Deborah Kerr - Star Profile

Deborah Kerr is considered an English rose of cinema. She contributed to many of the films that remain classic favorites to this day. With The Innocents; her own personal favorite performance re-released in cinemas late last year, I have the great pleasure of looking back over her amazing career.

Without Deborah Kerr we wouldn't have the likes of Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson and many more talented Brits.      

Deborah Kerr is in my list of top 3 favorite actresses and considering the amount of amazing talent out there that’s saying something. Kerr had that most special ability to be able to act completely through her eyes. She could say everything she needed to without opening her mouth, and I don’t care what anybody says that is the mark of the greatest performer. Kerr was born in Scotland on September 30^th 1921 she had a full and varied career beginning in 1940 and ending 46 years later. She died in England in 2007. Deborah received a star on the walk of fame in 1960 (1709 Vine Street), won a Golden Globe in 1957 for The King and I (1956) and was nominated for 6 Oscars, though she never won; looking at these performances I will never understand how; it is one of the major injustices of the Academy. She was awarded with an honorary Oscar in 1994 as a tribute to her extraordinary career in the film industry, in which she received one of the longest standing ovations recorded, for the recipients of this award.

Kerr had a very varied career she managed to find roles of all different genres, she is best known though as the English rose, the ultimate lady with an air of refinement, gentle and sophisticated. For any classic film fans, this will be a lesson in some of the best films in existence, as there are so many performances to choose from, I will be narrowing it down to my favourites and those in which she is best remembered and best portrayed.

Kerr was noticed in 1940 and made Major Barbara (1940) this war film lead to her being picked for another, three years later in which she played 3 different parts. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) follows the life of General Clive Wynne-Candy through 40 years; his relationship with 3 different women and his controversial lifelong friendship with a German officer. Kerr plays Edith Hunter, the woman who first catches his eye but he loses to his German friend, she is the woman he always sees, her image is one he looks for his whole life. Barbara Wynne is the woman he marries, she bears a striking resemblance to Edith and they are madly in love despite the age difference. Johnny Cannon is a young woman doing her bit for the war by driving the army trucks through the blackouts. The general meets her when he is a very old man and takes a shine to her. This is a heart-warming film about love and life and though slightly dated is one of the best war films I have seen.

Black Narcissus (1947)

With Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity (1953)

Black Narcissus (1947) was another Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film proving a successful partnership between the three. Powell and Pressburger had perfect taste when they cast each and every film they made and they knew a good actor when they saw one. Kerr plays a nun, Sister Clodagh, promoted to lead a convent in the Himalayas where she and four colleagues encounter tension and dispute between the village and each other as they struggle to grow accustomed to their new remote surroundings.  Kerr shows her unique subtlety in this movie, she requires very little to portray a meaningful performance. This is an incredibly shot film; great direction, plot and acting, an all-round gem from the Archers.

After getting stuck in many historical roles such as King Solomon’s Mines (1950), Quo Vadis (1951) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) and typically English women, Edward My Son (1950) for which she received her first Oscar nomination. Kerr auditioned for the role of the cheating wife in the now classic war movie From Here to Eternity (1953). Kerr was not even considered for the part as she struggled to rid herself of her ladylike image. But she tested and was cast as Karen Holmes having an explicit affair with Burt Lancaster; she received her second Oscar nomination for the role. She was one of many great characters in this film, but she stands out because it is so vastly different from anything she had done, and really ever did again. Though she did have a more versatile and sexier image after this film was released.   

With Yul Brynner in The King and I (1956)

Probably her best known film and one of my all-time favourites is The King and I (1956), where she plays an English woman who travels to Siam to be the school teacher in the royal palace. Yes she was dubbed by Marni Nixon for the singing but who cares; this is a surprisingly deep and emotional performance despite it being a Hollywood musical. The Academy seemed to agree for she was nominated a third time for an Academy Award. She played opposite Yul Brynner as the King of Siam, they have unbelievable chemistry in the film and remained great friends for the rest of their lives, they even made another film together 3 years later (The Journey 1959). Even if you are not a fan of musicals you should see this picture for these two powerhouse performers acting opposite each other, it’s enough to raise the hair on the back of your neck.

Kerr successfully played another nun, (much more likeable) in 1957 in Heaven Knows Mr. Allison. She stars opposite Robert Mitchum who plays a marine who washes up on an island in the pacific during the war to find it completely uninhabited apart from Sister Angela an Irish nun (Kerr was a master of accents) who he develops a deep connection with. Mitchum and Kerr were another pair who had great chemistry, made more than one movie together and were great friends off-screen. This film is a showcase of their talent as they are basically the only people in the film for the majority of the running time. Kerr received her fourth academy award nomination for her performance.

In the same year as Mr Allison Kerr worked with another friend Cary Grant in the ultimate romance movie An Affair to Remember, itself a remake of the Irene Dunne film Love Affair in (1939) both strangely are directed by Leo McCarey.  It would go on to feature in the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan favourite Sleepless in Seattle (1993). An Affair to Remember is a superior film to both; Kerr plays Terry McKay who meets Grant’s Nickie Ferrante on a cruise ship. They fall in love and promise to meet at the top of the Empire State building in 6 months so they can be together, but all does not go to plan. This has a wonderful script the dialogue is sharp and fresh, a lot of the scenes were improvised between the two actors and their chemistry is palpable.

In 1959 and 1961 Kerr received two more Oscar nominations; for Separate Tables in which she stars opposite David Niven, Rita Hayworth and Burt Lancaster again as a shy girl on holiday with her overbearing mother, and The Sundowners again with Robert Mitchum as a couple from the Australian outback. In 1961 she was cast in The Innocents, a genuinely creepy horror picture which many new generations can discover for themselves with its recent re-release. Kerr regarded it as her best performance, and it’s clear to see that she is doing some of her best work in the film.

Deborah Kerr slowed down in the 1960’s, Hollywood was changing dramatically and she didn’t approve of the scripts that were being sent to her. She bowed out and took a 13 year break, she returned to some fine TV movies in the 1980’s her last performance was in Hold the Dream in 1986. She developed Parkinson’s disease in later life and her speech at the Academy Awards ceremony in 1994 on receiving her Honorary Oscar was her goodbye to the industry, it was her last public appearance. Kerr is a prime example of one of the finest actors of the classic Hollywood era. She had a successful career both here and in America and proved that you can make it in the cut-throat world in movies with your head held high and a touch of class.

I would highly recommend any of the above titles, if you want to see a master class in performing then this lady will show you a thing or two. If you have seen some of her films, let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from other Deborah Kerr fans out there.