Merle Oberon

People knew. Her first husband, Alexander Korda knew. He was the one who launched her career and managed to hide her ancestry.

Her mother posed as her maid...

Meanwhile Anna Cashfi's parents were British, not Indian.

*Kashfi

I don't know how people didn't know, my first thought when I googled her photo was that she looked Indian.

I always loved her name.

She was, my movie fan gran believed, "Tasmanian."

To hide her racial origins, she used tons of makeup. And makeup, especially makeup for the movie camera, was thick and loaded with oils and chemicals. As a result she suffered from cosmetic poisoning and her skin would breakout. It got so bad that she had to have dermabrasion done to remove the top layer of her skin, which broken out into this oozing mass of sores. She was left with mild scars around her mouth which, coupled with the scars from a car accident, had tarnished her beautiful face. Her second husband was cameraman Lucien Ballard and he created a special light designed to make her scars disappear on camera.

The 1987 TV adaptation of Michael Korda's "Queenie" -- inspired by the life of Merle Oberon -- is available in full on youtube. It's an entertaining film, even at 4+ hours (it was originally broadcast in two parts); the best part is Georges Delerue's gorgeous score; here's part 1:

Queenie, Part 2:

A little known fact:

On Nov 20, 1934, the SS Paris arrived at the Port of New York, having left the UK from the Port of Plymouth.

Aboard were 3 actors, all of whom would become famous, one of whom will become a huge movie star.

1. 25 year old Errol Thomson Flynn, who gave his place of birth as Hobart, Tasmania, listing Warner Bros as his contact.

2. 25 year old Charles Louis Hayward, who gave his place of birth as Johannesburg, listing RKO as his contact.

3. 23 year old Estelle Thompson, who listed her place of birth as India. listing Twentieth Century Pictures as her contact.

Obviously, #1 is Errol Flynn.

#2 was less successful (most were) than Flynn but had a respectable career as Louis Hayward.

#3 was to become known as Merle Oberon.

I remember reading that Errol Flynn hated that Merle Oberon claimed later to have been born in Tasmania. Possibly because he himself was from there and never heard of her and possibly because he met her aboard ship during their voyage from Plymouth to New York.

Also should be noted that Flynn listed his Professor Father has his nearest relative. Hayward listed his mother. And Estelle also listed her mother.

These 3 were part of the only 19 Alien Passengers aboard that ship.

That must have been some voyage.

There was a documentary made in Australia in 2002 called The Trouble with Merle which covers all this. The documentary is also about how people will believe whatever the fuck they want to. There are interviews with a couple of people from Tasmania of Merle's vintage who remember her even though she had never been there until later in life when she admitted to her driver that she'd never been to Tasmania before.

Its hilarious - really shows how people will believe whatever they want and have whatever memories they want.

She looked dark-skinned at the That's Entertainment premiere party in 1974.

By 1974, R13, heavy tans were in style. When she was young, she did her best to look inhumanly pale.

And no, the general public had no clue about her origins. She claimed to be from Tasmania, spoke Brit engliish, never hinted about India. I bet there were Brits who could spot an Anglo-Indian, but Americans had no clue.

Directors complained about her obsession with her appearance instead of her performances. I think that it was because she was discovered for her looks and never applied herself when it came to her acting.

I don’t know why people hate her on Datalounge. What did she do to piss you queens off? Maybe she wasn’t the greatest actress or the biggest star, but she was a popular leading lady in the 30s and 40s. Her real life story was much more interesting than her movies, I’ll say that much.