Deborah Jane Trimmer (30 September 1921 – 16 October 2007), known professionally asDeborah Kerr (/kɑːr/), was a British film star. Kerr rose to fame for her portrayals of proper, ladylike women, who often navigated societal expectations and stereotypes. Kerr attracted wide praise for her work, earning sixAcademy Award nominations forBest Actress. She was regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation. From the 1940s to the late 1960s, she was one of the most popular actresses in the world.
Following the lukewarm success of her debut Hollywood features,The Hucksters andIf Winter Comes, both in 1947, Kerr found critical praise inEdward, My Son (1949), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, becoming the first Scottish person to be nominated for an acting Oscar. Though she found major commercial success inKing Solomon's Mines (1950) andQuo Vadis (1951), the latter thehighest grossing film of 1951, reviews were often lackluster for her performances, highlighting hertypecasting. In 1953, Kerr had a critical resurgence in the major hitFrom Here to Eternity, which reestablished her as a serious actress and earned her a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Kerr received numerous accolades throughout her career, including twoGolden Globe Awards and nominations for six Academy Awards, fourBritish Academy Film Awards, and anEmmy Award. In 1994, having already received honorary awards from theCannes Film Festival and BAFTA, Kerr received anAcademy Honorary Award with a citation recognizing her as "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance."
Deborah Jane Trimmer[1] was born on 30 September 1921 inHillhead, Glasgow,[2] the only daughter of Kathleen Rose (née Smale) and Capt. Arthur Charles Kerr Trimmer, a World War I veteran and pilot who lost a leg at theBattle of the Somme and later became anaval architect andcivil engineer. Trimmer and Smale married, both aged 28, on 21 August 1919 in Smale's hometown ofLydney,Gloucestershire.[3]
Young Deborah spent the first three years of her life in the Scottish west coast town ofHelensburgh, where her parents lived with Deborah's grandparents in a house on West King Street. Kerr had a younger brother, Edmund Charles (born 31 May 1926), who became a journalist. He died, aged 78, in aroad rage incident in 2004.[4][5]
Kerr was educated at the independent Northumberland House School,Henleaze inBristol, England, and at Rossholme School,Weston-super-Mare. Kerr originally trained as a ballet dancer, first appearing on stage atSadler's Wells in 1938. After changing careers, she soon found success as an actress. Her first acting teacher was her aunt, Phyllis Smale, who worked at a drama school in Bristol run by Lally Cuthbert Hicks.[6][7] She adopted the name Deborah Kerr on becoming a film actress ("Kerr" was a family name going back to the maternal grandmother of her grandfather Arthur Kerr Trimmer).[8]
Kerr's first stage appearance was at Weston-super-Mare in 1937, as "Harlequin" in the mime playHarlequin and Columbine. She then went to the Sadler's Wells ballet school and in 1938 made her début in the corps de ballet inPrometheus. After various walk-on parts inShakespeare productions at theOpen Air Theatre inRegent's Park, London, she joined theOxford Playhouse repertory company in 1940, playing,inter alia, "Margaret" inDear Brutus and "Patty Moss" inThe Two Bouquets.[6]
Kerr's first film role was in the British productionContraband (US:Blackout, 1940), aged 18 or 19, but her scenes were cut. She had a strong supporting role inMajor Barbara (1941) directed byGabriel Pascal.[9]
Kerr became known playing the lead role in the film ofLove on the Dole (1941). CriticJames Agate wrote thatLove on the Dole "is not within a mile ofWendy Hiller's in the theatre, but it is a charming piece of work by a very pretty and promising beginner, so pretty and so promising that there is the usual yapping about a new star".[6]
She was the female lead inPenn of Pennsylvania (1941) which was little seen; howeverHatter's Castle (1942), in which she starred withRobert Newton andJames Mason, was very successful. She played a Norwegian resistance fighter inThe Day Will Dawn (1942). She was an immediate hit with the public: an American film trade paper reported in 1942 that she was the most popular British actress with Americans.[10]
Kerr played three women inMichael Powell andEmeric Pressburger'sThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). During the filming, according to Powell's autobiography, Powell and she became lovers:[11] "I realised that Deborah was both the ideal and the flesh-and-blood woman whom I had been searching for".[11] Kerr made clear that her surname should be pronounced the same as "car". To avoid confusion over pronunciation,Louis B. Mayer, head ofMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer billed her as "Kerr rhymes with Star!"[12] Although theBritish Army refused to co-operate with the producers—andWinston Churchill thought the film would ruin wartime morale—Colonel Blimp confounded critics when it proved to be an artistic and commercial success.[11]
Powell hoped to reunite Kerr and lead actorRoger Livesey in his next film,A Canterbury Tale (1944), but her agent had sold her contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. According to Powell, his affair with Kerr ended when she made it clear to him that she would accept an offer to go to Hollywood if one were made.[11]
In 1943, aged 21, Kerr made her West End début as Ellie Dunn in a revival ofHeartbreak House at theCambridge Theatre, stealing attention from stalwarts such asEdith Evans andIsabel Jeans. "She has the rare gift", wrote criticBeverley Baxter, "of thinking her lines, not merely remembering them. The process of development from a romantic, silly girl to a hard, disillusioned woman in three hours was moving and convincing".[6]
Near the end of the Second World War, she also toured Holland, France, and Belgium forENSA as Mrs Manningham inGaslight (retitledAngel Street), and Britain (withStewart Granger).[13]
Her role as a troubled nun in the Powell and Pressburger production ofBlack Narcissus (1947) brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers. The film was a hit in the US, as well as the UK, and Kerr won theNew York Film Critics Award as Actress of the Year. British exhibitors voted her the eighth-most popular local star at the box-office in 1947.[14] She relocated to Hollywood and was under contract toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In Hollywood, Kerr's British accent and manner led to a succession of roles portraying refined, reserved, and "proper" English ladies. Kerr, nevertheless, used any opportunity to discard her cool exterior. She had the lead in a comedyPlease Believe Me (1950).[16]
Kerr appeared in two huge hits for MGM in a row.King Solomon's Mines (1950) was shot on location in Africa withStewart Granger andRichard Carlson.[17] This was immediately followed by her appearance in the religious epicQuo Vadis (1951), shot atCinecittà in Rome, in which she played the indomitable Lygia, a first-century Christian.
Having established herself as a film actress in the meantime, she made her Broadway debut in 1953, appearing inRobert Anderson'sTea and Sympathy, for which she received aTony Award nomination. Kerr performed the same role inVincente Minnelli's film adaptationreleased in 1956; her stage partnerJohn Kerr (no relation) also appeared. In 1955, Kerr won theSarah Siddons Award for her performance in Chicago during a national tour of the play. After her Broadway début in 1953, she toured the United States withTea and Sympathy.[15]
Kerr made her British TV debut in "Three Roads to Rome" (1963). She was another governess inThe Chalk Garden (1964) and worked with John Huston again inThe Night of the Iguana (1964).[22]
In 1965, the producers ofCarry On Screaming! offered her a fee comparable to that paid to the rest of the cast combined, but she turned it down in favour of appearing in an aborted stage version ofFlowers for Algernon. She replacedKim Novak inEye of the Devil (1966) with Niven, and was reteamed with Niven in the comedyCasino Royale (1967), achieving the distinction of being, at 45, the oldest "Bond girl" in anyJames Bond film, untilMonica Bellucci, at the age of 50, inSpectre (2015).Casino Royale was a hit as was another movie she made with Niven,Prudence and the Pill (1968).[23] She madeThe Arrangement (1969) withElia Kazan, her director from the stage production ofTea and Sympathy.
Concern about parts offered her made her abandon film at the end of the 1960s, with one exception in 1985, in favour of television and theatre work.[8]
Kerr returned to the London stage in many productions, including the old-fashioned,The Day After the Fair (Lyric, 1972), aPeter Ustinov comedy,Overheard (Haymarket, 1981) and a revival ofEmlyn Williams'sThe Corn is Green.[6] After her first London success in 1943, she toured England and Scotland inHeartbreak House.[25]
In 1977, she came back to the West End, playing the title role in a production ofGeorge Bernard Shaw'sCandida.
The theatre, despite her success in films, was always to remain Kerr's first love, even though going on stage filled her with trepidation:
I do it because it's exactly like dressing up for the grown ups. I don't mean to belittle acting but I'm like a child when I'm out there performing—shocking the grownups, enchanting them, making them laugh or cry. It's an unbelievable terror, a kind of masochistic madness. The older you get, the easier it should be but it isn't.[6]
Kerr experienced a career resurgence on television in the early 1980s when she played the role of the nurse (played byElsa Lanchester in the 1957 film of the same name) inWitness for the Prosecution, with SirRalph Richardson. She also didA Song at Twilight (1982).[26]
Kerr rejoined old screen partner Mitchum inReunion at Fairborough (1985). Other TV roles includedAnn and Debbie (1986) andHold the Dream (1986), the latter a sequel toA Woman of Substance.[28]
Kerr's first marriage was toSquadron LeaderAnthony BartleyRAF on 29 November 1945. They had two daughters,Melanie Jane (born 27 December 1947) and Francesca Ann (born 18 December 1951, who married the actorJohn Shrapnel). Through Francesca they had three grandsons, actorsLex Shrapnel and Tom Shrapnel as well as the writer Joe Shrapnel. Melanie is a medical sociologist and retired academic. The marriage was troubled, owing to Bartley's envy of his wife's fame and financial success,[8] and because her career often took her away from home. They divorced in 1959.
Her second marriage was to authorPeter Viertel on 23 July 1960. In marrying Viertel, she became stepmother to Viertel's daughter, Christine Viertel. Although she long resided inKlosters, Switzerland, andMarbella, Spain, Kerr moved back to Britain to be closer to her own children as her health began to deteriorate. Her husband, however, continued to live in Marbella.[29]
Stewart Granger said in his autobiography that in 1945 she had approached him romantically in the back of his chauffeur-driven car at the time he was makingCaesar and Cleopatra.[30] Although he was married toElspeth March, he states that he and Kerr went on to have an affair.[31] When asked about this revelation, Kerr's response was, "What a gallant man he is!"[32]
Within three weeks of her death, her husband Peter Viertel died of cancer on 4 November.[36] At the time of Viertel's death, director Michael Scheingraber was filming the documentaryPeter Viertel: Between the Lines, which includes reminiscences concerning Kerr and the Academy Awards.[37]
She is tied withThelma Ritter andAmy Adams as the actresses with the second most nominations without winning, surpassed only byGlenn Close, who has been nominated eight times without winning.[citation needed]
Kerr was made a Commander of theOrder of the British Empire (CBE) in 1998, but was unable to accept the honour in person because of ill health.[25] She was also honoured in Hollywood, where she received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 1709 Vine Street for her contributions to the motion picture industry.[44]
Although nominated six times as Best Actress, Kerr never won a competitive Oscar. In 1994,Glenn Close presented Kerr with theHonorary Oscar for lifetime achievement with a citation recognising her as "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance".[45]
Although she never won aBAFTA orCannes Film Festival award in a competitive category, both organisations gave Kerr honorary awards: a Cannes Film Festival Tribute in 1984[46] and a BAFTA Special Award in 1991.[6]
In September and October 2010, Josephine Botting of theBritish Film Institute curated the "Deborah Kerr Season", which included around twenty of her feature films and an exhibition of posters, memorabilia and personal items loaned by her family.[47]
In September 2021, Kerr's grandsons, Joe andLex Shrapnel, unveiled a memorial plaque at the former family home inWeston-super-Mare.[48]
On 30 September 2021, on what would have been Kerr's one hundredth birthday, theLord Provost of Glasgow,Philip Braat, unveiled a memorial plaque in Ruskin Terrace, on the site of the nursing home where Kerr was born.[49]
^Sater, Richard; Pardi, Robert (2000)."Deborah Kerr".International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers. Detroit: St. James Press.ISBN978-1558624498. Archived fromthe original on 20 October 2007.
Braun, Eric.Deborah Kerr. St. Martin's Press, 1978.ISBN0-312-18895-1.
Capua, Michelangelo.Deborah Kerr. A Biography. McFarland, 2010.ISBN978-0-7864-5882-0.
Street, Sarah.Deborah Kerr. British Film Institute, 2018.ISBN978-1844576753.
Powell, Michael.A Life in Movies. Heinemann, 1986.ISBN0-434-59945-X.
Andrew, Penelope. "Deborah Kerr: An Actress in Search of an Author".Bright Lights Film Journal, May 2011, Issue #72.Deborah Kerr: An Actress in Search of an Author, (c) Penelope Andrew, 2011.
Deborah Kerr tribute by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, whose script for his filmBroken Embraces was influenced by his reflections on her at the time of her death.
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