Merle Oberon

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Merle Oberon , origin. Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson (born February 19, 1911 in Bombay , † November 23, 1979 in Malibu ), was an Anglo-Indian actress who peaked in her career in the 1930s and 1940s with films such as Die Scharlachrote Blume , The Experience in the dark and storm heights .

life and career

Merle Oberon was born in Bombay, even if the actress claimed in later years that she was born and raised in Tasmania. Oberon is reported to have grown up believing that her biological grandmother was her mother and that her birth mother was actually her older sister. She attended La Martinère College in Calcutta. At the age of 17 she came to London, where her acting career began in the early 1930s. At the side of Charles Laughton she made her breakthrough as Anna Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII . She got a studio contract with Samuel Goldwyn and went to the USA in 1934, where she had a successful career in Hollywood . Her first appearance in the USA at the side of Maurice Chevalier in the music film Folies Bergère de Paris in 1935 was not a great success. Oberon then changed her make-up and later became a star with the film Der Weg im Dunkel , which showed her alongside Fredric March and earned her a nomination for best actress at the 1936 Academy Awards . Oberon received good reviews for her appearance in Infame Lügen , the film adaptation of the play The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman at the side of Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins , directed by William Wyler . David O. Selznick then hired her to film The Garden of Allah , but canceled her contract when Marlene Dietrich was released. Oberon received a good $ 60,000 in compensation.

In 1937, Oberon was cast as Messalina in the film adaptation of the historical novel I, Claudius by Robert Graves, alongside Charles Laughton as the Roman Emperor Claudius , directed by Josef von Sternberg . The actress suffered a serious traffic accident while filming which left her with scars on her face for the rest of her life. After the accident, filming was stopped. In 1939 she starred in Sturmhöhe , the film adaptation of Emily Brontë 's novel of the same name , under the direction of Wiliam Wyler, opposite Laurence Olivier and David Niven as Catherine Earnshaw. Wyler and Oberon didn't get along well, but in the end the actress did a very good job. Oberon was a busy actress until the late 1940s and also appeared on a few television series in the 1950s.

The actress was known for her excellent business acumen and invested her salaries favorably. She owned several residences, including in Acapulco and on the Riviera. Her first marriage was from 1939 to 1945 with the director Alexander Korda . In 1945 she married the cameraman Lucien Ballard . This marriage lasted until 1949. A third marriage followed from 1957 to 1973. In 1975 she married the actor Robert Wolders , 25 years her junior , whom she met in 1973 while filming her last film Interval , and for the last few years she has lived in luxurious seclusion.

Merle Oberon died aged 68 and is now resting in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale , California .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Merle Oberon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Merle Oberon on a BBC article
  2. ^ Report in the Daily Mail from January 2014
  3. knerger.de: The grave of Merle Oberon