Deborah Kerr
Kerr in 1973, by Allan Warren
Born	Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer (1921-09-30)30 September 1921 Glasgow, Scotland
Died	16 October 2007(2007-10-16) (aged 86) Botesdale, Suffolk, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1940-1986
Spouse	Anthony Bartley (m.1945-1959; divorced) Peter Viertel (m.1960-2007; her death)

Deborah Kerr, CBE (30 September 1921 - 16 October 2007) was a Scottish film and television actress. 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 Academy Award for Best Actress but never won. 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.

Early life[link]

Kerr was born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in a private nursing home (hospital) in Glasgow,^[1][2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4][5]

Kerr was educated at the independent Northumberland House School in the Henleaze 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.^[6][7]

Career[link]

Films[link]

Kerr in Young Bess (1953)

Kerr in An Affair to Remember (1957)

Deborah Kerr in The Sundowners (1960)

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:^[8] "I realised that Deborah was both the ideal and the flesh-and-blood woman whom I had been searching for".^[8] Kerr 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!"^[9]

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.^[8] 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.^[8]

Her role as a troubled nun in Black Narcissus in 1947 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,^[9][10] 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,^[11] 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.^[11]

Theatre[link]

As a stage actress, Deborah Kerr made her Broadway debut in 1953 in Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. Kerr repeated her role along with her stage partner John Kerr (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:

I do it because it's exactly like dressing up for the grown ups. I don't mean to belittle acting but I'm like a child when I'm out there performing—shocking the grownups, enchanting them, making them laugh or cry. It's an unbelievable terror, a kind of masochistic madness. The older you get, the easier it should be but it isn't.^[6]

Television[link]

Deborah Kerr experienced a career resurgence in the early 1980s on television, when she played the role of the nurse (played by Elsa Lanchester 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.

Personal life[link]

Kerr's first marriage was to Royal Air Force 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,^[11] 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,^[12] she moved back to Britain to be closer to her own children as her health began to deteriorate.^[12] Her husband, however, continued to live in Marbella.

Some of 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).^[13] Likewise Burt Lancaster claimed that he was romantically involved with her during the filming of From Here to Eternity (1953).^[14] 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 English village of Botesdale, Suffolk.^[15][16][17] Peter Viertel died of cancer on 4 November 2007, less than three weeks later.^[18] 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.^[19]

Honours[link]

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1709 Vine Street

Deborah Kerr was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1998, but was unable to accept the honour in person because of ill health.^[20] 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.^[21] In 1991, she received a BAFTA Special Award^[6] 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".^[22]

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 2010.

Award nominations[link]

Deborah Kerr was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress: 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).

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Works cited[link]

• 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[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Deborah Kerr

Biography portal

• Deborah Kerr at the Internet Broadway Database
• Deborah Kerr at the Internet Movie Database
• Deborah Kerr at the TCM Movie Database
• Deborah Kerr at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• 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