October 18, 2007
Deborah Kerr, 1921-2007 … and Teresa Brewer, and Joey Bishop
From the CNN alert that arrived in this morning’s email:
‘From Here to Eternity’ actress Kerr dies
Deborah Kerr, who shared one of Hollywood’s most famous kisses and made her mark with such roles as the correct widow in “The King and I” and the unhappy officer’s wife in “From Here to Eternity,” has died. She was 86.
Kerr, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died Tuesday in Suffolk in eastern England, her agent, Anne Hutton, said Thursday.
For many she will be remembered best for her kiss with Burt Lancaster as waves crashed over them on a Hawaiian beach in the wartime drama “From Here to Eternity.”
. . .
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Kerr a six times for best actress, but never gave her an Academy Award until it presented an honorary Oscar in 1994 for her distinguished career as an “artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance.”
She had the reputation of a “no problem” actress.
“I have never had a fight with any director, good or bad,” she said toward the end of her career. “There is a way around everything if you are smart enough.”
. . .
She played virtually every part imaginable from murderer to princess to a Roman Christian slave to a nun.
In “The King and I,” with her singing voice dubbed by Marni Nixon, she was Anna Leonowens, who takes her son to Siam so that she can teach the children of the king, played by Yul Brynner.
Her best-actress nominations were for “Edward, My Son” (1949), “From Here to Eternity” (1953), “The King and I” (1956), “Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison” (1957), “Separate Tables” (1958), and “The Sundowners” (1960).
Among her other movies is “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant. …
I’m in serious fan mourning here. I absolutely adore Deborah Kerr. She was one of the most… well, I can’t put it any better than “an “artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance.” ‘Though I can add: She also possessed the most impeccable diction of any English speaker, ever.
One film the CNN obit doesn’t mention, which ranks right up there with From Here to Eternity, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison, The Innocents, and The King and I, is The Chalk Garden, a quiet but riveting little drama about secrets and lies, with Ms. Kerr’s cool demeanor masking something intense just beneath the surface, and a teenage Hayley Mills in an exceptionally fine performance. The cast is rounded out by Sir John Mills (Hayley’s dad) and Dame Edith Evans; all four are such brilliant actors, it’s nearly impossible to focus on just one. (And talk about a four-way lesson in perfect English diction!)
(Strangely, I’m the only person I know who’s never been wowed by An Affair to Remember — even though I love Cary Grant, too.)
Another film the article doesn’t mention: Ms. Kerr took her Broadway performance in Tea and Sympathy to the screen. While this isn’t among her top films, it is required “gay viewing”; John Kerr (no relation) is a student who is “different” (is he gay, or isn’t he?), and Ms. Kerr is the faculty wife who senses that he’s not at all like the other boys. Well worth watching at least once; I think a few scenes willl make you men cringe with recognition (such as the scene in which Mr. Kerr recruits a dorm mate to teach him how to walk like a “real” man).
One more note: You know the Columbia Pictures logo lady? I’ve always thought she looked like Deborah Kerr in costume as the Statue of Liberty.
Also of note today (although I bet I’m the only one who knows who she was): Teresa Brewer died overnight, too. She was a singer — a cute, very perky little singer, quite popular in the 1950s, and best known for “‘Til I Waltz Again with You” and “Music, Music, Music” (you know: “Put another nickel in / In the nickelodeon / All I want is lovin’ you / And music, music, music”). I liked her a lot.
I can’t say I was a big fan of Joey Bishop — but then, save for the inimitable style of Frank Sinatra, I can’t say there was much I liked about the whole boozin’-and-broad-chasin’ Rat Pack mentality. But Bishop, the third in today’s three celebrity deaths, certainly deserves a mention in… well, in passing.
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