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Deborah Kerr

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


  • An Affair To Remember
  • An Affair To Remember review by A customer from Redditch, UK
    Rated - 1 stars 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...  
  • The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp
  • Rated - 3 stars Fantastic 2 January 2004
    ... The film follows Candy through his relationship with the characters played by Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. All three actors give great performances particularly Walbr...  
  • Woman Of Substance, A - Barbara Taylor Bradford
  • Woman Of Substance, A - Barbara Taylor Bradford review by CashOnTheNail from Manchester
    Rated - 5 stars Excellent; Despite Being Period Drama 9 July 2008
    ...Deborah Kerr [Affair To Remember, An] is shocked to hear a conference-recording of her children planning the liquidation of the business empire she built with her own bare-...  

Deborah Kerr - filmography


  • The Innocents on DVD (1961)
    Starring: Deborah Kerr,  Peter Wyngarde,  Megs Jenkins
    Director: Jack Clayton
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    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: 3.5 stars out of 5 71% from 1,634 member
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  • Innocents, The - BLU-RAY Version (1961)
    Starring: Deborah Kerr,  Peter Wyngarde,  Megs Jenkins
    Director: Jack Clayton
    Certificate: Certificate: 12
    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: 3.5 stars out of 5 74% from 9 members
    Due for release on 22nd March 2010
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  • The Sundowners (1960)
    Starring: Deborah Kerr,  Robert Mitchum,  Peter Ustinov
    Director: Fred Zinnemann
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    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: 3.5 stars out of 5 73% from 11 members
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  • Beloved Infidel (1959)
    Starring: Gregory Peck,  Deborah Kerr,  Eddie Albert
    Director: Henry King
    Certificate: Certificate: TBC
    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: 5 stars out of 5 100% from 1 member
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  • Separate Tables on DVD (1958)
    Starring: Burt Lancaster,  Rita Hayworth,  David Niven
    Director: Delbert Mann
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    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: 3.5 stars out of 5 68% from 358 members
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  • Heaven Knows Mr Allison on DVD (1957)
    Starring: Deborah Kerr,  Robert Mitchum
    Director: John Huston
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    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: 3.5 stars out of 5 67% from 250 members
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  • The King And I on DVD (1956)
    Starring: Yul Brynner,  Deborah Kerr,  Rita Moreno
    Director: Walter Lang
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    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: 3.5 stars out of 5 68% from 5,738 members
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  • Quo Vadis on DVD (1951)
    Starring: Robert Taylor,  Deborah Kerr,  Peter Ustinov
    Director: Mervyn LeRoy
    Certificate: Certificate: PG
    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: 3.5 stars out of 5 70% from 53 members
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  • The Day Will Dawn on DVD (1942)
    Starring: Hugh Williams,  Griffith Jones,  Deborah Kerr
    Director: Harold French
    Certificate: Certificate: U
    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: 3.5 stars out of 5 65% from 7 members
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Deborah Kerr facts

5 most recent films

Woman Of Substance, A - Barbara Taylor Bradford - 3.5 stars
Hold The Dream - Barbara Taylor Bradford - 3.0 stars
The Night of the Iguana - 3.5 stars
The Innocents - 3.5 stars
Innocents, The - BLU-RAY Version - 3.5 stars

5 highest-rated films

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp - 3.5 stars
Black Narcissus - 3.5 stars
Black Narcissus - BLU-RAY Version - 3.5 stars
The Innocents - 3.5 stars
An Affair To Remember - 3.5 stars

5 lowest-rated films

Quo Vadis - BLU-RAY Version - 3.0 stars
The Day Will Dawn - 3.5 stars
The Sundowners - 3.5 stars
Innocents, The - BLU-RAY Version - 3.5 stars
Julius Caesar - 4.0 stars

Most frequent co-stars

Martin Benson - 3 times - show films
John Mills - 3 times - show films
Felix Aylmer - 3 times - show films
Peter Ustinov - 3 times - show films
Jean Simmons - 3 times - show films

Most frequent directors

Emeric Pressburger - 4 times - show films
Michael Powell - 4 times - show films
Walter Lang - 3 times - show films
Fred Zinnemann - 2 times - show films
John Huston - 2 times - show films