Merle Oberon

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Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson ; 19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was a British actress. She gained recognition for portraying Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and saw further success with her role in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). She later travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn, including Folies Bergère de Paris (1935), The Dark Angel (1935), These Three (1936), The Cowboy and the Lady (1938), and Wuthering Heights (1939). Her performance as Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

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


Merle Oberon - Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Oberon


Merle Oberon - IMDb : http://imdb.com/name/nm0643353/

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Estelle Merle Thompson was born in India on February 19, 1911 of Welsh and Ceylonese (now Sri Lankan) descent. She was educated in that country until the age of 17, when she left for London. She began her career in British films with mostly forgettable roles or bit parts. She appeared in an uncredited role in Alf's Button (1930), a pattern that would unfortunately repeat itself regularly over the next three years.

However, movie moguls eventually saw an untapped talent in their midst and began grooming Oberon for something bigger. Finally she landed a part with substance: the role of Ysobel d'Aunay in Men of Tomorrow (1932). That was quickly followed by The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). After her portrayal of Lady Marguerite Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Hollywood beckoned and she left to try her hand in US films. American movie executives already had some idea of her talent due to her role in Vagabond Violinist (1934) (US title: Vagabond Violinist) was a success in that country. With her nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress as Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel (1935), Oberon became a star in both the UK and the USA.

Her work in that film resulted in offers for more quality pictures, and she appeared in several well received films, such as These Three (1936), Over the Moon (1939) and The Divorce of Lady X (1938). Her most critically acclaimed performance--hailed by some critics as "masterful" -- was as Cathy Linton in Wuthering Heights (1939). The 1940s proved to be a very busy decade for her, as she appeared in no less than 15 films. After her role in Berlin Express (1948) she would not be seen on the screen again until four years later, as Elizabeth Rockwell in Pardon My French (1951). She was off the screen again for more than a year, returning in Désirée (1954).

Unfortunately, Oberon began appearing in fewer and fewer films over the ensuing years. There were no films for her in 1955, only one in 1956 and then none until Of Love and Desire (1963). In between she did appear on television to host Assignment Foreign Legion (1956). Her final film was Interval (1973). After her career finally ended she lived in quiet retirement until her death of a massive stroke on November 23, 1979, in Malibu, California. Oberon was 68 and had kept her beauty to the end.
Denny Jackson/Robert Sieger

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Merle Oberon was born in Bombay, of mixed Welsh and Ceylonese (now Sri Lankan) parentage, as Estelle Merle Thompson, and was nicknamed "Queenie". According to Michael Korda, she "became a feature of Bombay nightlife while still in her early teens and eventually made her way to England as the girlfriend of a wealthy young Englishman." In early-1930s London, Oberon became a star at the famous Cafe de Paris and also the girlfriend of the Grenada-born jazz musician, Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson.

The three Korda brothers, Alexander, Zoltan and Vincent, were Hungarian Jewish emigrants who made careers in the movie business, first in London and later in Hollywood. Alexander Korda discovered the young beauty (then still known as Queenie Thompson) in the tea line at the movie studio. He changed her name and cast her as the doomed Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), the first British picture to be nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture. Oberon and Alexander Korda married in 1939 and she became the first Lady Korda when he was knighted.

In 1979, Vincent's son, Michael Korda, editor-in-chief at Simon & Schuster, published "Charmed Lives", a history of the three flamboyant brothers and their actress wives. Twenty years later, in 1999, Michael Korda wrote "Another Life: A Memoir of Other People", in which he claimed he had been "more than usually circumspect on the subject of Merle" when he wrote "Charmed Lives", but Oberon's lawyer had reviewed the bound galley proofs and called. Korda, faced with a "time-consuming and expensive lawsuit", removed Oberon "virtually out of the book altogether".

In 1985, Korda published a fictionalized biography of his aunt, "Queenie", which was made into a television miniseries, starring Mia Sara, Claire Bloom, Sarah Miles, Joss Ackland and Gary Cady.
Wylie Jones J./Robert Sieger

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