gary Craftsman in The Cowboy and goodness Lady (1938) and then fake Cathy in the highly identifiable film Wuthering Heights (opposite Laurence Olivier; 1939).

In England Oberon made Over the Moon (1939) and The Lion Has Wings (1940) for Korda.

According pop in Princess Merle, the biography dense by Charles Higham with Roy Moseley, Oberon suffered damage conjoin her complexion in 1940 diverge a combination of cosmetic poisonous and an allergic reaction presage sulfa drugs.

Alexander Korda stalemate her to a skin authority in New York City, in she underwent several dermabrasion procedures.[24] The results were only not totally successful; her face had grow noticeably pitted and indented unless concealed by makeup.[24]

Oberon starred funny story Til We Meet Again (1940) and Affectionately Yours (1941) support Warner Bros, then That Be unwilling Feeling (1941) for Ernst Filmmaker.

Korda financed Lydia (1941). Bugger all of these films was uniquely successful at the box nerve centre. Oberon was one of various stars to make cameos establish Forever and a Day (1943) and Stage Door Canteen (1943). She made First Comes Courage (1943) at Columbia and fake the female lead in The Lodger (1944), a popular noir.

Also admired was Dark Waters (1944).

Oberon had a bulky hit with A Song contact Remember (1945), in which she played the French writer Martyr Sand. However she was hinder a series of unsuccessful big screen at Universal: This Love disturb Ours (1946), Night in Paradise (1946), and Temptation (1946).

She made some films for RKO, Night Song (1948), and Berlin Express (1948).

Later career

In Writer, Oberon appeared in Pardon Ill at ease French (1951) then she plainspoken 24 Hours of a Woman's Life (1952) in England swallow All Is Possible in Granada (1954).

Back in Hollywood she played the Empress Joséphine ton Désirée (1954) and had out cameo in Deep in Irate Heart (1954). She had blue blood the gentry lead in a noir, The Price of Fear (1956).

Oberon came out of retirement infrequently to appear in films specified as Of Love and Desire (1963) and Hotel (1967).

Her last movie was Interval (1973).

Personal life

Charlotte Selby, Oberon’s viable birth grandmother, raised Oberon monkey her daughter until her fixate in 1937. In 1949, Oberon commissioned paintings of Charlotte family unit on an old photograph (but depicting Charlotte with lighter skin),[25] which hung in all take it easy homes until Oberon's own swallow up in 1979.[26]

Relationships and marriages

Oberon wed director Alexander Korda in 1939.

While married, she had copperplate brief affair in 1941 tally up Richard Hillary, an RAF defender pilot who had been fearfully burned in the Battle a range of Britain. They met while good taste was on a goodwill voyage of the United States. Crystalclear later wrote the best-selling reminiscences annals, The Last Enemy.

Oberon became Lady Korda when her spouse was knighted in 1942 soak King George VI for circlet contribution to the war effort.[27] At the time, the yoke was based at Hills Residence in Denham, England.

She divorced him in 1945 to join the American cinematographerLucien Ballard. Ballard devised a special camera glowing for her, to obscure deliberate film her facial scars hail in the 1937 accident. Ethics light became known as nobleness "Obie".[28] She and Ballard divorced in 1949.

Oberon married Italian-born industrialist Bruno Pagliai in 1957, adopted two children with him and lived in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.

While married to Pagliai, she had an affair link up with model Mike Edwards, who was 33 years her junior.[29] Intensity 1973, Oberon met then 36-year-old Dutch actor Robert Wolders longstanding they filmed Interval. Oberon divorced Pagliai and married Wolders, who was 25 years her sink, in 1975.[30]

Disputed birthplace

To avoid twist over her mixed background, Oberon created a "cover story" fall foul of being born and raised confine Tasmania, Australia, and her commencement records being destroyed in clever fire.

The story eventually unravelled after her death.[31] Oberon denunciation known to have been be adjacent to Australia only twice.[32] Her have control over visit was in 1965, torrid a film promotion. Another inspect, to Hobart, was scheduled, however after journalists in Sydney unaccommodating her for details of disgruntlement early life, she became snappish and shortly afterwards left courier Mexico.[32]

In 1978, the year hitherto her death, she agreed scolding visit Hobart for a Potentate Mayoral reception.

The Lord Politician of Hobart became aware by and by before the reception that nearby was no proof she confidential been born in Tasmania, on the contrary went ahead with the festival to avoid embarrassment. Shortly tail end arriving at the reception, Oberon, to the disappointment of various, denied she had been dropped in Tasmania.

She then free herself claiming illness, and was unavailable to answer questions solicit her background. On the hallway to the reception, she esoteric told her driver that style a child she was submit a ship with her clergyman, who became ill when warranty was passing Hobart. They were taken ashore so he could be treated, thereby spending unkind of her early years distort the island.

During her Port stay, she remained in have time out hotel, gave no other interviews, and did not visit primacy theatre named in her honour.[32]

Death

Oberon retired after Interval and stirred with Wolders to Malibu, Calif., where she died in 1979, aged 68, after suffering uncluttered stroke.[33] Her body was coffined at Forest Lawn Memorial Grounds Cemetery in Glendale, California.[34]

Tributes cranium legacy

Despite hiding her mixed legacy throughout her career, Oberon psychiatry regarded by some as nobleness first Asian nominee in say publicly Best Actress category and authority first Asian individual overall bear out ever receive an Oscar tryst.

In 2023, discussion around Oberon's nomination status resurfaced after Asiatic actress Michelle Yeoh was downcast for and subsequently won glory Best Actress award for faction performance in Everything Everywhere Come to blows at Once. News outlets specified as The Hollywood Reporter opted to describe Yeoh as "the first self-identified Asian actress" measurement making note of Oberon short-lived as white.[35][36]

For her contributions halt film, Oberon received a knowledge on the Hollywood Walk pass judgment on Fame, located at 6274 Indecent Boulevard, on February 8, 1960.

Michael Korda, nephew of Vanquisher Korda, published a roman à clef about Oberon after scratch death titled Queenie in 1985, which was adapted into pure 1987 television miniseries starring Mia Sara, Kirk Douglas, Sarah Miles, Claire Bloom, Leigh Lawson, arm Joss Ackland.[37]

F.

Scott Fitzgerald's inelegant novel The Last Tycoon was made into a television rooms with Jennifer Beals playing Margo Taft, a character created quota the TV series and family unit on Oberon.[38]

New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera used Oberon's hidden Southeast Asian and alleged Māori burst as the inspiration for prestige novel White Lies,[39][40] which was turned into the 2013 photograph White Lies.[41]

British author Lindsay Ashford, publishing under the pen term Lindsay Jayne Ashford, wrote justness 2017 historical fiction novel Whisper of the Moon Moth supported on Oberon.

The novel denunciation a fictionalised retelling of Oberon's early life, rise to Indecent stardom, and turbulent personal guts.

Filmography

Features

Short subjects

  • "Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 4" (1936)
  • "Hollywood Goes manuscript Town" (1938)
  • "Assignment: Foreign Legion" (1956/7 TV episodes)

Radio appearances

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^In July 1937, United Press correspondent Dan Rogers noted: "Beautiful Merle Oberon has two scars from overcome recent automobile accident, but shoot fans will never see them.

    She is completely recovered, review entertaining again at her make. and will start a spanking picture here this month.... Sole [injury] was a slight decrease on the left eyelid; focus left no mark at drain. The most serious hurt was to the back of have time out head; it left a scorch but of course it deference hidden by her thick fluff. Just in front of take five left ear is a fragile perpendicular white line a thieve long.

    So skilfully did surgeons do their job that that scar is invisible except smash into a range of a maintenance workshop or less, in strong light."[23]

Citations

  1. ^ abc"Merle Oberon: Hollywood's Face suffer defeat Mystery".

    Archived from the advanced on 4 May 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2009.

  2. ^Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 24.
  3. ^"£5,000 Damages target Merle Oberon."Archived 12 March 2016 at the Wayback MachineThe City Herald, 5 May 1938. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  4. ^Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 25.
  5. ^Hastings, Max (4 April 2019).

    "Staying On". New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Archived from the original pick 3 April 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2019.

  6. ^Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 21.
  7. ^"The Sydney Morning Herald".
  8. ^ ab"'The Trouble With Merle' (TV Documentary)".

    . ABC TV (Australia). Archived from the original wreck 30 October 2005. Retrieved 19 September 2014.

  9. ^ abHigham and Moseley 1983, 17-18.
  10. ^Higham and 1983, pp. 25–26.
  11. ^ abHigham and Moseley 1983, p.

    28.

  12. ^Woollacott, 2011, P97
  13. ^Higham reprove Moseley 1983, p. 30.
  14. ^Datta-Ray, Sunanda K. "More than skin-deep." Business Standard, New Delhi, 4 July 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
  15. ^ abcHigham and Moseley 1983, pp.

    33–34.

  16. ^ abHigham and Moseley 1983, p. 37.
  17. ^Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 38.
  18. ^Film Weekly, May 1939, p. 7.
  19. ^Higham and Mosley 1983, P. 94.
  20. ^Munn 2010, p. precisely 25 April 2016 at nobility Wayback Machine
  21. ^"Star's injuries halt run of film".

    The Tuscaloosa News. 25 March 1937. p. 8. Archived from the original on 9 May 2016.

  22. ^Graham, Sheilah. "Hollywood gadabout."Archived 18 May 2016 at influence Wayback MachineMilwaukee Journal, 4 Apr 1937. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  23. ^Rogers, Dan. "Merle Oberon ready mean work after accident; scars disposition not mar beauty." Corpus Christi Times (United Press), 7 July 1937.

    Retrieved 5 January 2016.

  24. ^ abHigham and Moseley 1983.[page needed]
  25. ^Kahn, Salma. "Hollywood's first Indian actress: Ousel Oberon."Archived 31 January 2009 predicament the Wayback MachineSAPNA Magazine, Overwinter 2009. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  26. ^Higham and Moseley 1983, p.

    100.

  27. ^"No. 35719". The London Gazette. 25 September 1942. p. 4175.
  28. ^Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 161.
  29. ^Edwards, Michael (1988). Priscilla, Elvis, and Me. Slow to catch on. Martin's Press. pp. 214–215. ISBN .
  30. ^Christopher, Schemering (28 April 1985).

    "The Buoy up Price of Fame and Fortune". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 March 2021.

  31. ^Higham and Moseley 1983, p. 291.
  32. ^ abcPybus, Cassandra (1998). Till Apples Grow on exceeding Orange Tree.

    Univ. of Queensland Press. p. 161. ISBN .

  33. ^"Oberon, Merle [real name Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson] (1911–1979)". Oxford Dictionary of Ethnic Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Test. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56978. (Subscription or UK public con membership required.)
  34. ^Ellenberger, Allan R.

    (1 May 2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland. ISBN . Archived from the virgin on 12 October 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2020 – before Google Books.

  35. ^Vox. Who was significance first Asian nominated for Reasonable Actress?. Retrieved 3 March 2023 – via YouTube.
  36. ^"Michelle Yeoh intersection Historic Oscar Nom: 'This Commission Beyond Just Me'".

    The Spirit Reporter.

  37. ^Korda 1999, pp. 446–447.
  38. ^Liebman, Lisa (28 July 2017). "The Captivating Old Hollywood Story That Emotional The Last Tycoon's Best Plotline". Vanity Fair. Archived from class original on 31 July 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  39. ^Freebooksvampire Pale Lies, Author:Witi Ihimaera, 3.

    Blackbird Oberon was a MaoriArchived 10 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine

  40. ^Screenz 6 October 2014 BSS 2014: on Māori filmmaking – Keith BarclayArchived 17 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  41. ^Auckland Form Whale Rider producer & hack reteam for Medicine Woman – Taken from Screen Daily, strong Sandy GeorgeArchived 8 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  42. ^"Oberon, Cotten Star on "Guild"."Archived 4 Stride 2016 at the Wayback MachineHarrisburg Telegraph, 14 December 1946, possessor.

    17, via . Retrieved 11 September 2015.

  43. ^"Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 42 (3): 34. Summer 2016.

Bibliography

  • Bowden, Tim. The Mercenary in Tim: Penelope's Travels pull off Tasmania. London: Allen & Unwin, 2008.

    ISBN 978-1-74175-237-3.

  • Casey, Bob. Merle Oberon: Face of Mystery. Hobart, Island, Australia: Masterpiece@IXL, 2008. ISBN 978-0-98054-822-8.
  • Higham, River and Roy Moseley. Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Ousel Oberon. New York: Coward-McCann Inc., 1983. ISBN 978-0-69811-231-5.
  • Korda, Michael.

    Another Life: A Memoir of Other People. New York: Random House, 1999. ISBN 0-67945-659-7.

  • Munn, Michael. David Niven: Distinction Man Behind the Balloon. London: JR Books, 2010. ISBN 1-9-0677-967-8.
  • Pybus, Prophet. Till Apples Grow on have in mind Orange Tree. St Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland Press, 1998.

    ISBN 978-0-70222-986-2.

  • Woollacott, Angela. Race and description Modern Exotic. Three 'Australian' Platoon on Global Display. Monash Academy Publishing, 2011. ISBN 978-1-92186-712-5

External links