Merle Oberon

Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon in 1943
Born	Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson (1911-02-19)19 February 1911 Bombay, British India
Died	23 November 1979(1979-11-23) (aged 68) Malibu, California, U.S.
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1928–1973
Spouses	Alexander Korda ​ ​ (m. 1939; div. 1945)​ Lucien Ballard ​ ​ (m. 1945; div. 1949)​ Bruno Pagliai ​ ​ (m. 1957; div. 1973)​ Robert Wolders ​ ​ (m. 1975)​
Children	2

Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was a British actress. She gained recognition for portraying Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and saw further success with her role in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934). She later traveled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn, including Folies Bergère de Paris (1935), The Dark Angel (1935), These Three (1936), The Cowboy and the Lady (1938), and Wuthering Heights (1939). Her performance as Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Oberon's other notable roles included A Song to Remember (1945), Berlin Express (1948), and Désirée (1954). A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that nearly ended her career, but she recovered and remained active in film and television until 1973.

Early life

Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson was born in Bombay, British India, on 19 February 1911. She was given the nickname "Queenie" in honour of Queen Mary, who visited India along with King George V in 1911.

Parentage

For most of her life, Oberon concealed the truth about her parentage by claiming that she had been born in Tasmania, Australia, and that her birth records had been destroyed in a fire.

She was raised as the daughter of Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a Welsh mechanical engineer from Darlington who worked in Indian Railways, and his wife, Charlotte Selby (whose full name was Constance Charlotte Thompson, according to her 1937 obituary), a Burgher from British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Oberon's birth certificate lists her biological mother as "Constance Thompson", which could have referred to Charlotte Selby or her then-12-year-old daughter, Constance Selby. It is theorized that Constance became pregnant as a result of rape by her stepfather, Arthur Thompson, with Charlotte raising Oberon as Constance's half-sister to avoid scandal. Charlotte herself had given birth to Constance at the age of 14 after being raped by Henry Alfred Selby, the Anglo-Irish foreman of a tea plantation. In their 1983 biography of Oberon, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley also wrote that Selby had Māori ancestry, though the Iwi (Maori tribe) was not known.

Constance eventually married Alexander Soares and had four other children: Edna, Douglas, Harry, and Stanislaus (Stan). Edna and Douglas moved to the UK at an early age. Stanislaus, who lived in Surrey, British Columbia, was the only child to retain his father's surname of Soares. Harry eventually moved to Toronto, Canada, retaining Charlotte’s maiden name, Selby. After locating Oberon's birth certificate in Indian government records in Bombay, Harry attempted to visit her in Los Angeles, only for Oberon to refuse any meeting. Harry withheld the possibility of him being Oberon's half-brother instead of her nephew from Oberon's biographer, Charles Higham. He only disclosed the information to Maree Delofski, producer of the 2002 ABC Australia documentary The Trouble with Merle, which investigated the conflicting versions of Oberon's origin.

Youth

In 1914, when Merle was 3, Arthur Thompson joined the British Army and later died of pneumonia on the Western Front during the Battle of the Somme. Merle and Charlotte led an impoverished existence in shabby flats in Bombay for a few years before moving in 1917 to Calcutta (now Kolkata). Oberon attended La Martiniere Calcutta for Girls, one of the best private schools in Calcutta, as a charity student. There, she was constantly teased by the majority European students for her mixed ethnicity, which led her her to quit school and receive lessons at home.

Oberon first performed with the Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society. She was also completely enamored with films and enjoyed going out to nightclubs. Indian journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray said that Merle worked as a telephone operator in Calcutta under the name Queenie Thomson, and won a contest at Firpo's Restaurant there, before the outset of her film career.

At Firpo's in 1928, aged 18, Oberon met a former actor, Colonel Ben Finney, and dated him; however, when he saw Charlotte one night at her flat, he realized Oberon was of mixed ancestry and ended the relationship. However, Finney promised to introduce her to Rex Ingram of Victorine Studios (whom he had known through his relationship with the late Barbara La Marr), if she were prepared to travel to France, which she readily did. After packing all their belongings and moving to France, Oberon and her mother found that their supposed benefactor avoided them, although he had left a good word for Oberon with Ingram at the studios in Nice. Ingram appreciated Oberon's exotic appearance and quickly hired her to be an extra in a party scene in a film named The Three Passions.

Acting career

Merle Oberon in 1936

Early roles

Oberon arrived in England for the first time in 1928, aged 17. She worked as a club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played in minor and unbilled roles in various films. "I couldn't dance or sing or write or paint. The only possible opening seemed to be in some line in which I could use my face. This was, in fact, no better than a hundred other faces, but it did possess a fortunately photogenic quality," she told a journalist at Film Weekly in 1939.

Alexander Korda and British stardom

Her film career received a major boost when director Alexander Korda took an interest and gave her a small but prominent role, under the name Merle Oberon, as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) opposite Charles Laughton. The film became a major success and she was then given leading roles for other producers, starting with The Battle (1934) opposite Charles Boyer, and The Broken Melody (1934).

Oberon then made two more films for Korda: The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks was a disappointment but The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) with Leslie Howard, who became her lover for a while, was a huge hit.

Hollywood and Sam Goldwyn

Oberon's career benefited from her relationship with, and later marriage to, Korda. He sold "shares" of her contract to producer Samuel Goldwyn and she moved to Hollywood. Her "mother" stayed behind in England. Oberon's career there began with Folies Bergère de Paris (1935) with Maurice Chevalier.

Goldwyn put her in The Dark Angel (1935), which earned her a sole Academy Award for Best Actress nomination, then These Three (1936) for William Wyler and Beloved Enemy (1936). The latter co starred David Niven with whom Oberon had a serious romance, and according to one biographer even wanted to marry him, but he was not faithful to her.

Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights (1939)

She was selected to star in Korda's 1937 film, I, Claudius, as Messalina, but her injuries in a car crash resulted in the film being abandoned. While in England she co starred against Laurence Olivier in the Korda comedy The Divorce of Lady X (1938).

Back in Hollywood, Oberon appeared opposite Gary Cooper in The Cowboy and the Lady (1938) and then played Cathy in the highly acclaimed film Wuthering Heights (opposite Laurence Olivier; 1939).

In England Oberon made Over the Moon (1939) and The Lion Has Wings (1940) for Korda.

According to Princess Merle, the biography written by Charles Higham with Roy Moseley, Oberon suffered damage to her complexion in 1940 from a combination of cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs. Alexander Korda sent her to a skin specialist in New York City, where she underwent several dermabrasion procedures. The results were only partially successful; her face had become noticeably pitted and indented unless concealed by makeup.

Oberon starred in Til We Meet Again (1940) and Affectionately Yours (1941) for Warner Bros, then That Uncertain Feeling (1941) for Ernst Lubitsch. Korda financed Lydia (1941). None of these films was particularly successful at the box office. Oberon was one of many stars to make cameos in Forever and a Day (1943) and Stage Door Canteen (1943). She made First Comes Courage (1943) at Columbia and played the female lead in The Lodger (1944), a popular noir. Also admired was Dark Waters (1944).

Oberon had a big hit with A Song to Remember (1945) in which she played George Sand. However she was in a series of unsuccessful films at Universal: This Love of Ours (1946), Night in Paradise (1946), and Temptation (1946). She made some films for RKO, Night Song (1948), and Berlin Express (1948).

Later career

In France, Oberon appeared in Pardon My French (1951) then she did 24 Hours of a Woman's Life (1952) in England and All Is Possible in Granada (1954). Back in Hollywood she played the Empress Josephine in Désirée (1954) and had a cameo in Deep in My Heart (1954). She had the lead in a noir, The Price of Fear (1956).

Oberon came out of retirement sporadically to appear in films such as Of Love and Desire (1963) and Hotel (1967).

Her last movie was Interval (1973).

Personal life

Charlotte Selby, Oberon’s possible birth grandmother, raised Oberon as her daughter until her death in 1937. In 1949, Oberon commissioned paintings of Charlotte based on an old photograph (but depicting Charlotte with lighter skin), which hung in all her homes until Oberon's own death in 1979.

Relationships and marriages

Oberon married director Alexander Korda in 1939. While married, she had a brief affair in 1941 with Richard Hillary, an RAF fighter pilot who had been badly burned in the Battle of Britain. They met while he was on a goodwill tour of the United States. He later wrote the best-selling autobiography, The Last Enemy.

Oberon became Lady Korda when her husband was knighted in 1942 by George VI for his contribution to the war effort. At the time, the couple was based at Hills House in Denham, England. She divorced him in 1945 to marry cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Ballard devised a special camera light for her, to obscure on film her facial scars suffered in the 1937 accident. The light became known as the "Obie". She and Ballard divorced in 1949.

Oberon married Italian-born industrialist Bruno Pagliai in 1957, adopted two children with him and lived in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. While married to Pagliai, she had an affair with model Mike Edwards, who was 33 years her junior. In 1973, Oberon met then 36-year-old Dutch actor Robert Wolders while they filmed Interval. Oberon divorced Pagliai and married Wolders, who was 25 years her junior, in 1975.

Disputed birthplace

To avoid prejudice over her mixed background, Oberon created a "cover story" of being born and raised in Tasmania, Australia, and her birth records being destroyed in a fire. The story eventually unravelled after her death. Oberon is known to have been to Australia only twice. Her first visit was in 1965, on a film promotion. Another visit, to Hobart, was scheduled, but after journalists in Sydney pressed her for details of her early life, she became ill and shortly afterwards left for Mexico.

In 1978, the year before her death, she agreed to visit Hobart for a Lord Mayoral reception. The Lord Mayor of Hobart became aware shortly before the reception that there was no proof she had been born in Tasmania, but went ahead with the celebration to avoid embarrassment. Shortly after arriving at the reception, Oberon, to the disappointment of many, denied she had been born in Tasmania. She then excused herself claiming illness, and was unavailable to answer questions about her background. On the way to the reception, she had told her driver that as a child she was on a ship with her father, who became ill when it was passing Hobart. They were taken ashore so he could be treated, thereby spending some of her early years on the island. During her Hobart stay, she remained in her hotel, gave no other interviews, and did not visit the theatre named in her honour.

Death

Oberon retired after Interval and moved with Wolders to Malibu, California, where she died in 1979, aged 68, after suffering a stroke. Her body was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Tributes and legacy

Despite hiding her mixed heritage throughout her career, Oberon is regarded by some as the first Asian nominee in the Best Actress category and the first Asian individual overall to ever receive an Oscar nomination. In 2023, discussion around Oberon's nomination status resurfaced after Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh was nominated for and subsequently won the Best Actress award for her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once. News outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter opted to describe Yeoh as "the first self-identified Asian actress" while making note of Oberon passing as white.

For her contributions to film, Oberon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6274 Hollywood Boulevard, on February 8, 1960.

Michael Korda, nephew of Alexander Korda, published a roman à clef about Oberon after her death titled Queenie in 1985, which was adapted into a 1987 television miniseries starring Mia Sara, Kirk Douglas, Sarah Miles, Claire Bloom, Leigh Lawson, and Joss Ackland.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel The Last Tycoon was made into a television series with Jennifer Beals playing Margo Taft, a character created for the TV series and based on Oberon.

New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera used Oberon's hidden South Asian and alleged Māori heritage as the inspiration for the novel White Lies, which was turned into the 2013 movie White Lies.

Filmography

Features

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1928	The Three Passions	Bit Part	Uncredited
1930	The W Plan	Woman at Cafe Table	Uncredited
	Alf's Button	Bit Part	Uncredited
	A Warm Corner	Bit Part	Uncredited
1931	Never Trouble Trouble	Bit Part	Uncredited
	Fascination	Flower Seller	Uncredited
1932	Service for Ladies	Minor Role	Uncredited
	Ebb Tide	Girl	Uncredited
	Aren't We All?	Bit Part	Uncredited
	Wedding Rehearsal	Miss Hutchinson
	Men of Tomorrow	Ysobel d'Aunay	Lost film
	For the Love of Mike	Bit Part	Uncredited
1933	Strange Evidence	Bit Part	Uncredited
	The Private Life of Henry VIII	Anne Boleyn - The Second Wife
1934	The Battle	Marquise Yorisaka
	The Broken Melody	Germaine Brissard
	The Private Life of Don Juan	Antonita, a Dancer of Passionate Temperament
	The Scarlet Pimpernel	Lady Blakeney
1935	Folies Bergère de Paris	Baroness Genevieve Cassini
	The Dark Angel	Kitty Vane	Nomination - Academy Award for Best Actress
1936	These Three	Karen Wright
	Beloved Enemy	Lady Helen Drummond
1937	I, Claudius	Messalina	Unfinished
1938	The Divorce of Lady X	Leslie
	The Cowboy and the Lady	Mary Smith
1939	Over the Moon	Jane Benson
	Wuthering Heights	Cathy
	The Lion Has Wings	Mrs. Richardson
1940	'Til We Meet Again	Joan Ames
1941	That Uncertain Feeling	Jill Baker
	Affectionately Yours	Sue Mayberry
	Lydia	Lydia MacMillan
1943	Forever and a Day	Marjorie Ismay
	Stage Door Canteen	Herself
	First Comes Courage	Nicole Larsen
1944	The Lodger	Kitty Langley
	Dark Waters	Leslie Calvin
1945	A Song to Remember	George Sand
	This Love of Ours	Karin Touzac
1946	Night in Paradise	Delarai
	Temptation	Ruby
1947	Night Song	Cathy
1948	Berlin Express	Lucienne
1951	Pardon My French	Elizabeth Rockwell
1952	Dans la vie tout s'arrange	Elizabeth Rockwell	French version of The Lady from Boston
	24 Hours of a Woman's Life	Linda Venning
1954	All Is Possible in Granada	Margaret Faulson
	Désirée	Empress Josephine
	Deep in My Heart	Dorothy Donnelly
1956	The Price of Fear	Jessica Warren
1963	Of Love and Desire	Katherine Beckmann
1966	The Oscar	Herself
1967	Hotel	The Duchess Caroline
1973	Interval	Serena Moore

Short subjects

• "Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 4" (1936)
• "Hollywood Goes to Town" (1938)
• "Assignment: Foreign Legion" (1956/7 TV episodes)

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1946	Screen Guild Players	This Love of Ours
1946	Screen Guild Players	Wuthering Heights

See also

• English rose (personal description)

References

Bibliography

• Bowden, Tim. The Devil in Tim: Penelope's Travels in Tasmania. London: Allen & Unwin, 2008. ISBN 978-1-74175-237-3.
• Casey, Bob. Merle Oberon: Face of Mystery. Hobart, Tasmania, Australia: Masterpiece@IXL, 2008. ISBN 978-0-98054-822-8.
• Higham, Charles and Roy Moseley. Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon. New York: Coward-McCann Inc., 1983. ISBN 978-0-69811-231-5.
• Korda, Michael. Another Life: A Memoir of Other People. New York: Random House, 1999. ISBN 0-67945-659-7.
• Munn, Michael. David Niven: The Man Behind the Balloon. London: JR Books, 2010. ISBN 1-9-0677-967-8.
• Pybus, Cassandra. Till Apples Grow on an Orange Tree. St Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-70222-986-2.
• Woollacott, Angela. Race and the Modern Exotic. Three 'Australian' Women on Global Display. Monash University Publishing, 2011. ISBN 978-1-92186-712-5

External links

• Merle Oberon at IMDb
• Merle Oberon at the TCM Movie Database
• Merle Oberon at the BFI's Screenonline
• Classic Movie Favorites website
• Photographs of Merle Oberon and bibliography
• Merle Oberon at Find a Grave – Note 1917 birthyear on headstone
• Merle Oberon in pose for The Dark Angel in Vanity Fair portrait by Cecil Beaton
• Guy, Randor (1 August 2008). "From Bombay to Beverly Hills". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
• The Trouble With Merle (Australian documentary) – investigation of her origins