DEBORAH KERRDeborah Kerr, who died on 16 October, 2007, aged 86, was a Golden Globe-winning actress who also holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for Best Actress without winning – a total of six.She was famed for her roles in films such as From Here to Eternity and The King and I in the 1950s, which established her as a beautiful and elegant leading lady and won her respect in the film industry.Though she was seen as the quintessential English actress, with poise, grace and striking looks, she was in fact from Scotland. She was born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in Helensburgh by the Firth of Clyde on 30 September, 1921, the daughter of an Air Force captain.She was educated in Bristol, England, where she trained to become a ballet dancer at her aunt’s drama school. After dancing performances at the Sadler's Wells Theatre she began acting, appearing in stage productions and a handful of films before a starring role in Love on the Dole (1941) brought her critical acclaim.Seen as one of the rising stars of the era, she was tracked by MGM studios whose attention had been grabbed by The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and a six-month run of the stage play Heartbreak House in 1943. After shining in Black Narcissus (1947) she finally earned a Hollywood deal and a New York Film Critics award to boot.Her first American role was opposite Clark Gable in The Hucksters later that year. She won her first Oscar nomination in 1949 for Edward, My Son. By now her image as a refined and dignified British actress had been firmly established and she appeared in a string of historical dramas, including Quo Vadis (1951), Young Bess (1953) and Julius Caesar (1953).Her defining moment came in the star-studded wartime romance From Here to Eternity (1953) for which she earned another Academy Award nomination, losing out to Audrey Hepburn. The love scene between her and Burt Lancaster on a beach became iconic. The sexy adulteress Karen Holmes was a more colourful role than Ms Kerr had previously played (having been originally set for Joan Crawford) and allowed her to break her typecasting.In 1955 she was personally chosen by Yul Brynner to play Anna opposite his King in the musical The King and I (released the following year). Another Oscar nomination and huge box-office receipts followed.She won her second New York Film Critics award for Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) and scooped a third with The Sundowners (1960), while Separate Tables (1958) secured her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, though all three films resulted in disappointing Oscar nights, completing her unlucky sextet. In 1957, Photoplay magazine named her “the world’s most famous actress”.She continued to land prominent roles in the 1960s, with an excellent adaptation of Henry James' horror novel The Turn of the Screw called The Innocents (1961), followed by The Chalk Garden (1964). She even appeared as a Bond girl in the spoof film Casino Royale (1967) at the age of 46. Very rarely, if ever, did she give a bad performance.Towards the end of the decade she returned to theatre work and announced her retirement from Hollywood. She enjoyed a nine-month European tour of The Day After The Fair in 1971 and was praised for her performances in Long Day's Journey Into Night and Candida in the late 1970s.She returned to work in front of the cameras in the 1980s with a handful of television films, but remained discerning in her roles. Suffering from ill health, she retired to Switzerland with her second husband screenwriter Peter Viertel who she married in 1960. She had previously been married to Anthony Bartley, a squadron leader in the RAF, from 1945 to 1959.In 1994, in what was to be one of her last public appearances before Parkinson’s disease took hold, she finally got her hands on the famous gold trophy when she was given an honorary Academy Award in recognition of her "perfection, discipline and elegance" through her career. Four years later she was given a CBE but was too sick to attend to the presentation.
Keep me informed of updates
