Deborah Kerr
Encyclopedia
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow
. She won the Sarah Siddons Award
for her Chicago
performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy
, a role which she originated on Broadway
, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I
, and was a three-time winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
. She was also the recipient of honorary Academy, BAFTA and Cannes Film Festival
awards.
She was nominated six times for an Academy Award as Best Actress
but never won competitively. In 1994, however, she was awarded the Academy Honorary Award
, cited by the Academy
as "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance".
Her films include The King and I
, An Affair to Remember
, From Here to Eternity
, Quo Vadis
, The Innocents, Black Narcissus
, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
and Separate Tables
.
Although the Scottish pronunciation of her surname, ˈkɛr, is closer to a phonetic reading of the name, when she was being promoted as a Hollywood actress it was made clear that her surname should be pronounced the same as "car". To avoid confusion over pronunciation, Louis B. Mayer
of MGM billed her as "Kerr rhymes with Star!"
, Scotland, the only daughter of Kathleen Rose (née
Smale) and Capt. Arthur Charles Kerr-Trimmer, a World War I
veteran pilot
who later became a naval architect and civil engineer
. Directly after her birth she spent the first three years of her life in the nearby town of Helensburgh
, where her parents lived with Deborah's grandparents in a house on West King Street. Kerr had a younger brother, Edward (a.k.a. Teddy), who became a journalist and died in a "road-rage" incident in 2004.
Kerr was educated at the independent
Northumberland House School in the Clifton
area of Bristol
in England (the school was demolished in 1937, when Kerr was only 16 years old), and at Rossholme School in Weston-super-Mare
.
Kerr originally trained as a ballet
dancer, first appearing on stage at Sadler's Wells
in 1938. After changing careers, she soon found success as an actress. Her first acting teacher was her aunt, Phyllis Smale, who ran the Hicks-Smale Drama School in Bristol
.
Kerr's first film role was in the British
film Contraband in 1940 but her scenes were left on the cutting room floor
. She followed that with a series of films, including Hatter's Castle
(1942), in which she starred opposite Robert Newton
and James Mason
. The following year, she played three women in Michael Powell
and Emeric Pressburger
's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
. During the filming, according to Powell's autobiography, she and Powell became lovers:
Although Winston Churchill
thought it would ruin wartime morale, and the British Army
refused to extend co-operation with the producers, the film confounded critics by proving to be an artistic and commercial success. Powell had hoped to reunite Kerr and Roger Livesey
, who had played the title character, in his next film, A Canterbury Tale
(1944), but her agent had sold her contract to MGM. According to Powell, his affair with Kerr ended when she made it clear to him that she would accept an offer to go to Hollywood if one were made.
It was her role as a troubled nun in Black Narcissus
in 1947 which brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers. The film was a hit in the US as well as the UK, and Kerr won the New York Film Critics' Award as Actress of the Year. In Hollywood, her British accent and manners led to a succession of roles portraying a refined, reserved, and proper English lady. Nevertheless, Kerr frequently used any opportunity to discard her cool exterior. She starred in the 1950 adventure film, King Solomon's Mines
, shot on location in Africa with Stewart Granger
and Richard Carlson
. This was immediately followed by her appearance in the religious epic Quo Vadis?
(1951), shot at Cinecittà
in Rome, in which she played the indomitable Lygia, a first century Christian.
Kerr also departed from typecasting with a performance that brought out her sensuality, as Karen Holmes, the embittered military wife 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 the scene from that film in which she and Burt Lancaster make love on a Hawaii beach amidst the crashing waves. The organisation ranked it twentieth in its list of the 100 most romantic films of all time.
From then on, Kerr's career choices would make her known in Hollywood for her versatility as an actress, She portrayed a nun
(Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
), a mama's girl (Separate Tables
), and a governess
(The Chalk Garden
and The Innocents), but she also portrayed an earthy Australian sheep-herder's wife (The Sundowners
) and lustful and beautiful screen enchantresses (Beloved Infidel, Bonjour Tristesse
). She also starred in comedies (The Grass is Greener
and Marriage on the Rocks
).
Among her most famous roles were Anna Leonowens
in the film version of the Rodgers
and Hammerstein
musical The King and I
(1956), and opposite Cary Grant
in An Affair to Remember
(1958). In 1966, the producers of Carry On Screaming! offered her a fee comparable to that paid to the rest of the cast combined, but she turned it down in favour of appearing in an aborted stage version of Flowers for Algernon
. In 1967, at the age of 46, she starred in Casino Royale
, achieving the distinction of being the oldest 'Bond Girl
' in any James Bond
film.
In 1969, pressure of competition from younger, upcoming actresses made her agree to appear nude in John Frankenheimer
's The Gypsy Moths
, the only nude scene in Kerr's career. Concern about the parts being offered to her, as well as the increasing amount of nudity in films in general, led her to abandon film work at the end of the 1960s in favour of television and theatre
work.
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
(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, creating the role of Nancy in Edward Albee
's Pulitzer
-winning play Seascape
.
The theatre, despite her success in films, was always to remain Kerr's first love, even though going on stage filled her with trepidation:
in the 1957 film version) in Witness for the Prosecution
. Later, Kerr re-teamed with 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
.
Squadron Leader
Anthony Bartley on 29 November 1945. They had two daughters, Melanie Jane (born 27 December 1947) and Francesca Ann (born 20 December 1951), who married the actor John Shrapnel
. The Kerr-Bartley marriage was troubled, owing to Bartley's jealousy of his wife's fame and financial success, and because her career often took her away from home. Kerr and Bartley divorced in 1959.
Her second marriage was to author Peter Viertel
on 23 July 1960. In marrying Viertel, she acquired a stepdaughter, Christine Viertel. Although she long resided in Klosters
, Switzerland and Marbella
, Spain, she moved back to Britain to be closer to her own children as her health began to deteriorate. Her husband, however, continued to live in Marbella.
Some of Deborah Kerr's leading men
have stated in their autobiographies that they had an affair or romantic fling with her. The actor Stewart Granger
claimed that Kerr seduced him in the back of his chauffeur-driven car at the time he was making Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Likewise Burt Lancaster
claimed that he was romantically involved with her during the filming of From Here to Eternity
(1953). There is no independent corroboration of either actor's claims.
Deborah Kerr died from the effects of Parkinson's disease
on 16 October 2007 at the age of 86 in the village of Botesdale
, Suffolk
. Peter Viertel died of cancer on 4 November 2007, less than three weeks later. At the time of Viertel's death, director Michael Scheingraber was filming the documentary Peter Viertel: Between the Lines, which Scheingraber says will include reminiscences about events concerning Kerr and the American Academy Awards. The film is as yet (2010) unreleased.
(CBE) in 1998, but was unable to accept the honour in person because of ill health. She was also honoured in Hollywood where, for her contributions to the motion picture industry, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
, at 1709 Vine Street.
Deborah Kerr won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy" for The King and I in 1957, and a Henrietta Award for "World Film Favorite – Female". She was the first performer to win the New York Film Critics Circle Award for "Best Actress"
three times (1947, 1957 and 1960).
Although she never won a BAFTA, Oscar
or Cannes Film Festival
award in a competitive category, all three academies gave her honorary awards. In 1984, she was awarded a Cannes Film Festival Tribute. In 1991, she received a BAFTA Special Award and in 1994, she received the Academy Honorary Award
in recognition of "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance".
Kerr has also never been honored with an in-depth biography or filmography that critically examines her unique artistry or her quiet, but fascinating life. Besides the biography by Eric Braun, there is only one other by entertainment journalist Michelangelo Capua, published in 2010, entitled simply: Deborah Kerr: A Biography. However, the British Film Institute's Josephine Botting curated a "Deborah Kerr Season," which included almost 20 of her feature films as well as an exhibition of posters, other cinemabilia, and personal items on loan from Deborah Kerr's family, which took place in September and October of 2010.
: Edward, My Son
(1949), From Here to Eternity
(1953), The King and I
(1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
(1957), Separate Tables
(1958) and The Sundowners
(1960).
She was also nominated four times for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress
: The End of the Affair
(1955), Tea and Sympathy
(1956), The Sundowners (1961) and The Chalk Garden
(1964).
She received one Emmy Award nomination in 1985 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for A Woman of Substance
. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for Edward, My Son (1949), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) and Separate Tables (1958).
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. She won the Sarah Siddons Award
Sarah Siddons Award
The Sarah Siddons Society is an American non-profit organization founded in 1952 by prominent Chicago theatre patrons with the goal of promoting excellence in the theatre. The Society presents the Sarah Siddons Award annually to an actor for an outstanding performance in a Chicago theatre production...
for her Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy
Tea and Sympathy
Tea and Sympathy is a 1953 stage play in three acts by Robert Anderson.-Broadway premiere:It received its premiere on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on September 30, 1953 in a production by The Playwrights' Company, directed by Elia Kazan and designed by Jo Mielziner. The play starred...
, a role which she originated on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I
The King and I (1956 film)
The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King...
, and was a three-time winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
. She was also the recipient of honorary Academy, BAFTA and Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
awards.
She was nominated six times for an Academy Award as Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
but never won competitively. In 1994, however, she was awarded the Academy Honorary Award
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
, cited by the Academy
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
as "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance".
Her films include The King and I
The King and I (1956 film)
The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King...
, An Affair to Remember
An Affair to Remember
An Affair to Remember is a 1957 film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and directed by Leo McCarey. It was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation....
, From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the...
, Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis (1951 film)
Quo Vadis is a 1951 epic film made by MGM. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist, from a screenplay by John Lee Mahin, S. N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, adapted from Henryk Sienkiewicz's classic 1896 novel Quo Vadis. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography...
, The Innocents, Black Narcissus
Black Narcissus
Black Narcissus is a 1947 film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden...
, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a 1957 CinemaScope film which tells the story of two people stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II....
, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a 1943 film by the British film making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger under the production banner of The Archers. It stars Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. The title derives from the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip by David...
and Separate Tables
Separate Tables (film)
Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. It was directed by Delbert Mann, and adapted by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.The film took the...
.
Although the Scottish pronunciation of her surname, ˈkɛr, is closer to a phonetic reading of the name, when she was being promoted as a Hollywood actress it was made clear that her surname should be pronounced the same as "car". To avoid confusion over pronunciation, Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
of MGM billed her as "Kerr rhymes with Star!"
Early life
Kerr was born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in a private nursing home (hospital) in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland, the only daughter of Kathleen Rose (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Smale) and Capt. Arthur Charles Kerr-Trimmer, a World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
veteran pilot
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
who later became a naval architect and civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
. Directly after her birth she spent the first three years of her life in the nearby town of Helensburgh
Helensburgh
Helensburgh is a town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde and the eastern shore of the entrance to the Gareloch....
, where her parents lived with Deborah's grandparents in a house on West King Street. Kerr had a younger brother, Edward (a.k.a. Teddy), who became a journalist and died in a "road-rage" incident in 2004.
Kerr was educated at the independent
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
Northumberland House School in the Clifton
Clifton, Bristol
Clifton is a suburb of the City of Bristol in England, and the name of both one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells...
area of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
in England (the school was demolished in 1937, when Kerr was only 16 years old), and at Rossholme School in Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...
.
Kerr originally trained as a ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
dancer, first appearing on stage at Sadler's Wells
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
in 1938. After changing careers, she soon found success as an actress. Her first acting teacher was her aunt, Phyllis Smale, who ran the Hicks-Smale Drama School in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
.
Films
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film Contraband in 1940 but her scenes were left on the cutting room floor
Cutting room floor
The term cutting room floor is used in the film industry as a figure of speech referring to unused footage not included in the finished film. In fact offcuts of film are retained in a special cutting room bin and numbered during the editing process in case they are required later...
. She followed that with a series of films, including Hatter's Castle
Hatter's Castle (film)
Hatter's Castle is a 1941 British film adaptation of the 1931 novel by A. J. Cronin, which dramatizes the ruin that befalls a Scottish hatter set on recapturing his imagined lost nobility. The film was made by Paramount British Pictures and stars Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, and Emlyn...
(1942), in which she starred opposite Robert Newton
Robert Newton
Robert Newton was an English stage and film actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the most popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys...
and James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
. The following year, she played three women in Michael Powell
Michael Powell (director)
Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
and Emeric Pressburger
Emeric Pressburger
Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a multiple-award-winning partnership known as The Archers and produced a series of classic British films, notably 49th Parallel , The...
's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a 1943 film by the British film making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger under the production banner of The Archers. It stars Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. The title derives from the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip by David...
. During the filming, according to Powell's autobiography, she and Powell became lovers:
Although Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
thought it would ruin wartime morale, and the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
refused to extend co-operation with the producers, the film confounded critics by proving to be an artistic and commercial success. Powell had hoped to reunite Kerr and Roger Livesey
Roger Livesey
Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death...
, who had played the title character, in his next film, A Canterbury Tale
A Canterbury Tale
A Canterbury Tale is a 1944 British film by the film-making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, Dennis Price and Sgt. John Sweet; Esmond Knight provided narration and played several small roles. For the postwar American release, Raymond Massey narrated...
(1944), but her agent had sold her contract to MGM. According to Powell, his affair with Kerr ended when she made it clear to him that she would accept an offer to go to Hollywood if one were made.
It was her role as a troubled nun in Black Narcissus
Black Narcissus
Black Narcissus is a 1947 film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden...
in 1947 which brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers. The film was a hit in the US as well as the UK, and Kerr won the New York Film Critics' Award as Actress of the Year. In Hollywood, her British accent and manners led to a succession of roles portraying a refined, reserved, and proper English lady. Nevertheless, Kerr frequently used any opportunity to discard her cool exterior. She starred in the 1950 adventure film, King Solomon's Mines
King Solomon's Mines (1950 film)
King Solomon's Mines is a 1950 adventure film loosely based on the 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard, starring Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger and Richard Carlson. It was adapted by Helen Deutsch, directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
, shot on location in Africa with Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger was an English-American film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.-Early life:He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old...
and Richard Carlson
Richard Carlson
Richard Carlson was an American actor, television and film director, and screenwriter.-Career:Born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, Carlson graduated from the University of Minnesota with an M.A. degree, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. He later appeared on the Broadway stage in the 1930s after studying...
. This was immediately followed by her appearance in the religious epic Quo Vadis?
Quo Vadis (1951 film)
Quo Vadis is a 1951 epic film made by MGM. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist, from a screenplay by John Lee Mahin, S. N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, adapted from Henryk Sienkiewicz's classic 1896 novel Quo Vadis. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography...
(1951), shot at Cinecittà
Cinecittà
Cinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
in Rome, in which she played the indomitable Lygia, a first century Christian.
Kerr also departed from typecasting with a performance that brought out her sensuality, as Karen Holmes, the embittered military wife in From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the...
(1953), for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. The American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
acknowledged the iconic status of the scene from that film in which she and Burt Lancaster make love on a Hawaii beach amidst the crashing waves. The organisation ranked it twentieth in its list of the 100 most romantic films of all time.
From then on, Kerr's career choices would make her known in Hollywood for her versatility as an actress, She portrayed a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
(Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a 1957 CinemaScope film which tells the story of two people stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II....
), a mama's girl (Separate Tables
Separate Tables (film)
Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. It was directed by Delbert Mann, and adapted by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.The film took the...
), and a governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
(The Chalk Garden
The Chalk Garden
The Chalk Garden is a play by Enid Bagnold that premiered on Broadway in 1955. The play tells the story of Mrs. St Maugham and her granddaughter Laurel, a disturbed child under Miss Madrigal's care. The setting of the play was inspired by Bagnold's own garden at North End House in Rottingdean, near...
and The Innocents), but she also portrayed an earthy Australian sheep-herder's wife (The Sundowners
The Sundowners
The Sundowners is a 1960 film that tells the story of an Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife's and son's desire to settle down in one place...
) and lustful and beautiful screen enchantresses (Beloved Infidel, Bonjour Tristesse
Bonjour Tristesse
Bonjour Tristesse is a novel by Françoise Sagan. Published in 1954, when the author was only 18, it was an overnight sensation...
). She also starred in comedies (The Grass is Greener
The Grass Is Greener
The Grass Is Greener is a 1960 comedy film featuring an ensemble cast consisting of screen veterans Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Jean Simmons,directed by Stanley Donen...
and Marriage on the Rocks
Marriage on the Rocks
Marriage on the Rocks is a 1965 film comedy with Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, and Dean Martin about a businessman's wife who ends up divorced by mistake and then married to his best friend by an even bigger mistake. The film was written by Cy Howard and directed by Jack Donohue.Marriage on the...
).
Among her most famous roles were Anna Leonowens
Anna Leonowens
Anna Leonowens was an English travel writer, educator, and social activist. She worked in Siam from 1862 to 1868, where she taught the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam. She also co-founded the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design...
in the film version of the Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
and Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
musical The King and I
The King and I (1956 film)
The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King...
(1956), and opposite Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
in An Affair to Remember
An Affair to Remember
An Affair to Remember is a 1957 film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and directed by Leo McCarey. It was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation....
(1958). In 1966, the producers of Carry On Screaming! offered her a fee comparable to that paid to the rest of the cast combined, but she turned it down in favour of appearing in an aborted stage version of Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon
Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story and subsequent novel written by Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960...
. In 1967, at the age of 46, she starred in Casino Royale
Casino Royale (1967 film)
Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...
, achieving the distinction of being the oldest 'Bond Girl
Bond girl
A Bond girl is a character or actress portraying a love interest, of James Bond in a film, novel, or video game. They occasionally have names that are double entendres or puns, such as "Pussy Galore", "Plenty O'Toole", "Xenia Onatopp", or "Holly Goodhead"...
' in any James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film.
In 1969, pressure of competition from younger, upcoming actresses made her agree to appear nude in John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...
's The Gypsy Moths
The Gypsy Moths
The Gypsy Moths is a 1969 American film starring Burt Lancaster, based on the novel of the same name by James Drought. It is the story of three barnstorming skydivers and their effect on a midwestern American town. At the time, the sport of skydiving was in its infancy, yet the movie featured an...
, the only nude scene in Kerr's career. Concern about the parts being offered to her, as well as the increasing amount of nudity in films in general, led her to abandon film work at the end of the 1960s in favour of television and theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
work.
Theatre
As a stage actress, Deborah Kerr made her BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in 1953 in Robert Anderson
Robert Woodruff Anderson
Robert Woodruff Anderson was an American playwright, screenwriter, and theater producer....
's Tea and Sympathy
Tea and Sympathy
Tea and Sympathy is a 1953 stage play in three acts by Robert Anderson.-Broadway premiere:It received its premiere on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on September 30, 1953 in a production by The Playwrights' Company, directed by Elia Kazan and designed by Jo Mielziner. The play starred...
, for which she received a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nomination. Kerr repeated her role along with her stage partner John Kerr
John Kerr (actor)
John Kerr is an American actor from a family rooted in British and Broadway stage, and a lawyer.- Early life :Kerr's parents, Geoffrey Kerr and June Walker, were both stage and film actors, and his grandfather was Frederick Kerr, a famed British trans-Atlantic character actor in the period...
(no relation) in Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
's film adaptation of the drama. In 1955, Kerr won the Sarah Siddons Award
Sarah Siddons Award
The Sarah Siddons Society is an American non-profit organization founded in 1952 by prominent Chicago theatre patrons with the goal of promoting excellence in the theatre. The Society presents the Sarah Siddons Award annually to an actor for an outstanding performance in a Chicago theatre production...
for her performance in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
during a national tour of the play. In 1975, she returned to Broadway, creating the role of Nancy in Edward Albee
Edward Albee
Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...
's Pulitzer
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning play Seascape
Seascape (play)
Seascape is a play by American playwright Edward Albee. Directed by Albee himself, the production opened on Broadway on January 26, 1975, at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre, starring Deborah Kerr, Barry Nelson, Maureen Anderman and Frank Langella, who won a Tony Award for his performance as Leslie...
.
The theatre, despite her success in films, was always to remain Kerr's first love, even though going on stage filled her with trepidation:
Television
Deborah Kerr experienced a career resurgence in the early 1980s on television, when she played the role of the nurse (played by Elsa LanchesterElsa Lanchester
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was an English-American character actress with a long career in theatre, film and television....
in the 1957 film version) in Witness for the Prosecution
Witness for the Prosecution (1982 film)
Witness for the Prosecution is a 1982 TV version of Agatha Christie's short story and play, and also a remake of the classic Billy Wilder 1957 film Witness for the Prosecution....
. Later, Kerr re-teamed with screen partner Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
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
Barbara Taylor Bradford
Barbara Taylor Bradford OBE is an English novelist, and one of the world's most beloved storytellers. Her debut novel, A Woman of Substance, was published in 1979 and has sold over 32 million copies worldwide. To date, she has written 27 novels -- all bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic...
's A Woman of Substance
A Woman of Substance
A Woman of Substance is a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and was published in 1979.This novel is the first of a saga about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business elite across three generations....
. For this performance, Kerr was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
.
Personal life
Kerr's first marriage was to Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
Anthony Bartley on 29 November 1945. They had two daughters, Melanie Jane (born 27 December 1947) and Francesca Ann (born 20 December 1951), who married the actor John Shrapnel
John Shrapnel
John Shrapnel is an English actor.Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel....
. The Kerr-Bartley marriage was troubled, owing to Bartley's jealousy of his wife's fame and financial success, and because her career often took her away from home. Kerr and Bartley divorced in 1959.
Her second marriage was to author Peter Viertel
Peter Viertel
Peter Viertel was an author and screenwriter.-Biography:He was born to Jewish parents in Dresden, Germany, the writer and actress Salka Viertel and the writer Berthold Viertel. In 1928, his parents moved to Santa Monica, California where Viertel grew up with his brothers, Hans and Thomas...
on 23 July 1960. In marrying Viertel, she acquired a stepdaughter, Christine Viertel. Although she long resided in Klosters
Klosters
Klosters-Serneus is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.Its well-known ski resort lies from Zurich, the nearest international airport. Transfer time is about 1.5 hours. Klosters is from Davos...
, Switzerland and Marbella
Marbella
Marbella is a town in Andalusia, Spain. It is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, in the province of Málaga, beneath the La Concha mountain. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234, in 2010 approximately 135,000....
, Spain, she moved back to Britain to be closer to her own children as her health began to deteriorate. Her husband, however, continued to live in Marbella.
Some of Deborah Kerr's leading men
Leading man
Leading man or leading gentleman is an informal term for the actor who plays a love interest to the leading actress in a film or play. A leading man is usually an all rounder; capable of singing, dancing, and acting at a professional level, but never outshining his female co-star...
have stated in their autobiographies that they had an affair or romantic fling with her. The actor Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger was an English-American film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.-Early life:He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old...
claimed that Kerr seduced him in the back of his chauffeur-driven car at the time he was making Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Likewise Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
claimed that he was romantically involved with her during the filming of From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the...
(1953). There is no independent corroboration of either actor's claims.
Deborah Kerr died from the effects of Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
on 16 October 2007 at the age of 86 in the village of Botesdale
Botesdale
Botesdale is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The village is about south west of Diss.Botesdale is located about 25 miles from Norwich and 16 miles from Bury St Edmunds.- Road :...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
. Peter Viertel died of cancer on 4 November 2007, less than three weeks later. At the time of Viertel's death, director Michael Scheingraber was filming the documentary Peter Viertel: Between the Lines, which Scheingraber says will include reminiscences about events concerning Kerr and the American Academy Awards. The film is as yet (2010) unreleased.
Honours
Deborah Kerr was made a Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) in 1998, but was unable to accept the honour in person because of ill health. She was also honoured in Hollywood where, for her contributions to the motion picture industry, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
, at 1709 Vine Street.
Deborah Kerr won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy" for The King and I in 1957, and a Henrietta Award for "World Film Favorite – Female". She was the first performer to win the New York Film Critics Circle Award for "Best Actress"
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
three times (1947, 1957 and 1960).
Although she never won a BAFTA, Oscar
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
or Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
award in a competitive category, all three academies gave her honorary awards. In 1984, she was awarded a Cannes Film Festival Tribute. In 1991, she received a BAFTA Special Award and in 1994, she received the Academy Honorary Award
Academy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
in recognition of "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance".
Kerr has also never been honored with an in-depth biography or filmography that critically examines her unique artistry or her quiet, but fascinating life. Besides the biography by Eric Braun, there is only one other by entertainment journalist Michelangelo Capua, published in 2010, entitled simply: Deborah Kerr: A Biography. However, the British Film Institute's Josephine Botting curated a "Deborah Kerr Season," which included almost 20 of her feature films as well as an exhibition of posters, other cinemabilia, and personal items on loan from Deborah Kerr's family, which took place in September and October of 2010.
Award nominations
Deborah Kerr was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best ActressAcademy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
: Edward, My Son
Edward, My Son
Edward, My Son is a 1949 American/British drama film directed by George Cukor that stars Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr. The screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart is based on the play by Noel Langley and Robert Morley.-Plot:...
(1949), From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity
From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the...
(1953), The King and I
The King and I (1956 film)
The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King...
(1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a 1957 CinemaScope film which tells the story of two people stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II....
(1957), Separate Tables
Separate Tables (film)
Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. It was directed by Delbert Mann, and adapted by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.The film took the...
(1958) and The Sundowners
The Sundowners
The Sundowners is a 1960 film that tells the story of an Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife's and son's desire to settle down in one place...
(1960).
She was also nominated four times for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...
: The End of the Affair
The End of the Affair (1955 film)
The End of the Affair is a 1955 film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, Peter Cushing and John Mills. It is based on the novel The End of the Affair by Graham Greene....
(1955), Tea and Sympathy
Tea and Sympathy
Tea and Sympathy is a 1953 stage play in three acts by Robert Anderson.-Broadway premiere:It received its premiere on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on September 30, 1953 in a production by The Playwrights' Company, directed by Elia Kazan and designed by Jo Mielziner. The play starred...
(1956), The Sundowners (1961) and The Chalk Garden
The Chalk Garden
The Chalk Garden is a play by Enid Bagnold that premiered on Broadway in 1955. The play tells the story of Mrs. St Maugham and her granddaughter Laurel, a disturbed child under Miss Madrigal's care. The setting of the play was inspired by Bagnold's own garden at North End House in Rottingdean, near...
(1964).
She received one Emmy Award nomination in 1985 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Special for A Woman of Substance
A Woman of Substance
A Woman of Substance is a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and was published in 1979.This novel is the first of a saga about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business elite across three generations....
. She was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama for Edward, My Son (1949), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) and Separate Tables (1958).
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 1940 in film The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released.... |
Contraband | Bit (scenes deleted) | UK release |
| 1941 1941 in film The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:... |
Major Barbara | Jenny Hill | UK release |
| Love on the Dole Love on the Dole (film) Love on the Dole is a 1941 British drama film starring Deborah Kerr and Clifford Evans. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Walter Greenwood.- Plot summary :... |
Sally | UK release | |
| 1942 1942 in film The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:... |
Penn of Pennsylvania Penn of Pennsylvania Penn of Pennsylvania is a 1941 British historical drama film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Deborah Kerr, Clifford Evans, Dennis Arundell, Henry Oscar, Herbet Lomas and Edward Rigby. The film depicts the life of the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn... |
Gulielma Maria Springett | U.S. title: Courageous Mr. Penn |
| Hatter's Castle Hatter's Castle (film) Hatter's Castle is a 1941 British film adaptation of the 1931 novel by A. J. Cronin, which dramatizes the ruin that befalls a Scottish hatter set on recapturing his imagined lost nobility. The film was made by Paramount British Pictures and stars Robert Newton, Deborah Kerr, James Mason, and Emlyn... |
Mary Brodie | ||
| The Day Will Dawn The Day Will Dawn The Day Will Dawn, released in the U.S. as The Avengers, is a 1942 war film set in Norway during World War II. It stars Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams and Griffith Jones, and was directed by Harold French from a script written by Anatole de Grunwald, Patrick Kirwan and Terence... |
Kari Alstad | U.S. title: The Avengers | |
| A Battle for a Bottle | Linda | Voice–animated short | |
| 1943 1943 in film The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films.... |
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a 1943 film by the British film making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger under the production banner of The Archers. It stars Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. The title derives from the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip by David... |
Edith Hunter/Barbara Wynne/Johnny Cannon | UK release |
| 1945 1945 in film The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins.... |
Perfect Strangers Perfect Strangers (1945 film) Perfect Strangers , is a 1945 British drama film made by London Films. It stars Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr as a married couple whose relationship is shaken by their service in the Second World War. The supporting cast includes Glynis Johns, Ann Todd, Roland Culver, and Roger Moore in his... |
Catherine Wilson | U.S. title: Vacation From Marriage |
| 1946 1946 in film The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a... |
I See a Dark Stranger I See a Dark Stranger I See a Dark Stranger is a British 1946 World War II spy film with touches of light comedy, by the team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, and starring Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard.-Plot:... |
Bridie Quilty | U.S. Title: The Adventuress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... (and Black Narcissus) |
| 1947 1947 in film The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25... |
Black Narcissus Black Narcissus Black Narcissus is a 1947 film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden... |
Sister Clodagh | UK release New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... (and I See a Dark Stranger) |
| The Hucksters The Hucksters The Hucksters is a 1947 MGM film directed by Jack Conway and starring Clark Gable that marked the debut of Deborah Kerr in an American film. It also featured Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Keenan Wynn, Edward Arnold and Ava Gardner... |
Kay Dorrance | ||
| If Winter Comes If Winter Comes If Winter Comes is a 1947 drama film released by MGM. The movie was directed by Victor Saville, based on the novel by A.S.M. Hutchinson. The film tells the story of an English textbook writer who takes in a pregnant girl... |
Nona Tybar | ||
| 1949 1949 in film The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello... |
Edward, My Son Edward, My Son Edward, My Son is a 1949 American/British drama film directed by George Cukor that stars Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr. The screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart is based on the play by Noel Langley and Robert Morley.-Plot:... |
Evelyn Boult | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated—Golden Globe Award – Best Actress Drama |
| 1950 1950 in film The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush... |
Please Believe Me Please Believe Me Please Believe Me is a 1950 romantic comedy film directed by Norman Taurog, and starring Deborah Kerr, Robert Walker, Mark Stevens and Peter Lawford.-Plot:... |
Alison Kirbe | |
| King Solomon's Mines King Solomon's Mines (1950 film) King Solomon's Mines is a 1950 adventure film loosely based on the 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines by Henry Rider Haggard, starring Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger and Richard Carlson. It was adapted by Helen Deutsch, directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer... |
Elizabeth Curtis | ||
| 1951 1951 in film The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:... |
Quo Vadis Quo Vadis (1951 film) Quo Vadis is a 1951 epic film made by MGM. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist, from a screenplay by John Lee Mahin, S. N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, adapted from Henryk Sienkiewicz's classic 1896 novel Quo Vadis. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography... |
Lygia | |
| 1952 1952 in film The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.... |
The Prisoner of Zenda The Prisoner of Zenda (1952 film) The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1952 film version of the classic novel of the same name by Anthony Hope and a remake of the famous 1937 film version. This version was made by Loew's and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S... |
Princess Flavia | |
| Thunder in the East Thunder in the East (film) Thunder in the East is a 1952 war drama film released by Paramount Pictures, and directed by Charles Vidor, based on novel Rage of the Vulture by Alan Moorehead.-Cast:*Alan Ladd as Steve Gibbs*Deborah Kerr as Joan Willoughby... |
Joan Willoughby | ||
| 1953 1953 in film The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A... |
Young Bess Young Bess Young Bess is a 1953 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about the early life of Elizabeth I, from her turbulent childhood to the eve of her accession to the throne of England... |
Catherine Parr Catherine Parr Catherine Parr ; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him... |
|
| Julius Caesar Julius Caesar (1953 film) Julius Caesar is an 1953 MGM film adaptation of the play by Shakespeare, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who also wrote the uncredited screenplay, and produced by John Houseman. The original music score is by Miklós Rózsa... |
Portia Porcia Catonis Porcia Catonis, also known simply as Porcia was a Roman woman who lived in the 1st century BC. She was the daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticencis and his first wife Atilia... |
||
| Dream Wife Dream Wife Dream Wife is a 1953 romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.It was directed by Sidney Sheldon and produced by Dore Schary, from a screenplay by Herbert Baker, Alfred Lewis Levitt and Sidney Sheldon. The music score was by Conrad Salinger, the... |
Effie | ||
| From Here to Eternity From Here to Eternity From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the... |
Karen Holmes | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
|
| 1955 1955 in film The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released.... |
The End of the Affair The End of the Affair (1955 film) The End of the Affair is a 1955 film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, Peter Cushing and John Mills. It is based on the novel The End of the Affair by Graham Greene.... |
Sarah Miles | Nominated—BAFTA Award – Best British Actress |
| 1956 1956 in film The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by... |
The Proud and Profane The Proud and Profane The Proud and Profane is a 1956 dramatic war romance made by William Perlberg-George Seaton Productions for Paramount Pictures. It was directed by George Seaton and produced by William Perlberg, from a screenplay by George Seaton, based on the novel The Magnificent Bastards by Lucy Herndon... |
Lee Ashley | |
| The King and I The King and I (1956 film) The King and I is a 1956 musical film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Walter Lang and produced by Charles Brackett and Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is based on the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I, based in turn on the book Anna and the King... |
Anna Leonowens Anna Leonowens Anna Leonowens was an English travel writer, educator, and social activist. She worked in Siam from 1862 to 1868, where she taught the wives and children of Mongkut, king of Siam. She also co-founded the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design... |
singing voice dubbed by Marni Nixon Marni Nixon Marni Nixon is an American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals. She has also spent much of her career performing in concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world and in operas and musicals throughout the United States.-Biography:Born Margaret Nixon... Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
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| Tea and Sympathy Tea and Sympathy Tea and Sympathy is a 1953 stage play in three acts by Robert Anderson.-Broadway premiere:It received its premiere on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on September 30, 1953 in a production by The Playwrights' Company, directed by Elia Kazan and designed by Jo Mielziner. The play starred... |
Laura Reynolds | Nominated—BAFTA Award – Best British Actress | |
| 1957 1957 in film The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:... |
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a 1957 CinemaScope film which tells the story of two people stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II.... |
Sister Angela | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated—Golden Globe Award – Best Actress Drama New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
| An Affair to Remember An Affair to Remember An Affair to Remember is a 1957 film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and directed by Leo McCarey. It was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.... |
Terry McKay | ||
| Kiss Them for Me Kiss Them for Me (film) Kiss Them for Me is a 1957 comedy film starring Cary Grant and Jayne Mansfield, directed by Stanley Donen. Co-stars included Suzy Parker, Leif Erickson, Ray Walston, and Werner Klemperer.... |
Gwinneth Livingston | Unbilled, dubbed voice of Suzy Parker Suzy Parker Suzy Parker was an American model and actress active from 1947 into the early 1960s. Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s when she appeared on the cover of dozens of magazines, advertisements, and in movie and television roles.She appeared in several Revlon advertisements, but... in a few scenes |
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| 1958 1958 in film The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946.... |
Bonjour Tristesse | Anne Larson | |
| Separate Tables Separate Tables (film) Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. It was directed by Delbert Mann, and adapted by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.The film took the... |
Sibyl Railton-Bell | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated—Golden Globe Award – Best Actress Drama |
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| 1959 1959 in film The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters.... |
The Journey The Journey (1959 film) The Journey is a 1959 American drama film directed by Anatole Litvak. A group of Westerners tries to flee Hungary after the Soviet Union moves to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. It stars Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, and Jason Robards. Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner were paired again since they... |
Diana Ashmore | |
| Count Your Blessings Count Your Blessings (film) Count Your Blessings is a 1959 drama film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Jean Negulesco, written and produced by Karl Tunberg, based on the 1951 novel The Blessing by Nancy Mitford. The music score was by Franz Waxman and the cinematography by George J. Folsey and Milton R. Krasner... |
Grace Allingham | ||
| Beloved Infidel | Sheilah Graham | ||
| 1960 1960 in film The year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I... |
The Sundowners The Sundowners The Sundowners is a 1960 film that tells the story of an Australian outback family torn between the father's desires to continue his nomadic sheep-herding ways and the wife's and son's desire to settle down in one place... |
Ida Carmody | Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated—BAFTA Award – Best British Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the New York Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-1930s:-1940s:-1950s:-1960s:-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
| The Grass Is Greener The Grass Is Greener The Grass Is Greener is a 1960 comedy film featuring an ensemble cast consisting of screen veterans Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, and Jean Simmons,directed by Stanley Donen... |
Lady Hilary Rhyall | ||
| 1961 1961 in film The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB... |
The Naked Edge The Naked Edge The Naked Edge is a 1961 thriller film starring Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr. The movie was a British-American co-production distributed by United Artists, directed by Michael Anderson and produced by George Glass and Walter Seltzer with Marlon Brando Sr. as executive producer... |
Martha Radcliffe | UK release |
| The Innocents | Miss Giddens | UK release | |
| 1964 1964 in film The year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released.... |
On the Trail of the Iguana | Herself | UK promotional short subject |
| The Chalk Garden The Chalk Garden The Chalk Garden is a play by Enid Bagnold that premiered on Broadway in 1955. The play tells the story of Mrs. St Maugham and her granddaughter Laurel, a disturbed child under Miss Madrigal's care. The setting of the play was inspired by Bagnold's own garden at North End House in Rottingdean, near... |
Miss Madrigal | Nominated—BAFTA Award – Best British Actress | |
| The Night of the Iguana The Night of the Iguana (film) The Night of the Iguana is a 1964 film based on the 1961 play The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams. Directed by John Huston, it starred Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr. It won the 1964 Academy Award for Best Costume Design, and was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best... |
Hannah Jelkes | ||
| 1965 1965 in film The year 1965 in film involved some significant events, with The Sound of Music topping the U.S. box office.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:... |
Marriage on the Rocks Marriage on the Rocks Marriage on the Rocks is a 1965 film comedy with Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, and Dean Martin about a businessman's wife who ends up divorced by mistake and then married to his best friend by an even bigger mistake. The film was written by Cy Howard and directed by Jack Donohue.Marriage on the... |
Valerie Edwards | UK release |
| 1967 1967 in film The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television.... |
Casino Royale Casino Royale (1967 film) Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the... |
Agent Mimi / Lady Fiona McTarry | |
| Eye of the Devil Eye of the Devil Eye of the Devil is a 1966 British film with occult and supernatural themes directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Deborah Kerr and David Niven. The film was set in rural France and filmed in England.-Plot:... |
Catherine de Montfaucon | UK release | |
| 1968 1968 in film The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :... |
Prudence and the Pill Prudence and the Pill Prudence and the Pill is a 1968 British comedy film made by Twentieth Century-Fox. It was directed by Fielder Cook and Ronald Neame and produced by Kenneth Harper and Ronald J. Kahn from a screenplay by Hugh Mills, based on his own novel... |
Prudence Hardcastle | UK release |
| 1969 1969 in film The year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980... |
The Gypsy Moths The Gypsy Moths The Gypsy Moths is a 1969 American film starring Burt Lancaster, based on the novel of the same name by James Drought. It is the story of three barnstorming skydivers and their effect on a midwestern American town. At the time, the sport of skydiving was in its infancy, yet the movie featured an... |
Elizabeth Brandon | US release |
| The Arrangement The Arrangement (1969 film) The Arrangement is a 1969 film directed by Elia Kazan and based upon his 1967 novel of the same title.The Arrangement tells the story of a seemingly successful Los Angeles-area advertising executive of Greek-American extraction, Evangelos Arness who later takes on the name, "Eddie Anderson"... |
Florence Anderson | US release | |
| 1982 | BBC2 Playhouse | Carlotta Gray | TV episode: "A Song at Twilight" |
| Witness for the Prosecution Witness for the Prosecution (1982 film) Witness for the Prosecution is a 1982 TV version of Agatha Christie's short story and play, and also a remake of the classic Billy Wilder 1957 film Witness for the Prosecution.... |
Nurse Plimsoll | ||
| 1984 | A Woman of Substance A Woman of Substance A Woman of Substance is a novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and was published in 1979.This novel is the first of a saga about the fortunes of a retail empire and the machinations of the business elite across three generations.... |
Emma Harte | UK TV mini-series |
| 1985 1985 in film -Events:* 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.* The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.* Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie... |
The Assam Garden The Assam Garden The Assam Garden is a 1985 British drama film made by Moving Picture Company and distributed by Contemporary Films Ltd. The film was directed by Mary McMurray and produced by Nigel Stafford-Clark with Peter Jaques as associate producer. It was written by Elisabeth Bond... |
Helen | UK release |
| Reunion at Farnborough | Sally Wells Grant | UK television film | |
| 1986 | Hold the Dream Hold the Dream Hold the Dream is a British two-part miniseries made in 1986, based on the novel of the same name by Barbara Taylor Bradford. It is the second book in the Emma Harte series, following A Woman of Substance... |
Emma Harte | UK TV mini-series |
Works cited
- Braun, Eric. Deborah Kerr. St. Martin's Press, 1978. ISBN 0-312-18895-1.
- Powell, Michael. A Life In Movies. Heinemann, 1986. ISBN 0-434-59945-X.
- Andrew, Penelope. "Deborah Kerr: An Actress in Search of an Author." Bright Lights Film Journal, May 2011, Issue #72. http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/72/72kerr_andrew.php, (c) Penelope Andrew, 2011.
External links
- Deborah Kerr at Helensburgh Heroes
- essay The Enigma of Deborah Kerr — Ephemera, media files and an essay about Ms. Kerr
- 55th Sydney Film Festival Deborah Kerr Retrospective ("From Kerr To Eternity" 2008)
- Deborah Kerr Rhymes With Star, and What a Star She Was: She Deserves to be Remembered, Too (Huffington Post, 7 April 2008)
- Deborah Kerr Tribute by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, whose Broken Embraces script was influenced by his reflections of the great international star at the time of her death (blogpedroalmodóvar, 25 March 2008)
- Extensive collection of press articles from 1940s to 2000s, photo galleries and information on Deborah Kerr (April 2009)
- Photographs and literature