|
|
Deborah Kerr
Born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in Helensburgh, Scotland on September 30th 1921, Deborah Kerr attended drama school in Bristol and then Sadler's Wells ballet school. In 1937 Kerr made her stage debut playing Harlequin at the theatre in Weston-super-Mare. Two years later Kerr made her film debut in Michael Powell's "Contraband", though Kerr scenes were deleted from the film's final cut. However this would prove to be the start of a long and distinguished career spanning more than fifty films and garnering six Academy Award nominations for Best Actress
Perhaps Kerr's most famous roles were as the governess getting to know Yul Bryner's monarch in " The King And I" and as the frustrated, adulterous wife in " From Here To Eternity" enjoying an iconic roll in the surf with Burt Lancaster.
Kerr embodied elegant femininity combined with restrained sexuality, and her ability to be at once alluring and aloof meant she was perfectly cast as a nun struggling with temptation in both " Black Narcissus" and " Heaven Knows Mr Allison". The latter film co-starred Robert Mitchum who would be Kerr's screen partner again in " The Grass Is Greener" and " The Sundowners". Kerr's other co-stars included William Holden, David Niven and Gregory Peck.
The theme of sensuality bubbling away beneath a cool exterior became Kerr's signature. In 1961 Kerr starred in the classic psychological horror film " The Innocents", in which Kerr played a governess who may or may not be witness to the possession of her charges by ghosts. That Kerr was slightly to old for the role added to the sense that her character's repression may be the cause of what may be wild imaginings.
In her later years Kerr starred in the television series "A Woman of Substance" for which she was nominated for an Emmy. In 1991 Kerr was awarded a special Bafta and in 1994 she was awaded an honorary Academy Award in recognition of the quality of her film work.
Awarded a CBE in 1998, Kerr was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and died on 18th October 2007.
What members say |
Filmography
Deborah Kerr - what members say
Deborah Kerr - filmography
-
-
The Innocents
on DVD
(1961)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins
Director: Jack Clayton
Certificate: 
Based on Henry James's TURN OF THE SCREW, THE INNOCENTS is a chilling psychological horror film about a woman, Miss Giddens (Kerr), who takes a position as governess for two orphans in a stately Victorian home. Alone with the children and only a few servants, Miss Giddens soon begins to see what ..read more »
Rate this:
 
71%
from 1,634 member
-
-
Innocents, The - BLU-RAY Version
(1961)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins
Director: Jack Clayton
Certificate:
Based on Henry James's TURN OF THE SCREW, THE INNOCENTS is a chilling psychological horror film about a woman, Miss Giddens (Kerr), who takes a position as governess for two orphans in a stately Victorian home. Alone with the children and only a few servants, Miss Giddens soon begins to see what ..read more »
Rate this:
74%
from 9 members
Due for release on 22nd March 2010
-
-
The Grass Is Greener
on DVD
(1960)
Starring: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons
Director: Stanley Donen
Certificate: 
When American millionaire Charles Delacro (Robert Mitchum) stumbles into the private quarters of Victor (Cary Grant) and Hilary (Deborah Kerr), an English aristocratic couple who allow public tours through their stately mansion, he brings a whirlwind of trouble with him. Hilary's dissatisfaction ..read more »
Rate this:
64%
from 167 members
-
-
The Sundowners
(1960)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Certificate: 
Garnering an impressive five Oscar nominations and containing a starring role for Robert Mitchum, THE SUNDOWNERS is a drama weaved around the daily lives of the Carmody family. The family members work together as sheep herders and find themselves constantly travelling in order to find further ..read more »
Rate this:
73%
from 11 members
-
-
Beloved Infidel
(1959)
Starring: Gregory Peck, Deborah Kerr, Eddie Albert
Director: Henry King
Certificate:
Based on the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, an aging Hollywood writer, desperately trying to make enough money to pay for the asylum his wife is in, when another woman suddenly enters his life.
Rate this:
100%
from 1 member
-
-
Separate Tables
on DVD
(1958)
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, David Niven
Director: Delbert Mann
Certificate:
Life in an English bed and breakfast where the eccentric guests all have one common trait – loneliness. There's Major Pollack who hides a dark secret behind a polished military veneer; Sibyl Railton-Bell, a shy, neurotic old maid who lacks the courage to break away from her domineering mother. John ..read more »
Rate this:
68%
from 358 members
-
-
An Affair To Remember
on DVD
(1957)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant, Richard Denning
Director: Leo McCarey
Certificate: 
In this legendary tearjerker, the world's most eligible bachelor (Cary Grant) is set to marry an heiress. But unfortunately for his bride-to-be, while he's traveling alone on a luxury liner he meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) and realizes he's engaged to the wrong woman--and she's engaged to the ..read more »
Rate this:
71%
from 3,182 members
-
-
Heaven Knows Mr Allison
on DVD
(1957)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum
Director: John Huston
Certificate:
A nun who has yet to take her vows and a Marine are stranded together on a remote South Pacific island controlled by Japanese troops. As time passes they learn to survive together and grow closer in understa ding for one another as they await rescue by Ameriacn troops.
Rate this:
67%
from 250 members
-
-
The King And I
on DVD
(1956)
Starring: Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr, Rita Moreno
Director: Walter Lang
Certificate:
Rogers and Hammerstein's Broadway musical, adapted from Margaret Landon's fact-based novel and the 1946 film ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM, makes a spectacularly successful move to the silver screen in the Yul Brynner tour de force THE KING AND I. Brynner, reprising the role he'd polished to perfection ..read more »
Rate this:
68%
from 5,738 members
-
-
The End Of The Affair
on DVD
(1955)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Peter Cushing, Peter Cushing
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Certificate:
Sarah Miles (Deborah Kerr)--the unhappy wife of a meek civil servant (Peter Cushing)--falls into a passionate love affair with American expatriate writer William Bendrix (Van Johnson) during the London Blitz. After an air raid interrupts one of their trysts, Sally inexplicably cuts the affair short,..read more »
Rate this:
62%
from 79 members
-
-
From Here To Eternity
on DVD
(1953)
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Certificate:
An all-star cast brought what was considered an unfilmable James Jones novel to the screen with skill and grace. The story involves the loves, hopes, and dreams of those in a close-knit army barracks in Hawaii shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Montgomery Clift portrays a former boxer who ..read more »
Rate this:
67%
from 3,177 members
-
-
Quo Vadis
on DVD
(1951)
Starring: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Certificate:
MGM turned Henry Sinkiewicz's Nobel Prize-winning novel into one of the most extravagant productions in film history. The epic tale is set in the decadence and decay of Nero's Rome, where Christianity is just beginning to foment. Robert Taylor (BILLY THE KID, JOHNNY EAGER) stars as Marcus Vinicius, ..read more »
Rate this:
70%
from 53 members
-
-
Quo Vadis - BLU-RAY Version
(1951)
Starring: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Certificate: 
Rome burns. Nero fiddles. Christianity rises. And moviegoers turned out in throngs for this years-in-the-making film colossus boasting eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and featuring 110 speaking parts, 30,000 participants and a filmed-on-location panoply of marching legions, ..read more »
Rate this:
58%
from 46 members
-
-
The Day Will Dawn
on DVD
(1942)
Starring: Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, Deborah Kerr
Director: Harold French
Certificate:
This exciting British wartime film celebrates the heroism of the Norwegian resistance movement in fighting Nazi invaders. With a distinguished cast and a script by TERENCE RATTIGAN, "The Day Will Dawn" is the story of a British foreign correspondent sent to report on U-boat attacks against ..read more »
Rate this:
65%
from 7 members
-
-
Bonjour Tristesse
on DVD
Starring: Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg
Director: Otto Preminger
Certificate:
Cecile and her father Raymond live a luxurious life, filled with pleasure-seeking excesses. All this is threatened, however, when Raymond decides to marry Cecile's conservative godmother, Anne. Desperate to maintain her lifestyle, Cecile plots to drive Anne away... Based on Francoise Sagan's ..read more »
Rate this:
58%
from 495 members
-
-
Marriage On The Rocks
on DVD
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nancy Sinatra
Director: Jack Donohue
Certificate:
This light comedy was to be Sinatra and Martin's last big screen appearance together for nearly twenty years.
Sinatra and Kerr have been married for 19 years. He ignores her. She complains. At Martin's urging, they go on a second honeymoon in Mexico. Once there, they get in a huge fight, and wind ..read more »
Rate this:
55%
from 55 members
|
Deborah Kerr facts
|
They don't make 'em like that anymore.... thank goodness! 16 July 2006
...e, and some truly cringe-inducing moments (the school kids 'concert' - puke!). Deborah Kerr couldn't act at all, and actually Cary Grant, an actor I usually really like, l...
Fantastic 2 January 2004
Excellent; Despite Being Period Drama 9 July 2008
