Deborah Kerr Biography

Deborah Kerr was born on 30 September 1921 in Scotland. Her father captain Arthur Kerr-Trimmer was a soldier who had been gassed in the First World War. She was educated at Clifton House in Bristol and as a shy, insecure teenager she found an outlet in acting.

Originally trained for the ballet, she moved into stage acting and gained some experience in British repertory theatre with her debut being the West End show 'Heartbreak House' in 1943, before segueing to films.

Kerr moved into leads in an adaptation of the controversial novel which was England's equivalent of 'The Grapes of Wrath', the touching study of Depression-era poverty, 'Love on the Dole' in 1941.

She married Royal Air Force Squadron leader Anthony Bartley on 29 November 1945. They had two children Melanie Jane (born 27 December 1947) and Francesca (born 20 December 1951). However the marriage was troubled due to Bartley's jealously of Kerr's fame and financial success, as well as the fact she was often away from home due to filming. They divorced in 1959.

However, it was her work in three separate roles in the splendid Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger time-spanning saga, 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp', as the various women in the hero's life, that brought her recognition.

She followed up with several excellent performances, as the mousy wife whose marriage is revitalised when she enters wartime service, in 'Perfect Strangers' and the Irish spy in the gripping 'I See a Dark Stranger'.

She also gave a marvellous performance as the determined yet fallible Sister Superior who attempts to establish a school and hospital in a remote Himalayan castle, in 'Powell' and Pressburger's 'Black Narcissus'. Kerr was soon co-starring opposite Clark Gable in the enjoyable advertising satire, 'The Hucksters'.

Gracious, ladylike and smart, Kerr would in fact recreate two Irene Dunne roles: the proper Englishwoman who becomes governess to a potentate's brood, in the music version of Anna and the King of Siam, 'The King and I', (1956) and the heroine prevented from making a crucial rendezvous with her lover, in 'An Affair to Remember' (1958).

The actress' regal quality suited her for period adventures including 'Quo Vadis' and 'The Prisoner of Zenda', and she also ventured into comedy in 'Dream Wife' and 'The Grass Is Greener'.

One of the most famous images of Kerr's career was that of her straying wife in 'From Here to Eternity' (1953), making love on the beach with military officer Burt Lancaster.

Kerr then starred in 'Separate Tables' in 1958, 'Sundowners' in 1960 and 'The Night of the Iguana' in 1964.

Since her appeal did not really depend upon youthful beauty, she continued impressively, if less prolifically, into 1960s films. She married her second husband author Peter Viertal on 23 July 1960 and acquired a step daughter.

Her work as a governess who encounters ghost-possessed charges in 'The Innocents', and free-spirited ones in 'The Chalk Garden' was well crafted, and she had fine moments as a gentle tourist, caring for her aging grandfather, in 'The Night of the Iguana'. In 1968, she suddenly quit movies as she was appalled by the sex and violence seen in the films of the time.

Kerr subsequently returned primarily to stage work, keeping very busy in plays until health problems interfered with her work.

She made a successful one-shot return to film as a repressed widow in 'The Assam Garden' and was given an honorary Oscar at the 1993 ceremony. Until that point, she held the record for the actress with the most Best Actress Oscar nominations (six) without a win. She is also just one of four Scottish actors to be nominated for an Academy Award, with Sean Connery being the only one to win.

In the late 1990s, it was confirmed that she was suffering with Parkinson's disease which eventually confined her to a wheelchair.

Although she long resided in Switzerland and Spain, she moved back to Britain to be closer to her children when her illness worsened.

In 1997, she was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).

Sadly, Kerr succumbed to her illness and passed away at home in Suffolk in October 2007. She left a husband, the novelist and screenwriter Peter Viertel, who died three weeks later, two daughters and three grandchildren.