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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 too 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
review by A customer from Redditch, UK
They don't make 'em like that anymore.... thank goodness! 16 July 2006
review by from devon
Fantastic 2 January 2004
review by CashOnTheNail from Manchester
Excellent; Despite Being Period Drama 9 July 2008
Deborah Kerr - filmography
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The Assam Garden
(1985)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Madhur Jaffrey, Alec McCowen
Director: Mary McMurray
Certificate: 
An embittered, lonely old widow reluctantly tends her late husband's garden and discovers that more than flowers can bloom there when she encounters her East Indian neighbour, a woman with an ailing husband. This touching drama chronicles their friendship. The story opens as the widow returns from ..read more »
 
65%
from 2 members
Currently unavailable
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Marriage On The Rocks
on DVD
(1965)
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 »
54%
from 80 members
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The Innocents - Blu-ray
(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 »
65%
from 398 members
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The Naked Edge
on DVD
(1961)
Starring: Gary Cooper, Deborah Kerr, Eric Portman
Director: Michael Anderson
Certificate: 
George Radcliffe's testimony sends Donald Heath to prison for murder and the theft of over 60,000 pounds. Soon after, Radcliffe invests a large sum of money in an ultimately profitable business venture. Radcliffe's wife Martha begins to suspect...
63%
from 47 members
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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 »
72%
from 2,338 members
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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 »
64%
from 242 members
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The Sundowners
(1960)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Certificate: 
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
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 »
69%
from 30 members
Currently unavailable
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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.
42%
from 5 members
Currently unavailable
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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 »
69%
from 536 members
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Bonjour Tristesse
on DVD
(1958)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg
Director: Otto Preminger
Certificate:
Francoise Sagan's bittersweet novel Bonjour Tristesse is given a sumptuous Riviera-filmed screen treatment. David Niven plays a wealthy playboy, the father of teenaged libertine-in-the-making Jean Seberg. Seberg tolerates most of her father's mistresses, but doesn't know what to make of the prudish ..read more »
60%
from 653 members
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Heaven Knows Mr Allison
on DVD
(1957)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum
Director: John Huston
Certificate:
A two-person character study directed by John Huston, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison stars Robert Mitchum as a World War II Marine sergeant and Deborah Kerr as a Roman Catholic nun. Both nun and sergeant are marooned on a South Pacific island, hemmed in by surrounding Japanese troops. Mitchum does his ..read more »
68%
from 342 members
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An Affair To Remember - Blu-ray
(1957)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant, Richard Denning
Director: Leo McCarey
Certificate:
An Affair to Remember, director Leo McCarey's scene-for-scene remake of his own 1939 film Love Affair, isn't really an improvement on the original, but it's equally as enjoyable. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, high-profile types both engaged to be married to other people, meet and fall in love during ..read more »
62%
from 4 members
Not available for rental
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An Affair To Remember
on DVD
(1957)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Cary Grant, Richard Denning
Director: Leo McCarey
Certificate:
An Affair to Remember, director Leo McCarey's scene-for-scene remake of his own 1939 film Love Affair, isn't really an improvement on the original, but it's equally as enjoyable. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, high-profile types both engaged to be married to other people, meet and fall in love during ..read more »
72%
from 3,958 members
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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 »
68%
from 6,199 members
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The End Of The Affair
on DVD
(1955)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Certificate:
Recently freed from his MGM contract, Van Johnson headed to England to star in a series of pictures, the first of which was The End of the Affair. Adapted by Lenore Coffee from the novel by Graham Greene, the film casts Johnson as Maurice Bendrix, the clandestine lover of married Briton Sarah Miles ..read more »
64%
from 141 members
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Young Bess
(1953)
Starring: Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger, Charles Laughton
Director: George Sidney, george sidney (2)
Certificate:
The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch - the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Jean Simmons portrays young Bess in this rich tapestry of a film that traces the tumultuous, danger-fraught years from Elizabeth's birth to her ..read more »
85%
from 4 members
Currently unavailable
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From Here To Eternity
on DVD
(1953)
Starring: Mickey Shaughnessy, Jack Warden, Philip Ober
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Certificate:
The scene is Schofield Army Barracks in Honolulu, in the languid days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, where James Jones' acclaimed war novel From Here to Eternity brought the aspirations and frustrations of several people sharply into focus. Sergeant Milt Warden (Burt Lancaster) enters into an ..read more »
68%
from 3,941 members
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Quo Vadis - Blu-ray
(1951)
Starring: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn
Director: Mervyn LeRoy, Franco Rossi
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 »
60%
from 123 members
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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 »
70%
from 189 members
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I See a Dark Stranger
on DVD
(1946)
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Trevor Howard, Raymond Huntley
Director: Frank Launder
Certificate:
Directed by Frank Launder and written by Sidney Gilliat, I See A Dark Stranger is a suspense-filled, highly entertaining spy drama about a highly-strung Irish girl, Bridie Quilty (Deborah Kerr) whose father delights in spinning tall tales about his role in the 1916 uprising against the English.
..read more »
65%
from 50 members
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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 »
62%
from 38 members
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Deborah Kerr facts
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...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...
