Deborah Kerr

Deborah Kerr

Deborah Kerr, CBE (born 30 September, 1921) is a Scottish actress and a recipient of an Academy Honorary Award for a motion picture career that has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance.

Biography

She was born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in Helensburgh, by the Firth of Clyde, and originally trained as a ballet dancer, first appearing on stage at Sadler's Wells in 1938. Having switched careers, she found immediate success as an actress.

Her debut in the British film, Contraband, in 1940 was left on the cutting room floor. But that was followed by a series of other films, including the triple role of the hero's loves in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. It was her role as a troubled nun in Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus in 1947 which brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers.

Although the Scottish pronunciation of her surname is straightforward, when she was being promoted as a Hollywood actress, her last name was pronounced the same as "car". In order to avoid confusion over pronunciation, the slogan "Kerr rhymes with Star" was used.

Her "English" accent and manner led to a succession of roles as a "refined, proper lady." Kerr broke through this typecasting with her performance as Karen in From Here to Eternity (1953) for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. The American Film Institute acknowledged the iconic status of Kerr's famous scene from that film, in which she and Burt Lancaster make love on the sand in Hawaii amidst the crashing waves, when the organization named it one of "AFI's top 100 Most Romantic Films" of all time.

From then on Kerr's career choices afforded her one of the most versatile screen personas in Hollywood, ranging from nuns (Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison) and mama's girls (Separate Tables) to an earthy sheepherder's wife (The Sundowners) to lustful and beautiful screen enchantresses (Beloved Infidel, Bonjour tristesse) and delicious comedy (The Grass is Greener).

Kerr's most famous roles are probably as Anna Leonowens in the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I and opposite Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember. In 1969, she appeared nude in John Frankenheimer's The Gypsy Moths.

A stage actress as well, Kerr made her Broadway debut in 1953 in Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy, for which she received a Tony award nomination. Kerr repeated her role along with her stage partner John Kerr (actor) (no relation) in Vincente Minnelli's film adaptation of the drama. In 1955, Kerr won the Sarah Siddons Award for her performance in Chicago during a national tour of the play. In 1975, she returned to Broadway, originating the role of Nancy in Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prizewinning play, Seascape.

She experienced a career resurgence in the early 1980s on television, when she played the role originally brought to life on film by Elsa Lanchester, in Witness for The Prosecution. Later, Kerr re-teamed with multiple screen partner Robert Mitchum in Reunion at Fairborough. This period also saw Kerr take on the role as the older version of the female tycoon, Emma Harte, in the adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance. For this performance, Kerr was nominated for an Emmy award.

Deborah Kerr has been married twice. First, on 28 November 1945, she married Squadron Leader Anthony Bartley. They had two daughters, Melanie Jane, born on 27 December 1947 and Francesca Ann. She and Bartley divorced in 1959. On 23 July, 1960, she married writer Peter Viertel.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Deborah Kerr has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1709 Vine Street.

In 1998, The Queen appointed Kerr as a Commander of the British Empire, after an intensive lobbying effort and letter-writing campaign by screenwriter, Michael Russnow, of West Hollywood, California. According to Russnow, he and other writers petitioned the British government to bestow upon Kerr the title of "Dame," (the feminine equivalent of "Knight,") but Kerr's then-expatriate status probably worked against her. Although there have been repeated subsequent attempts to gain this for Kerr, including Letters to the Editor and Articles in the major British dailies (The Scottish Sun, Friday, March 24, 2000, pp. 46-47), she has not yet received that higher honor.

Kerr suffers from Parkinson's disease, and though she long resided in Switzerland and Spain, Kerr has since moved back to The British Isles, specifically to England, to be closer to her children.

Filmography

Contraband (1940) (scenes deleted)
Major Barbara (1941)
Love on the Dole (1941)
Penn of Pennsylvania (1942)
Hatter's Castle (1942)
The Day Will Dawn (1942)
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Perfect Strangers (1945)
I See a Dark Stranger (1946)
Black Narcissus (1947)
The Hucksters (1947)
If Winter Comes (1947)
Edward, My Son (1949; Oscar nomination: Best Actress)
Please Believe Me (1950)
King Solomon's Mines (1950)
Quo Vadis (1951)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)
Thunder in the East (1952)
Young Bess (1953)
Julius Caesar (1953)
Dream Wife (1953)
From Here to Eternity (1953; Oscar nomination: Best Actress)
The End of the Affair (1955)
The Proud and Profane (1956)
The King and I (1956; Oscar nomination: Best Actress)
Tea and Sympathy (1956)
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957; Oscar Nomination: Best Actress)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Kiss Them for Me (1957) (dubbing voice for Suzy Parker in a few scenes)
Bonjour tristesse (1958)
Separate Tables (1958; Oscar nomination: Best Actress)
The Journey (1959)
Count Your Blessings (1959)
Beloved Infidel (1959)
The Sundowners (1960; Oscar nomination: Best Actress)
The Grass Is Greener (1960)
The Naked Edge (1961)
The Innocents (1961)
On the Trail of the Iguana (1964) (short subject)
The Chalk Garden (1964)
The Night of the Iguana (1964)
Marriage on the Rocks (1965)
Casino Royale (1967)
Eye of the Devil (1967)
Prudence and the Pill (1968)
The Gypsy Moths (1969)
The Arrangement (1969)
A Song at Twilight (1973) (TV)
Witness for the Prosecution (1982) (TV)
A Woman of Substance (1983) (TV)
Reunion at Fairborough (1985) (TV)
The Assam Garden (1985)
Hold the Dream (1986) (TV)

Oscar nominated performances

Deborah Kerr has been nominated for six Academy Awards in the category of Best Actress:
* 1949 - Edward, My Son
* 1953 - From Here to Eternity
* 1956 - The King and I
* 1957 - Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
* 1958 - Separate Tables
* 1960 - The Sundowners

Having never actually won the award, she is tied with Thelma Ritter for the distinction of receiving the most nominations for a female actor for an acting Oscar, without actually winning. Specifically for the record books, it should be noted that Kerr's nominations were all for Best Actress, while Ritter's nominations were all for Best-Supporting Actress.

Kerr was, however, awarded an Honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards for the year 1993 in recognition of the "perfection, discipline and elegance" of her screen work.

External links

* Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Deborah Kerr