Deborah Kerr

Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer –full name of the star– came into the world on September 30, 1921, in a family with a military tradition. Her father, an army captain, died when she was fourteen. She settles with her mother in Bristol, where she studies dance. Her aunt, an acting teacher, encourages her to pursue drama, and in her late 30s, she plays various roles on the London stage. Her film debut is made under the orders of  Michael Powell , a director after her decisive for her career. But her small role in the film, titled  Contrabando,  was cut in the final cut. In 1941 she took part in Commander Barbara , an adaptation of a work by  George Bernard Shaw .

That same year, Deborah Kerr  plays her first starring role, in  Love on the Dole , the story of an aspiring actress during the Great Depression. Little by little she becomes a British movie star. The aforementioned Michael Powell  repechage for The  Life and Death of Colonel Blimp , which the filmmaker co-directs with  Emeric Pressburger , her regular partner. The actress plays three different women, dazzling critics and the public, which is her definitive consecration. With the same duo of directors, she makes a moving composition of a nun, in  Narciso negro .

Soon they demand it in the United States, where it already had a certain popularity. As soon as she arrived, in 1947, she was paired with  Clark Gable , in  The Traffickers . But her true golden age is the 1950s, when MGM offers her a substantial contract. The producer is strongly committed to turning Deborah Kerr into one of her great stars, and puts her at the forefront of the cast of major productions, mainly adventures and period pieces. Some of these titles are unforgettable, such as  King Solomon’s Mines ,  Quo Vadis ,  The Prisoner of Zenda,  and  Julius Caesar .. “When I was under contract at MGM, movies were just entertainment. What the public demanded was shot. Now the cinema serves many other purposes. It works as a psychiatrist, a politician, a messenger, a money-making machine and, accidentally, as entertainment, “said the actress in one of her last interviews. Her most acclaimed work is  From Here to Eternity , where she stands out in a cast that also included  Donna Reed ,  Burt Lancaster ,  Frank Sinatra ,  and  Montgomery Clift . Her character is Karen, the wife of an officer who is unfaithful with one of her subordinates. Awarded eight Oscars, this adaptation of the novel by  James Jones Describes the daily life of the soldiers at Pearl Harbor, before the Japanese attack.

The actress ends the decade with great titles, such as  Vivir un gran amor ,  El rey y yo ,  Té y simpatía ,  Good morning, sadness , and above all  You and I , an icon of romantic comedy, where she begins an idyll on a transatlantic with a leading man ( Cary Grant ), with whom she agrees that if in six months they continue to feel the same way they will meet again on top of the Empire State Building. For  Three Wandering Lives  (1960),  Deborah KerrHe accumulates his sixth Oscar nomination, although he was left without a statuette until 1994, when he was given the honorary award. In the 1960s, he lavishes less, but when he does, he shoots top-notch titles, like the classic horror film  Suspense , shot in his native England, or  The Night of the Iguana , one of Huston’s masterpieces. In the 70s and 80s, the actress could be seen in some TV movie.

Divorced from producer Anthony C. Bartley , father of her two offspring, in the 1960s she joined screenwriter  Peter Viertel , author of “The African Queen”, with whom she lived until the actress’ death on October 16, 2007. in Suffolk, UK.