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Aspiring South Asian actresses often look to classic movie maidens like Bette Davis, Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow for inspiration and guidance in their careers. Many don’t know that amongst these glamorous stars was the very first South Asian Hollywood actress, Merle Oberon. Today, as Bollywood is bigger than ever and South Asians become more prevalent on the Hollywood scene, we can learn from the pioneer who set the stage.
Merle Oberon’s Sri Lankan mother, Charlotte, met her husband, Arthur Terrance O’ Brien Thompson, in Pune. Merle was born in Bombay on February 1911. Half Sri Lankan and half Irish, Merle was a young beauty and known as “Queenie” in her Bombay flat. Merle’s mixed heritage typified her then as an Anglo-Indian and she faced challenges growing up in a society not accustomed to mixed ethnicity families. After her father’s death in World War I, Merle and her mom moved to Calcutta where she enrolled in one of the most prestigious schools in the country and began her pursuit of acting and other hobbies.
At the age of 17, Merle moved to London and worked in nightclubs under the name Queenie O’Brien. She got her big break as the character of Ann Boylene in The Private Life of Henry VII. Pursuing her dream, she made her way to Hollywood, taking on big and small roles, and received an Oscar nomination in 1935 for best actress in The Dark Angel. Oberon is best known for her performances in The Private Life of Henry VII, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Dark Angel and Wuthering Heights. Oberon’s background was unknown to many, as she concealed her heritage fearing it may hinder her career in film, given societal restrictions at the time. Her South Asian background was revealed only after her death in 1979.
Today Oberon is remembered as one of the best and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You can read more about her life and triumphs in the biography Princess Merle written by Charles Higham with Roy Moseley.
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