Deborah Kerr Rhymes With Star, and What a Star She Was: She Deserves to Be Remembered, Too
With the recent deaths of Charlton Heston and Anthony Minghella, and the resulting post-obit tributes that came their way, it bothered me that this was not the case when one of our greatest motion picture actresses passed away a little less than six months ago.
In light of this, I thought it appropriate to share the moment I learned of the news. Perhaps some of you felt likewise.
I was checking my email at an Internet cafe in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I was attending the Film Festival in that city when I noticed a similar subject heading in a large array of messages. Deborah, they all indicated and without missing much of a beat my heart sank as I correctly predicted the ominous contents. Deborah Kerr had died, my lady love and favorite actress since I was ten. Four days prior apparently, and I couldn't believe the news. Nor that I had missed it on CNN, which certainly must have covered it. My friends and colleagues assumed I knew and were just passing along their regrets.
But to learn such sad news and so late in an age of instant technology was unfathomable, and it bothered me greatly that I was in Brazil and could not watch the many tributes to this wonderful star.
It also bothered me that my hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times, had relegated the story to the obit page, whereas it had given front page coverage to the widow of Christopher Reeve! I'm sorry, but there is no comparison between the public significance of these two women, however tragic the younger woman's death was so soon after Reeve's. Nor was Paul Tibbets as notable. Indeed the Times had to inform us that he was the pilot of the Enola Gay in its front page reportage of his death, though the man was only a coincidental tool in the events of Hiroshima, having neither planned, perpetrated or made the decision that fateful day.
Shouldn't a newspaper's coverage signal proper import of the collective deeds of a subject's life? There were also no "In Remembrance" memorial columns in the LA Times as a follow-up to her death, and I found this rather outrageous. Yes, Deborah was 86 and had been out of the public eye for a number of years, but her film and stage career spanned four and a half decades, she was one of the biggest stars of the fifties, had six Academy Award nominations in the space of eleven years and had secured legendary status in motion picture history. That alone should have made the choice simple, but the fad conscious editors must have decided her absence from the spotlight trumped the significance of her contributions to the film industry.
I was fortunate to get to know Deborah and helped secure her the Oscar long denied her, as well as a royal honour in 1998.
Many of her colleagues, including Scottish Film maven David Bruce joined me and appealed to the British authorities to make her a Dame, but she was awarded instead a CBE, Commander of the British Empire. This, in spite of From Here to Eternity writer Daniel Taradash comparing the reception that greeted her at the Oscar ceremonies to none other than Charlie Chaplin when he received his honorary Oscar. And he'd been anointed a knight, but the female equivalent was not to be presented to Deborah. It was an enormous royal shame and I complained about it to the British dailies, a number of which printed my remarks condemning the Ceremonial Secretariat, which administers the Honours process.
Deborah Kerr was simply a treasure, beloved by her co-workers and generally free from scandal. The closest she came was when it was reported that she had fallen in love when her marriage was apparently over. But that was it. Her screen presence of class personified her personal behavior. Though a star of the highest magnitude, she was enormously taken by a stranger's kindness, which is how we happened to meet. She reacted so appreciatively to a letter I wrote her while she was in Los Angeles doing a play and wrote back saying, "You have no idea what that does for the timid ego I possess!"
She invited me to her meet her and we later began an every so often exchange of letters until she expressed her thanks in a phone call when she received the CBE in 1998. Her Tea and Sympathy playwright Robert Anderson told me to call her in Switzerland after he'd related my involvement in the campaign, and she was ever so grateful, ever the lady.
That's the memory I'll cherish forever. How I was fortunate to work as a writer in the same industry and got to know the once far off dreamy figure I'd discovered in my youth when my grandmother took me to the Roxy Theatre in New York City to see her performance in The King and I.
It remains my favorite film, and apparently is still much appreciated by her motion picture colleagues, who raised the level of their applause during the tribute to Deborah at the 1994 Oscar ceremonies when a film clip suddenly appeared showing her dancing with the king of Siam.
After I returned from Brazil I performed duties as a strike captain for the 2007-2008 Writers Strike. While picketing I regaled my fellow writers about this splendid actress, my heart aching for our collective loss, for my personal loss. Then, a tearful smile occasionally spread across my face when I realized how lucky I was to know her.
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Hmmmm...Huffington post had a nice blog after she died,
I commented, and alot of other people did.
But I think the twits in the MSM are to young to realize who she was.
Finally!! Someone who sees this incredible woman the way I do. Deborah Kerr deserved so many of the awards that were denied her. She also deserved so much more than the few lines here & there that she got from the print media. I was dumbfounded when I read she died. And equally shocked when her beloved husband, Peter Viertel, died within weeks of her.
Thank you, Mr. Russnow, for defending your lady love's honor.
Michael...thanks for sharing your lovely memories of your friend. I so agree...Deborah Kerr was simply a treasure.
FilmFan1...thanks for remembering Deborah Kerr's husband, writer Peter Viertel. When I heard that he had died as well, I couldn't help think it was from a broken heart.
Thank you for this column. I did not even know of her passing! She was one of my favorites, too...a beautiful woman who managed to be both supremely dignified and very sexy. One of my favorite of her performances was in Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana with Richard Burton. But I can never forget An Affair to Remember or The King and I. She was really one of a kind.
Heaven Knows Mister Allison is such a great movie. I agree, Kerr was a wonderful actress. It's nice to hear that she was liked and respected by her colleagues.
You have captured how many Deborah Kerr fans felt at the time of her death. Thank you so much for your beautiful comments. She was someone in the public eye who always handled herself with dignity and grace. I've always been very proud of the fact that I was intelligent enough to idolize her. :-)
Where have all the classy celebs gone?
You have captured how many Deborah Kerr fans felt at the time of her death. Thank you so much for wonderful comments.
Well, what about Richard Widmark passing recently with barely a shrug from the media? From the coverage I saw of the guy, they showed a few of his clips from westerns and not much else. Widmark happened to be one of America's finest film noir actors. So, why not show a few clips from "Night and the City", "The Street With No Name" (THE paradigm for undercover cop movies like "The Departed"), "No Way Out" or "Kiss of Death" (he only received an Oscar nomination for that one!)? There was barely a mention of Widmark's film noir career. It would be like noting John Wayne's passing without discussing his Western roles.
I agree with you about Deborah Kerr, btw. Next to Jane Russell, she was the leading lady that Robert Mitchum most enjoyed working with. I didn't see too many clips of the two superb movies, "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" and "The Sundowners", that they made together. That was another part of her career that the media ignored.
What a lovely remembrance of a superb actress and gracious, elegant woman. It is often odd to me who is remembered and who gets sort of lost in the shuffle. Thank you also for your part in obtaining her honorary Oscar and British honour. (Yes, she should have been made a dame.) I'm sure she took great pleasure in your friendship. By the way, the Hollywood Collection jewelry company honored her with pieces in their collection of move star jewelry several years ago. I think of her when I wear my Deborah Kerr earrings and necklace.
Too many of the greats are gone, alas.
She was the star of From Here to Eternity, The Sundowners, King Solomon's Mines
The King and I, Separate Tables, Casino Royale, The Night of the Iguana, Heaven
Knows, Mr. Allison, An Affair to Remember, Tea and Sympathy. etc. etc. A real talent.
She is missed, especially in this era of so called "stars" without any discernible talent.
Deborah Kerr was so elegant, a true lady, and such a gifted actress. She is missed.
I don't remember which magazine or tv program it was, but there was a rundown of all the famous people who died in 2007. I was annoyed that Deborah Kerr wasn't even listed. Other actors were.
Deborah was a beautiful, elegant woman who won my heart decades ago. I was saddened when I heard of her passing.
People frequently outlive their fame. Some people die before they achieve it. I like her in the King and I and other films (she shone in some film or other with John Wayne--she was feisty), but if I ever purchase that film on DVD, I'll be skipping most of it just to get to "Shall We Dance." Lately, the actor I've been thinking about is Michael Dunn. He probably didn't make the front page back in 1973. Fame is fickle.
She is one of my all-time favorites. I see her movies over and over again. Unlike Charlton Heston, she had real talent.
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