Oberon blackbird

See also: Blackbird, Oberon

Merle Oberon (born Estelle Blackbird O' Brien Thompson the February 19th 1911 with Bombay and deceased the November 23rd 1979 with Los Angeles) was a British actress of Welsh origin and Indian. It was named in 1935 for the Oscar of the best actress for her role in The Dark Angel of Sidney Franklin.

Biography

Estelle Merle O' Brien Thompson was born with Bombay (today Mumbai), in India. His/her mother, Charlotte, were a nurse anglo-sri-lankaise, and her father, Arthur, a British railway engineer.

His/her mother had given up a first girl, Constance, and had sworn that it would not be any more unmarried mother. She thus insisted so that Arthur the wife, even if it is not certain that the marriage really took place. In 1914, in the beginnings of the First World War, whereas Merle is three years old, his/her father dies in the face of a pneumonia. The mother and the girl then carry out during a few years a precarious existence in Bombay. In 1917, they move with Calcutta, where Merle becomes stock exchange private college Martinière. Unceasingly prone to provocations concerning its origins, it ends up leaving it to follow courses to residence.

It makes its beginnings on the boards with Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society. It is under the charm of the cinema, attends the nightclubs and of the older men. It made there the meeting of an actor who promises to him an introduction near Rex Ingram to the Studios of Victorine. Blackbird seizes the occasion and decides to follow it to France. But when the man discovers his mongrel mother and his origins, it puts an end to their relation. Blackbird and its mother accomplish nevertheless the voyage envisaged towards France. Arrived at Nice, they discover that the man held word, and Blackbird is presented to Rex Ingram which employs it in small roles.

In 1928, they leave France for England. Blackbird there is hostess of bar and takes down some roles under the name of Queenie O' Brien.

Its first great role will be that of Anne Boleyn in the Private life of Henry VIII (1933) with Charles Laughton. In 1934, it obtains the first feminine role in the Scarlet pimpernel with Leslie Howard. Its career takes off thanks to its relation with Alexandre Korda, which she marries, and which makes him change name. In 1935, it is named with the Oscars for The Dark Angel . In 1937, a serious car accident made péricliter the project of film of Korda, Me, Claudius , in which it was to hold the role of Messaline. This accident also leaves scars to life to him, that the make-up men will have evil to camouflage. According to Princess Blackbird , the biography written by Charles Higham, the dye of Blackbird had also to suffer from violent reactions allergic to the make-up like with the Sulfamidé S.

In spite of that, she plays Cathy in the Tops of Hurlevent (in 1939), George Sand in has Song to Remember (1945), and the empress Joséphine in Désirée (1954) at the sides of Marlon Brando.

In 1945, she divorces Alexandre Korda to marry the chief operator Lucien Ballard. She will still marry the Italian industrialist Bruno Pagliai (with whom she adopt two children) and the Dutch actor Robert Wolders (who will be then the companion of Audrey Hepburn), before taking her retirement with Malibu (California) where she will die of an heart attack at 68 years. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk off Famed - to the 6274 Hollywood Boulevard.

Marked by its childhood, during all its career, Merle Oberon will make very to hide its mongrel origins. Sometimes so much so that it will make pass her mother for her good. To explain its dye, she tells that she was born and was high in Tasmanie, and that its birth certificate and its certificates of schooling burned in a fire. In spite of the re-establishment of the truth after its death, certain people in Tasmanie continue to convey the legend.

Fimography

to supplement

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