MERLE OBERON
Name: Merle Oberon
Birth name: Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson
Born: 19 February 1911 Bombay (now Mumbai), British India
Died: 23 November 1979 Malibu, California
Merle Oberon (19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979), born Estelle Merle Oberon,
was an Academy Award-nominated British film actress.
Oberon was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), British India. Her mother, Charlotte,
was an Anglo-Sinhalese nurse; her father, Arthur, was a British railway engineer.
Merle was her mother's second child. Charlotte had abandoned her first daughter,
Constance, and refused to take care of another child born out of wedlock. She
insisted that Arthur marry her, although there is no evidence that he actually
did.
In 1914, when she was three, Oberon's father died of pneumonia on the Western
Front in the early months of World War I. Mother and daughter led an
impoverished existence in shabby Bombay apartments for a few years. Then, in
1917, they moved to better circumstances in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Oberon
received a foundation scholarship to attend La Martiniere College for Girls, a
well known Calcutta private school. There, she was constantly taunted for her
unconventional parentage and eventually quit school and had her lessons at home.
Oberon first performed with the Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society. She was also
completely enamored of the movies and enjoyed going out to nightclubs. As she
entered her teen years, she dated increasingly older, urbane men.
In 1929, she met a former actor who claimed he could introduce her to Rex Ingram
of Victorine Studios. Oberon jumped at the offer and decided to follow the man
to the studios in France. However, when he saw Oberon's dark mother one night at
her apartment and realized Oberon was mixed-race, he secretly decided to end the
relationship. After packing all their belongings and moving to France, Oberon
and her mother found that their supposed benefactor had dodged them. However, he
had left a good word for Oberon with Rex Ingram at the studios in Nice. Ingram
liked Oberon's exotic appearance. She was quickly hired to be an extra in a
party scene.
Oberon arrived in England for the first time in 1928. Initially she worked as a
club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played in minor and unbilled
roles in various films. Her film career received a major boost when the director
Alexander Korda took an interest and gave her a small but prominent role, under
the name Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
opposite Charles Laughton. The film became a major success and she was then
given leading roles, such as Lady Blakeney in the The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
with Leslie Howard, who became her lover for a while. During her time as a film
star, Oberon went to great lengths to disguise her mixed-race background and
when her dark-skinned mother moved in with her, she masqueraded as Oberon's maid.
Oberon's career went on to greater heights, partly as a result of her
relationship with and later marriage to Alexander Korda, who had persuaded her
to take the name under which she became famous. He sold "shares" of her contract
to producer Samuel Goldwyn, who gave her good vehicles in Hollywood. Her mother
stayed behind in England. Oberon received her only Oscar nomination as Best
Actress for The Dark Angel (1935) produced by Goldwyn. Around this time she had
a serious romance with David Niven, and according to his authorized biography,
even wanted to marry him, but he wasn't faithful to her. She was selected to
star in Korda's film I, Claudius (1937) as Messalina, but a serious car accident
resulted in filming being abandoned. Oberon was scarred for life, but skilled
lighting technicians were able to hide her injuries from cinema audiences.
She went on to appear as Cathy in her most famous film Wuthering Heights (1939),
as George Sand in A Song to Remember (1945), and as Empress Josephine in Désirée
(1954).
According to Princess Merle, the biography written by Charles Higham with Roy
Moseley, Oberon suffered even further damage to her complexion in 1940 from a
combination of cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs.
Alexander Korda sent her to a skin specialist in New York City, where she
underwent several dermabrasion procedures. The results, however, were only
partially successful; without makeup, one could see noticeable pitting and
indentation of her skin.
Her mother died in 1937, and in 1949 Oberon commissioned paintings of her mother
from an old photograph, instructing the artist to lighten her mother's
complexion. The paintings would hang in all her homes until her death in 1979.
Also, Oberon supposedly had a minor obsession with facial injuries after her own
accident, and had an affair with Richard Hillary who had been burned after his
Supermarine Spitfire was shot down in 1940.
Merle Oberon became Lady Korda upon her husband's knighthood. She divorced Sir
Alexander Korda in 1945, to marry cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Ballard
devised a special camera light for her to eliminate her facial scars on film.
The light became known as the "Obie".
She married twice more, to Italian-born industrialist, Bruno Pagliai (with whom
she adopted two children) and Dutch actor Robert Wolders – who would later
become Audrey Hepburn's companion – before her retirement in Malibu, California,
where she died after suffering a stroke at the age of 68. She was interred in
the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Merle Oberon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to
Motion Pictures, at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard.
Name: Merle Oberon
Birth name: Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson
Born: 19 February 1911 Bombay (now Mumbai), British India
Died: 23 November 1979 Malibu, California
Merle Oberon (19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979), born Estelle Merle Oberon,
was an Academy Award-nominated British film actress.
Oberon was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), British India. Her mother, Charlotte,
was an Anglo-Sinhalese nurse; her father, Arthur, was a British railway engineer.
Merle was her mother's second child. Charlotte had abandoned her first daughter,
Constance, and refused to take care of another child born out of wedlock. She
insisted that Arthur marry her, although there is no evidence that he actually
did.
In 1914, when she was three, Oberon's father died of pneumonia on the Western
Front in the early months of World War I. Mother and daughter led an
impoverished existence in shabby Bombay apartments for a few years. Then, in
1917, they moved to better circumstances in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Oberon
received a foundation scholarship to attend La Martiniere College for Girls, a
well known Calcutta private school. There, she was constantly taunted for her
unconventional parentage and eventually quit school and had her lessons at home.
Oberon first performed with the Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society. She was also
completely enamored of the movies and enjoyed going out to nightclubs. As she
entered her teen years, she dated increasingly older, urbane men.
In 1929, she met a former actor who claimed he could introduce her to Rex Ingram
of Victorine Studios. Oberon jumped at the offer and decided to follow the man
to the studios in France. However, when he saw Oberon's dark mother one night at
her apartment and realized Oberon was mixed-race, he secretly decided to end the
relationship. After packing all their belongings and moving to France, Oberon
and her mother found that their supposed benefactor had dodged them. However, he
had left a good word for Oberon with Rex Ingram at the studios in Nice. Ingram
liked Oberon's exotic appearance. She was quickly hired to be an extra in a
party scene.
Oberon arrived in England for the first time in 1928. Initially she worked as a
club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played in minor and unbilled
roles in various films. Her film career received a major boost when the director
Alexander Korda took an interest and gave her a small but prominent role, under
the name Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
opposite Charles Laughton. The film became a major success and she was then
given leading roles, such as Lady Blakeney in the The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
with Leslie Howard, who became her lover for a while. During her time as a film
star, Oberon went to great lengths to disguise her mixed-race background and
when her dark-skinned mother moved in with her, she masqueraded as Oberon's maid.
Oberon's career went on to greater heights, partly as a result of her
relationship with and later marriage to Alexander Korda, who had persuaded her
to take the name under which she became famous. He sold "shares" of her contract
to producer Samuel Goldwyn, who gave her good vehicles in Hollywood. Her mother
stayed behind in England. Oberon received her only Oscar nomination as Best
Actress for The Dark Angel (1935) produced by Goldwyn. Around this time she had
a serious romance with David Niven, and according to his authorized biography,
even wanted to marry him, but he wasn't faithful to her. She was selected to
star in Korda's film I, Claudius (1937) as Messalina, but a serious car accident
resulted in filming being abandoned. Oberon was scarred for life, but skilled
lighting technicians were able to hide her injuries from cinema audiences.
She went on to appear as Cathy in her most famous film Wuthering Heights (1939),
as George Sand in A Song to Remember (1945), and as Empress Josephine in Désirée
(1954).
According to Princess Merle, the biography written by Charles Higham with Roy
Moseley, Oberon suffered even further damage to her complexion in 1940 from a
combination of cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs.
Alexander Korda sent her to a skin specialist in New York City, where she
underwent several dermabrasion procedures. The results, however, were only
partially successful; without makeup, one could see noticeable pitting and
indentation of her skin.
Her mother died in 1937, and in 1949 Oberon commissioned paintings of her mother
from an old photograph, instructing the artist to lighten her mother's
complexion. The paintings would hang in all her homes until her death in 1979.
Also, Oberon supposedly had a minor obsession with facial injuries after her own
accident, and had an affair with Richard Hillary who had been burned after his
Supermarine Spitfire was shot down in 1940.
Merle Oberon became Lady Korda upon her husband's knighthood. She divorced Sir
Alexander Korda in 1945, to marry cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Ballard
devised a special camera light for her to eliminate her facial scars on film.
The light became known as the "Obie".
She married twice more, to Italian-born industrialist, Bruno Pagliai (with whom
she adopted two children) and Dutch actor Robert Wolders – who would later
become Audrey Hepburn's companion – before her retirement in Malibu, California,
where she died after suffering a stroke at the age of 68. She was interred in
the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Merle Oberon has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to
Motion Pictures, at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard.