Deborah Kerr

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Deborah Kerr (1973)

Deborah Kerr [ ˈdebrə kɑː ], CBE (born September 30, 1921 as Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in Helensburgh , Scotland , † October 16, 2007 in Suffolk , England ), was a British actress . In the 1950s she was one of the most successful actresses in Hollywood .

Life

Deborah Jane Kerr was born to an officer. At the age of 14 she lost her father and moved with her mother to the vicinity of Bristol , where she attended Northumberland House boarding school until 1936 and then the Hicks Smale Drama School directed by her aunt Phyllis Smale. She gained her first acting experience at amateur performances. She also read children's stories on the radio for the BBC . In 1937 she moved to London and attended the ballet school of the Sadler's Wells Theater, where she first appeared as a dancer in 1938. After minor roles in Shakespeare performances in the open-air theater in Regent's Park , she became a member of the Oxford Playhouse in 1940. In the same year she got a small role in the George Bernard Shaw film Major Barbara by Gabriel Pascal . During the Second World War , she also appeared in front theaters for the Allied troops in France , Belgium and Holland . She met her first husband, the fighter pilot Anthony Bartley. The marriage, which resulted in two daughters (Melanie Jane and Francesca Ann), was divorced in 1959 after 14 years.

1947 she succeeded to the role of inexperienced nun in Black Narcissus (Black Narcissus) , the breakthrough as an actress, which she signed a contract with MGM received. She then made her Hollywood debut alongside Clark Gable in the film The Hound and the Lady (The Hucksters) . Due to her posh appearance, she was traded by the studio as the legitimate successor to Greer Garson and was mainly used as a tea-drinking lady. In the romance If Winter Comes , she therefore played alongside Walter Pidgeon , Garson's long-time partner. An exception was her appearance as the alcoholic wife of Spencer Tracy in Edward, My Son, which earned her the first of six Oscar nominations in 1950 .

She was often seen at the side of Stewart Granger , with whom she u. a. 1950 went on an expedition into the jungle in the adventure film King Solomon's Diamonds (King Salomon's Mines) . At the side of Robert Taylor , she played the young Christian Lygia in Mervyn LeRoy's monumental film Quo Vadis in 1951 . The film, directed by MGM in Italy, was originally started with Gregory Peck and Elizabeth Taylor in the lead roles.

In 1953, Kerr played a small supporting role in the period film The Heir apparent alongside Jean Simmons , who had also risen to star in Hollywood since her appearance in The Black Narcissus . That same year, Kerr managed a successful image makeover: After Joan Crawford as a result of disagreements over screenplay and costume selection of Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity (From Here to Eternity) had retired, Kerr took over the role of Karen Holmes, a passionate officer's wife and adulteress at the side of Burt Lancaster . Kerr's undercooled British and at the same time seething under the surface aura contrasted with the macho appearance of Lancaster.

Robert Mitchum , with whom the actress made three films together, including The Sailor and the Nun (1956), described the chemistry between them as so good that their scenes could have been shot in separate locations and the edited result was still a perfect match would have resulted.

1956 took over Kerr as Anna Leonowens the female lead alongside Yul Brynner in the musical film version The King and I (The King and I) . One of their (due to numerous repeats on TV) known roles she played a year later next to Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember (An Affair to Remember), a remake of the film Love Affair (Love Affair), in which Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer 1939 had played the main roles. As their biggest challenge called Kerr her role as an oppressed young woman in Terence Rattigan film version Separate Tables (Separate Tables) from 1958. Your co-star David Niven won an Oscar for his role. In the James Bond parody Casino Royale (1967) she played the murderous wife of the British secret service chief " M " ( John Huston ) again alongside Niven and a number of world stars .

Elia Kazan's The Arrangement was her last Hollywood film in 1969. She then worked in British film and television productions until 1985, including the remake of the Billy Wilder classic Witness to the Prosecution (1957), and appeared regularly on Broadway and London's West End .

Most recently she lived with her second husband, the writer Peter Viertel , whom she married in 1960, in Klosters , Switzerland . Although she was diagnosed with Parkinson's , she personally accepted the 1994 honorary Oscar in Hollywood. In 1998 she was awarded the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of The British Empire .

In August 2004, her retired brother, journalist Edward "Teddy" Kerr, was killed in West Heath , Birmingham .

Deborah Kerr died in 2007 in Suffolk, England, at the age of 86 as a result of her Parkinson's disease. Less than three weeks later, her husband Peter Viertel died of cancer.

Filmography

Awards

Oscar
  • 1950: Nominated Best Actress for Edward, My Son
  • 1954: Nominated for Best Actress for Forever Damned
  • 1957: nominated as best leading actress for The King and Me
  • 1958: Nominated as best leading actress for The Sailor and the Nun
  • 1959: nominated as best leading actress for Separate from Table and Bed
  • 1961: nominated as best leading actress for The Endless Horizon
  • 1994: Honorary Oscar for her life's work
British Film Academy Award
  • 1956: Nominated for Best British Actress for The End of an Affair
  • 1958: Nominated Best British Actress for Different From The Others
  • 1962: Nominated for Best British Actress for The Endless Horizon
  • 1965: Nominated for Best British Actress for Das Haus im Kreidegarten
Golden Globe Award
  • 1950: Nominated for Best Actress - Drama for Edward, my son
  • 1957: Best Actress - Comedy or Musical for The King and Me
  • 1958: Nominated in the category Best Actress in a Drama for The Sailor and the Nun
  • 1959: Henrietta Award and nominated in the category Best Actress in a Drama for Separate from Table and Bed
Further

Emmy

  • 1985: nominated in the category Best Supporting Actress in a multi-part or special for Des Lebens's bitter sweetness

Golden Apple Award

  • 1956: Golden Apple as the most cooperative actress

New York Film Critics Circle Award

  • 1947: Best Actress for The Black Narcissus and I See a Dark Stranger
  • 1957: Best leading actress for The Sailor and the Nun
  • 1960: Best Actress for The Endless Horizon

Photoplay Award

German dubbing voices by Deborah Kerr

  • Marianne Kehlau : Bonjour Tristesse, Castle of Terror, Thunder in the Far East, Heroes can cry too, The great love of my life, French beds, The house in the chalk garden, 3 x to Mexico, Witness for the prosecution
  • Eva Katharina Schulz : The night of the iguana, the crown of life, who risk their necks
  • Eleonore Noelle : The King and I, House friends are warned, The end of an affair
  • Erika Georgi : Major Barbara
  • Marion Degler : The Governor of Pennsylvania, The Sailor and the Nun
  • Gerda Maria Terno : The black daffodil
  • Edith Schneider : Quo vadis ?, You and no other, the heir to the throne
  • Tilly Lauenstein : Unlike the others, the black 13
  • Gudrun Genest : Separated from table and bed
  • Dagmar Altrichter : The pill was to blame for everything, life's bitter sweetness

literature

  • James Robert Parish: Hollywood's great love teams. Arlington House Publishers, New Rochelle, New York 1974, ISBN 978-0-87000-245-8 .
  • Eric Braun: Deborah Kerr. Allen, London 1977, St. Martin's Press, New York 1978, ISBN 0-312-18895-1 .
  • Bruce Babington: British stars and stardom: from Alma Taylor to Sean Connery. Manchester University Press, Manchester, New York 2001, ISBN 978-0-7190-5841-7 .

Web links

Commons : Deborah Kerr  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Kerr, Deborah
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kerr-Trimmer, Deborah Jane (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Helensburgh , Scotland, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 2007
Place of death Suffolk , England, UK