Why didn't Deborah Kerr ever win an Oscar?

Because the Oscars are shit. Fucking ham David Niven won for stinking up Separate Tables. Jean Simmons, Claude Rains, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan , Montgomery Clift and Alfred Hitchcock never won one.

I’d sure love to know.

Six nominations without a win. How do people live with that? G, could you tell us how you've coped? I know you take medication.

Looking back on her work she was actually quite stilted and affected as an actress. Even in her best movie The Innocents she is a bit artificial and phoney.

Was she expected to win for From Here to Eternity?

Not sure, but I think Joan was first considered for the role of Karen, so it would have been her and Burt clinching on the sand. Oh well, she did do "Female on the Beach" with Jeff Chandler.

Philip Ober, who played the bullying major, husband of Kerr, was married for most of the 40s and 50s to VIVIAN VANCE. IIRC, he was abusive to Vivian, who divorced him. Who knows how that marriage might have informed Vivian's interpretation of Ethel.

R1 You’re right. An Oscar is no guarantee at all of quality.

The Hollywood roles are rather bland; Cukor couldn’t do much with her. Ustinov said her hips were too thin.

My favourites are the 40s ones, Narcissus and Dark Stranger.

I haven't seen "The Sundowners" in a very long time, but seem to remember her being good in that. Also, "Iguana."

She always seemed so middle-aged to me, even when she was younger. Just no sex appeal at all.

She still has a shot. Mamma Mia 3 should start filming soon

1961 - Nominated for "The Sundowners"; lost to a tracheotomy.

1959 - Nominated for "Separate Tables"; lost to a ham sandwich.

1958 - Nominated for "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison"; lost to a dishrag.

1957 - Nominated for "The King and I"; lost because her singing was dubbed.

1954 - Nominated for "From Here To Eternity"; lost to a waif.

1950 - Nominated for "Edward, My Son"; lost to a doormat.

[quote] Looking back on her work she was actually quite stilted and affected as an actress. Even in her best movie The Innocents she is a bit artificial and phoney.

I agree with that, but that reserved and mannered way of acting she had still aged much better than over-the-top performances of most of her peers from that era have. Underacting always ages well.

I think she was an excellent actress. I never found her boring or stilted. She was English. It's that quiet reserve that makes you notice her. Notice her thinking. Notice emotions rise and fall. Notice her stance. She is a very brave actress in the way that she wants you to think about the character she is playing, to get lost in her and explore her the way Kerr is. That takes such great talent. Any actress can chew up the scenery. But true talent arrest your senses. Makes you compare yourself to the character.

Her brother was killed, at an advanced age, in a road rage incident in Englland.

I saw her in Albee's "Seascape," with young Langella.

Deborah Kerr was a great actress and was very easily able to show emotions beautifully. The fact that she won 6 nominations is a testimony to her superb acting skills.

Deborah Kerr was given an Honorary Academy Award in 1994 so she got her Golden Boy after all!

A honarary Oscar??

Hmmm. I guess that is better than nothing. Glennie are you paying attention?

She was fantastic in so many things. I think one problem is that she made it look easy. She should have won for ‘Eternity’ in any other year. Definitely should have won for Sundowners, but Elizabeth screwed that up. I too saw her onstage in ‘Seascape’.

David Niven and Wendy Hiller deserved their Oscars in Separate Tables though, they both gave amazing performances. Great movie too!

She should have won with Yul Brynner for "The King and I". Did Ingrid Bergman really need a second Oscar? The cartoon version of "Anastasia" is more famous than the version she won for. (Plus, it had a great score.)

Hiller was very derisive of her win for Separate Tables. She thought it was laughable. She asked if the Oscar came with a cash prize. Much of her role ended up on the cutting room floor and she was furious.

There is a point where the film begins to make little sense and it just falls apart.

I thought she won for The Innocents?

Hiller in "I Know Where I'm Going" is exhilarating.

Niven always looks like he's smelling stinky roquefort.

Loved her in The Chalk Garden.

R17 It was Glenn Close that presented Deborah's Honorary Oscar to her.

M, will you be available to present me my Best Actress award this year or are you too busy selling your homes to fund those struggling actress daughters of yours?

I love Deborah Kerr. One of the greats.

Her work in the Innocents was so daring. I really came to respect her as an actress after seeing that.

She reteamed with Burt in "The Gypsy Moths" and showed her tits in the love scene.

Why has "Tea and Sympathy" rarely been aired on network or cable, even TCM?

Deborah Kerr's speaking voice was glorious as well. Wonderful actress!

how come it is pronounced Carr?

R32 Because it rhymes with STAR!

I saw her in a play at the old Shubert in LA. She was so bad, half the audience ran for the doors at intermission. I think the rest were asleep.

R13. "She has that rare gift of thinking her lines, not merely remembering them" -- I just found that quoted on her wiki page. It's from a British theater critic, about her performance early on.

The members of the Academy just weren't into her.

Her vaginal odor was legendary.

Hiller wasn't the main character in Separate Tables, the scenes she had were sufficient to establish her character. She and Niven have probably the best scene in the movie though. She's the perfect examples of a supporting actress stealing scenes from the stars. She also was the most sympathetic character in the movie.

We should do a thread on the correct winner of Best Actress each year. 1929-2018

She actually won 3 awards, but since no one could figure out how to pronounce her last name (Kerr/Carr), the presenters just read a different name.

I love the movies she made in the 1950s with Cary Grant, like Affair to Remember and Dream Wife, which showcased her glorious coloring. She was gorgeous.

And I was so sad when I read that chapter in Langella’s book where he humiliated her. She didn’t deserve that. While I did enjoy some of the dish in his book, his chapter about Deborah Kerr was the most vicious of all.

Her sense of empathy came from a childhood where she was sent to boarding school and was bullied for being fat. When she went to London to become an actress, and lost weight from food rationing and a lot of walking, her beauty blossomed and she was pursued by many men. I read an allusion to her having been harassed or aggressively pursued by Ambassador Kennedy.

How were the lizard costumes in that, r14?

She wasn't nominated for her two greatest performances, unfortunately: "Black Narcissus" (the scene where she talks about how she hadn't known that the convent would make all her old memories return is incredibly moving) and "The Innocents."

What did Langella say about her?

Yes, said odor and the fact she wouldn't put out

Women like that usually resort to anal.

R42, they were neat. And the actors' lizard movements were wonderful.

Both Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner should have been nominated for Oscars in the incredible "Night Of The Iguana".

Richard Burton should also have been nominated for an Oscar in Night Of The Iguana. It was a great performance in a great movie.

"Why didn't Deborah Kerr ever win an Oscar?"

She had self-esteem: no time for Bullshit.

The King and I? She didn’t even do her own singing.

^^ Regina George