Miss Kerr is survived by Viertel, her husband of 47 years; two daughters; and three grandchildren. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? . King Solomon's Mines (1950) was shot on location in Africa with Stewart Granger and Richard Carlson. Kerr starred in two films with David Niven: Bonjour Tristesse (1958), directed by Otto Preminger, and Separate Tables (1958), directed by Delbert Mann; the latter movie was particularly well received. The Famous People. She had a younger brother, Edmund (Teddy). Kerr became known in Britain playing the lead role in the film of Love on the Dole (1941). 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 relocated to Hollywood and was under contract to MGM. Deborah, who died at home in Suffolk of Parkinson's disease, was born in Helensburgh, near Glasgow, an engineer's daughter. excellence and international renown in their chosen professional fields, According to her biographer, Eric Braun, Deborahs first and only memory of her time in the burgh is of being with her grandmother in a horse-drawn cab at the age of two or three, clutching a bright, shiny penny she had been given. Kerr became known playing the lead role in the film of Love on the Dole (1941). 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. Part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 appeared on September 16, 17, 18, 19 and 22 respectively. For this performance, Kerr was nominated for an Emmy Award. Also Known As Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer Birth Place Helensburgh, Scotland Born September 30, 1921 Died October 16, 2007 Cause of Death Parkinson's Disease Biography Read More Known as "The English Rose," lovely, red-haired Deborah Kerr - "It Rhymes with Star!" Deborah Kerr /debr kr/ (Helensburgh, Scotland, September 30, 1921-Botesdale, Suffolk, October 16, 2007) was a British actress, one of the best-known faces of cinema of Hollywood in the fifties. Showing her versatility and range, she played three roles in Michael Powell's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), which, along with her extraordinary performance as the nun in Powell's Black Narcissus, got Hollywood's attention. 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. ACTRESS Deborah Kerr, star of From Here To Eternity and The King And I, has died aged 86 in Suffolk. Kerr was reunited with Mitchum in The Sundowners (1960) shot in Australia, then The Grass Is Greener (1960), co-starring Cary Grant. The 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. You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. However Kerr then played Anna Leonowens in the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I (1956); with Yul Brynner in the lead, it was a huge hit. Deborah Kerr, who shared one of Hollywood's most famous kisses while portraying an Army officer's unhappy wife in From Here to Eternity and danced with the Siamese monarch in The King and I has . During the filming, according to Powell's autobiography, Powell and she became lovers:[12] "I realised that Deborah was both the ideal and the flesh-and-blood woman whom I had been searching for". [15] She relocated to Hollywood and was under contract to MGM. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. Deborah Kerr died on 16 October 2007 in Botesdale, a village in Suffolk, England, from the effects of Parkinson's disease. In between Paramount borrowed her to appear in Thunder in the East (1951) with Alan Ladd. Indeed, Leo McCarey 's CinemaScope and DeLuxe remake of his own 1939 best picture nominee was voted the fifth most romantic screen love story by the American Film Institute. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. But despite her illustrious future, her childhood was not a walk in the park. Her estimated net worth was $10 million. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. At the time of Viertel's death, director Michael Scheingraber was filming the documentary Peter Viertel: Between the Lines, which includes reminiscences concerning Kerr and the Academy Awards. Failed to remove flower. She then played Princess Flavia in a remake of The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) with Granger and Mason. To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. Trimmer and Smale married, both aged 28, on 21 August 1919 in Smale's hometown of Lydney, Gloucestershire. In 1964 she received a fourth BAFTA Award nomination for the film Chalk Garden. Scottish film and television actress (1921-2007) - Deborah Kerr was born in Helensburgh (town in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK) on September 30th, 1921 and died in Suffolk (county of England) on October 16th, 2007 at the age of 86. 'Bing's Lucky Number: Pa Crosby Dons 4th B.O. She started taking ballet lessons from the age of five and enrolled at the St. Kerr trained as a dancer in her aunt's drama school in Bristol, England. Deborah Kerr died aged 86 on 16 October 2007 at Botesdale, a village in the county of Suffolk, England, from the effects of Parkinson's disease. cemeteries found within kilometers of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. In September and October 2010, Josephine Botting of the British Film Institute curated the "Deborah Kerr Season", which included around twenty of her feature films and an exhibition of posters, memorabilia and personal items loaned by her family. The older you get, the easier it should be but it isn't.[8]. Kerr, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, died in Suffolk, eastern England, according to her agent, Anne Hutton. In marrying Viertel, she acquired a stepdaughter, Christine Viertel. Kerr was reunited with Mitchum in The Sundowners (1960) shot in Australia, then The Grass Is Greener (1960), co-starring Cary Grant. While she continued to play prim-and-proper, cultured, or virtuous women, such as the governess Anna in the film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammersteins hit musical The King and I (1956), a nun again in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, and a spirited unmarried artist in Tennessee Williamss Night of the Iguana (1964), she demonstrated her versatility with such passionate portrayals as her romantic role in the tearjerker An Affair to Remember (1957) and her moving performance as an Australian sheepherders wife in The Sundowners. Kerr was educated at the independent Northumberland House School, Henleaze in Bristol, and at Rossholme School, Weston-super-Mare. Her ability to project the contradictory aspects of character helped her to create a new screen archetype, the very proper adulteress. Born in Glasgow in 1921, Deborah was a ballet dancer (appearing at Sadler's Wells no less) before switching to acting when she became too tall. She starred in The Day after The Fair on the London stage in 1972 and toured the United States with it in 1973. In marrying Viertel, she became stepmother to Viertel's daughter, Christine Viertel. Powell hoped to reunite Kerr and lead actor Roger Livesey in his next film, A Canterbury Tale (1944), but her agent had sold her contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She was a widow in love with William Holden in The Proud and Profane (1956), directed by George Seaton. She adopted the name Deborah Kerr on becoming a film actress ("Kerr" was a family name going back to the maternal grandmother of her grandfather Arthur Kerr Trimmer). However the operation was successful, and the long hard road to recovery began. Deborah Kerr - as she came to be known - spent her early life in Helensburgh before moving with her parents to Gloucestershire. Please enter your email and password to sign in. Kerr's first stage appearance was at Weston-super-Mare in 1937, as "Harlequin" in the mime play Harlequin and Columbine. 1959) Peter Viertel (m. 1960) Children 2 Melanie and Francesca. Deborah Jane Trimmer[1] CBE (30 September 1921 16 October 2007), known professionally as Deborah Kerr (/kr/), was a British actress. [12], Powell hoped to reunite Kerr and lead actor Roger Livesey in his next film, A Canterbury Tale (1944), but her agent had sold her contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her flutelike voice was also unique. This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. Alexander Korda cast her opposite Robert Donat in Perfect Strangers (1945). She is tied with Thelma Ritter and Amy Adams as the actresses with the second most nominations without winning, surpassed only by Glenn Close, who has been nominated eight times without winning. [4][5], Young Deborah spent the first three years of her life in the west coast town of Helensburgh, where her parents lived with Deborah's grandparents in a house on West King Street. 0 cemeteries found in Alfold, Waverley Borough, Surrey, England. She then played Princess Flavia in a remake of The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) with Granger and Mason. 1945-1959 . Deborah Kerr is British by birth. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. Some of Kerr's leading men have stated in their autobiographies that they had an affair or romantic fling with her. In The King and I she whistled a happy tune, and the world whistled along. After divorcing Anthony she married a writer, Peter Viertel. It was very popular as was An Affair to Remember (1957) opposite Cary Grant. After changing careers, she soon found success as an actress. Her second marriage was to author Peter Viertel on 23 July 1960. Her first acting teacher was her aunt, Phyllis Smale, who worked at a drama school in Bristol run by Lally Cuthbert Hicks. [11], Kerr played three women in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). At the age of sixteen she attended her aunt Phyllis Smales Hicks-Smale Drama School in Bristol. Kerr experienced a career resurgence on television in the early 1980s when she played the role of the nurse (played by Elsa Lanchester in the 1957 film of the same name) in Witness for the Prosecution, with Sir Ralph Richardson. She re-enacted the same role on the stage in 1956 and acted in the film version of Rodgers and Hammersteins film version of The King and I in the same year. She acted on London stage in The Corn Is Green in 1985. She won the fifth Academy Award nomination and the third Golden Globe Award nomination in 1958 for the film Separate Tables. ", Until recently it was thought that she never came back to Helensburgh, although she once said in an interview for the Helensburgh Advertiser: How kind of them to remember me after all this time.. She was an immediate hit with the public: An American film trade paper reported in 1942 that she was the most popular British actress with Americans. British exhibitors voted her the eighth-most popular local star at the box-office in 1947. When Deborah was two, Arthur decided to retire from civil engineering at the age of 57 and go into business for himself. She won a BAFTA Fellowship Award in 1991. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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