Sep 30, 1921

Helensburgh, Scotland, UK

Born Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in Scotland in 1921, she was the daughter of
a soldier who had been gassed in World War I. A shy, insecure child, she
found an outlet for expressing her feelings in acting. Her aunt, a radio
star, got her some stage work when she was a teenager, and British film
producer Gabriel Pascal noticed and cast her in his film of George Bernard
Shaw's Major Barbara (1941) and Love on the Dole (1941). She quickly became
a star of the British cinema, with roles such as ... ... (read more...) the three women in The Life
and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and the nun in Black Narcissus (1947). In
1947, she came to MGM, where she repeated her success in films like The
Hucksters (1947), Edward, My Son (1949) and Quo Vadis (1951). After a while,
however, she tired of playing prim-and-proper English ladies, so she made
the most of the role of the adulteress who romps on the beach with Burt
Lancaster in From Here to Eternity (1953). The film was a success, and Kerr
received her second Oscar nomination for the film. She also achieved success
on the Broadway stage in "Tea and Sympathy," reprising her role in the 1956
film version. That same year, she played one of her best-remembered screen
roles, "Mrs. Anna" in The King and I (1956). More success followed in Heaven
Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), An Affair to Remember (1957), Separate Tables
(1958), The Sundowners (1960), The Innocents (1961) and The Night of the
Iguana (1964). Then, in 1968, she suddenly quit movies, appalled by the
explicit sex and violence of the day. After some stage and TV work in the
1970s and 1980s and swan song performances in The Assam Garden (1985) and
Hold the Dream (1986) (TV), she retired from acting altogether. Deborah Kerr
holds the record of the most Oscar nominations (six) without a win, but that
was made up for in 1994, when she was given a Honorary Oscar for her screen
achievements.