Merle Oberon

Acting

Merle Oberon

Born 1911-02-19 · Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India [now Mumbai, Maharashtra, India]

Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was a British actress of Anglo-Indian origin. Her career spanned from the 1920s to the 1970s, and she was a major leading lady during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Born and raised in British India, she began her acting career in British cinema in the early 1930s, with a breakout role in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). She later moved to Hollywood, where she became an international star, earning acclaim for films such as The Dark Angel (1935), Wuthering Heights (1939), and That Uncertain Feeling (1941). Her performance as Kitty Vane in The Dark Angel earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Oberon's other notable roles included A Song to Remember (1945), Berlin Express (1948), and Désirée (1954). A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that nearly ended her career, but she recovered and remained active in film and television until 1973. Description above from the Wikipedia article Merle Oberon, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Wuthering Heights poster
7.2

Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.

Wuthering Heights

1939

Aren't We All? poster
8.0

Because his father, Lord Grenham, spends more time philandering with attractive women than conducting business, Willie Tatham is forced to interrupt his honeymoon with his wife Margot in the south of France and return to London to get his father to sign an important contract. While Margot, an actress, goes to a small resort where she will not be recognized, Kitty Lake, one of the young women Lord Grenham pursues, flirts with Willie. Two weeks pass and when Willie tells Margot on the telephone that he must stay in town, she threatens to engage in a violent flirtation with the next attractive man she sees. Karl von der Heide, from Vienna, who is waiting to use the telephone, overhears her and begins a flirtation. She identifies herself to him as Mrs. Margaret Spaulding, and they pursue the beginnings of a romance until Margot suddenly returns home.

Aren't We All?

1932

Désirée poster
6.6

In Marseilles, France in 1794, Desiree Clary, a young millinery clerk, becomes infatuated with Napoleon Bonaparte, but winds up wedding General Jean-Baptiste Berandotte, an aid to Napoleon who later joins the forces that bring about the Emperor's downfall. Josephine Beauharnais, a worldly courtesan marries Napoleon and becomes Empress of France, but is then cast aside by her spouse when she proves unable to produce an heir to the throne.

Désirée

1954

The Oscar poster
5.1

An amoral lowlife accidentally stumbles into an acting career that sets him on a trajectory to Hollywood stardom. But everyone on whom he steps on the way to the top remembers when he is nominated for an Oscar and he runs a dirty campaign in an attempt to win.

The Oscar

1966

The Lodger poster
6.5

In Victorian era London, the inhabitants of a family home with rented rooms upstairs fear the new lodger is Jack the Ripper.

The Lodger

1944

That Uncertain Feeling poster
6.6

A happily married woman sees a psychoanalyst and develops doubts about her husband.

That Uncertain Feeling

1941

Stage Door Canteen poster
6.3

A young soldier on a pass in New York City visits the famed Stage Door Canteen, where famous stars of theatre and film appear and host a recreational center for servicemen during the war. The soldier meets a pretty young hostess and they enjoy the many entertainers and a growing romance.

Stage Door Canteen

1943

The Cowboy and the Lady poster
6.3

Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off for the family's home in West Palm Beach and inadvertently becomes romantically entangled with earnest cowboy Stretch Willoughby. Neither the dalliance nor the cowboy fit with the upper class image projected by her esteemed father, forcing her to choose.

The Cowboy and the Lady

1938

Deep in My Heart poster
6.7

Biographic movie about the American composer Sigmund Romberg.

Deep in My Heart

1954

The Private Life of Henry VIII poster
6.4

Renowned for his excess, King Henry VIII goes through a series of wives during his rule. With Anne Boleyn, his second betrothed, executed on charges of treason, Henry weds maid Jane Seymour, but that wedded bliss also ends in tragedy. Not one to be single for long, the tyrannical king chooses German-born Anne of Cleves, but their union lasts only months before an annulment is granted, and so Henry's reign of spousal terror continues.

The Private Life of Henry VIII

1933

The Divorce of Lady X poster
5.9

A London barrister believes the woman who spent the night in his hotel suite is the erring wife of his newest client.

The Divorce of Lady X

1938

Fascination poster
6.7

Story of a vampish actress who comes between a happily married couple in this light-hearted melodrama.

Fascination

1931

Affectionately Yours poster
4.5

A married reporter's assignments carry him all over the world, which gives him ample opportunity to put the moves on the local females.

Affectionately Yours

1941

Forever and a Day poster
7.5

In World War II, American Gates Trimble Pomfret is in London during the Blitz to sell the ancestral family house. The current tenant, Leslie Trimble, tries to dissuade him from selling by telling him the 140-year history of the place and the connections between the Trimble and Pomfret families.

Forever and a Day

1943

For the Love of Mike poster
7.0

A useless secretary and his private detective friend try to help an heiress from being swindled by her guardian.

For the Love of Mike

1932

These Three poster
7.1

Close friends Martha and Karen build a private boarding school together with the aid of the local doctor Joe. The school takes off and many students enroll, one of whom is a trouble-maker who tells a scandalous lie that threatens to destroy the trio's lives.

These Three

1936

The Private Life of Don Juan poster
6.0

What do women want? Don Juan is aging. He's arrived secretly in Seville after a 20 year absence. His wife Dolores, whom he hasn't lived with in five years, still loves him. He refuses to see her; he fears the life of a husband. She has bought his debts and will remand him to jail for two years if he won't come to her. Meanwhile, an impostor is climbing the balconies of Seville claiming to be Don Juan.

The Private Life of Don Juan

1934

Hotel poster
6.0

This is the story of the clocklike movements of a giant, big city New Orleans hotel. The ambitious yet loyal manager wrestles with the round-the-clock drama of its guests. A brazen sneak thief, who nightly relieves the guests of their property, is chased through the underground passages of the hotel. The big business power play for control of the hotel and the VIP diplomat guest with a secret add to the excitement.

Hotel

1967

'Til We Meet Again poster
6.4

Dying Joan Ames meets criminal Dan Hardesty on a luxury liner as he is being transported back to America by policeman Steve Burke to face execution. Joan and Dan fall in love, their fates unbeknownst to one another.

'Til We Meet Again

1940

The Dark Angel poster
6.2

Kitty Vane, Alan Trent, and Gerald Shannon have been inseparable friends since childhood. Kitty has always known she would marry one of them, but has waited until the beginning of World War I before finally choosing Alan. Gerald graciously gives them his blessing. Then, Gerald and Alan go to war. Angered over a misunderstanding involving Alan and Kitty, Gerald sends Alan on a dangerous mission that will change all their lives forever.

The Dark Angel

1935

Folies Bergère de Paris poster
6.0

An entertainer impersonates a look-alike banker, causing comic confusion for wife and girlfriend.

Folies Bergère de Paris

1935

The Scarlet Pimpernel poster
7.0

18th century English aristocrat Sir Percy Blakeney leads a double life. He appears to be merely the effete aristocrat, but in reality is part of an underground effort to free French nobles from Robespierre's Reign of Terror.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

1934

Berlin Express poster
6.3

In post-war Europe, a diverse group of passengers aboard a U.S. Army train to bombed-out Frankfurt becomes involved in a Nazi assassination plot.

Berlin Express

1948

A Song to Remember poster
6.5

Prof. Joseph Elsner guides his protégé Frydryk Chopin through his formative years to early adulthood in Poland. The professor takes him to Paris, where he eventually comes under the wing and influence of novelist George Sand and rises to prominence in the music world, to the exclusion of his old friends and patriotic feelings towards Poland.

A Song to Remember

1945

Behind the camera