Always the Oscars bridesmaid, never the bride

3:25pm Thursday 21st September 2006

She was in classic films but never received the nod from the Academy. PAUL WELSH looks back on the glittering career of Deborah Kerr

This week we look back on the career of a Hollywood star whose career began in Borehamwood during those dark days of the war.

Deborah Kerr once told me: "I owe my start to Borehamwood. I remember travelling down by train and walking to the old National Studios (now BBC Elstree Centre) for my first major screen role, Love On The Dole."

In 1945, Deborah was spotted and signed by MGM to a $3,000 a week contract. In 1948, Deborah returned, this time to work at MGM British Studio with Spencer Tracy in Edward My Son, which resulted in her first Oscar nomination.

The 1950s saw her enjoy a number of big hits including From Here To Eternity, which came her way after Joan Crawford turned down the role at the last minute. The scene in which she makes love to Burt Lancaster on a beach with breaking waves has often been shown, and I wonder how many have copied it in real life.

Deborah recalled it was very unromantic, with bright lights, a crew standing around and sand getting everywhere. She said: "However, it was an important role for me as I was cast against type and played something other than the English rose."

Tea And Sympathy was another hit, as was the screen version of The King And I with Yul Brynner, although the studio insisted on dubbing her voice for the musical numbers.

In 1960, Deborah was back in town to star with Robert Mitchum in The Sundowners, with the locations shot in Australia. It was originally to have starred Gary Cooper but his health was failing.

She said: "About that time I also made The Naked Edge with Coop at Elstree, as I had always wanted to work with him. I had no idea he was terminally ill with cancer although he often seemed tired, felt the cold badly and was sometimes in pain."

Her final visit to Borehamwood was in the mid 1960s to co star with David Niven at MGM in The Eye Of The Devil, which also starred a young actress named Sharon Tate who not long after was brutally murdered, while pregnant, by the Charles Manson gang in Hollywood.

During her successful career, Deborah was nominated six times for an Oscar, making her the most nominated actress never to win. Eventually the Academy, no doubt feeling guilty, awarded her an honorary Oscar in 1994.

Many were shocked by Deborah's obvious frail health at the ceremony, owing to advancing Parkinson's disease, and it was to be her last public appearance.

Today, Deborah, aged 85, lives in Switzerland, coming towards the end of a glorious journey that began in a wartime Borehamwood over 60 years ago.