Merle Oberon Kept Hollywood's Biggest Secret

for years Merl Oberon kept one secret until however one of her siblings discovered a single document in the family papers that didn't just expose her it could ruin her life heartbreaks struggles love affairs and a dark secret that she tried to hide until the day she died in her time on Earth Starlet Merl Oberon lived a thousand lives her devastating beauty propelled her to stardom but the scandalous circumstances of her birth haunted her throughout her life it was only after her death that her truth was finally exposed now Merl o Bron's Affairs and relationships might have put Hollywood on notice during her adult life but the Starlet was quite literally born into a scandal while oberon's birth certificate lists Arthur Terrence obrien Thompson and Charlotte Selby as her parents in reality the truth was much stranger and much darker Oberon was born in 1911 in Bombay British IND which is modern-day Mumbai India oberon's Father Arthur Thompson was a British mechanical engineer who worked for Indian railways oberon's mother Charlotte Selby was from Salon which is modern-day Sri Lanka and was of mixed ancestry oberon's birth certificate hit a twisted secret Charlotte Selby the woman listed as her mother was actually her grandmother Charlotte's 12-year-old daughter constant was Merl oberon's real mother and the starlet's real father is unknown to this day however in order to avoid public embarrassment Charlotte put her own name on the birth certificate and Oberon was raised to believe that she was constant's Sister how did Charlotte Selby pass a baby off as her own when she already had a 12-year-old daughter even though you might think that Charlotte would have been too old to pull off the LIE you'd be wrong Charlotte herself had been an incredibly young mother giving birth to constant at just 14 years of age when m was born Charlotte became a secret grandmother at only 26 now young Merl was just 3 years old when the man she thought was her Father Arthur Thompson died in World War I he perished on the Western Front at the Battle of the S but he didn't die in combat he ended up dying of pneumonia in 1914 Thompson's death left Charlotte constant and Merl alone and impoverished in Bombay until 1917 when it finally looked like their lives were turning around they moved to caluda where Oberon received a scholarship to attend one of the finest private schools in the city it should have been a step towards a better life but it was the beginning of a nightmare Merl was relentlessly bullied at L martiner caluda School for Girls they targeted her home life she had no father anymore and her single mother was poor kids always seemed to know what will cut the deepest these early years should have been some of the happiest of Merl's life but the bullying became so bad that she couldn't bear to attend the private school any longer Oberon dropped out of school and began homeschooling with her mother despite these setbacks this difficult time had one enormous Silver Lining this is where Oberon fell in love with performing as a girl and into 1 years Oberon went by the nickname Queenie she was given it at Birth since her arrival on this planet coincided with Queen Mary in King George's 1911 visit to India when Oberon was just 18 years old she met a former actor named Colin Ben finny at a local restaurant and began dating him but he would soon deal her a Savage betrayal when finny went to visit oberon's home and meet her mother for the first time he broke up with her the reason you might ask oberon's mother was a woman of color despite this heinous rejection Oberon stayed in contact with finny and it turns out this was definitely a good move for the aspiring actress finny knew the Irish director Rex Ingram who was working out of the French film studio at the time finny suggested that Oberon go to France and meet the director and jumpstart her film career it was a gamble but it paid off in a big way Oberon and her mother packed their bags and headed to France they expected to immediately meet Ingram however he kept avoiding them in the beginning thankfully though he eventually came around hiring obon as an extra in a party scene for the film The Three passions however it was hardly an overnight success of a young actress's dreams between 1928 and 1932 all oberon's parts in films were uncredited now later in life Oberon looked back on this time and remarked that she only began acting because she couldn't quote dance or sing or write or paint quote in her opinion Oberon only had one thing to rely on her extraordinarily beautiful face considering that she had moved to France specifically to meet a producer this might have been an embellishment on her part however when Oberon met director and producer Alexander Corda he gave her the world not only did the pair fall in love but he cast her as Ann Bolin in his 1932 film the private life of Henry VII Oberon co-starred with Hollywood heavyweights like Charles laughon in the role of Henry VII and Elsa Lanchester the Bride of Frankenstein herself as an of cleaves Oberon maintained a working and romantic relationship although on and off with Hollywood big wig Alexander Corda for years while she had a contract with Corda her success made her an in demand property in a strategic move Corda sold some of the shares of her name to Samuel Goldwin the legendary Hollywood studio executive and after appearing in a number of British films Merl Oberon became Hollywood royalty nearly overnight thanks to the contract with legendary producer Samuel Goldwin she was just 24 when she appeared in the hit film the dark angel in 1935 which is about two male friends who fight for the heart of one woman not only did Dark Angel launch oberon's career it also skyrocketed her into Cinema history as she netted an Oscar nomination for best actress now while in Hollywood Oberon felt desperately in love with actor David neven with the two even becoming engaged Overjoyed obon announced that the pair were going to Wed but sadly David would end up leaving her with a broken heart after numerous Affairs David refused to change his ways and walked down the aisle so that a couple parted ways aside from her role as Anne Bolin Oberon portrayed a number of famous historical figures on film including Empress Josephine the woman who broke Napoleon's heart and the writer and cross-dressing clite George sand Oberon was supposed to work with both Corda and Charles laughon again in 1937's IE Claudius where she'd appear as claudius's wife meselena but the project was abruptly abandoned for an incredibly dark reason after a terrible car accident Oberon was far too injured and some would say disfigured to film anything while I Claudius may have been canceled Oberon and film exec Alexander Corda weren't the couple finally cemented their on andof relationship by tying the knot in 1939 and who could Oberon turn to in this trying time her beloved husband of course Alexander paid for his wife to go to New York City and receive First Rate cosmetic procedures that would help fix her Dam damage skin they helped and stage makeup was able to do the rest but sadly nothing could ever heal oberon's scarred face completely oberon's own experiences with disfigurement were in a strange way part of what led her to find love in 1941 while she was still married to Corda Merl Oberon struck up a relationship with young Richard Hillary a RAF fighter pilot during his Valiant actions at the Battle of Britain Hillary sustained terrible Burns that disfigured his face and deformed his hands into claws tragically he died at just 23 years old oberon's affair with Hillary wasn't her only infidelity Merl Oberon appeared in multiple films in 1934 behind the scenes of the lead role in an adaption of the Scarlet Pimpernel Oberon hid a dark secret while making the film she had an affair with her co-star the British actor Leslie Howard she also had an on again off-again relationship with none other than John Wayne a classic Western Star between 1938 and 1947 before Grace Kelly ever became princess obon fulfilled an unbelievable rags to Rich's dream in 1942 her husband Alexander Corda was kned thanks to his part in the war effort the honor transformed Merl Oberon Hollywood star into lady Corda esteemed Aristocrat but not even a fancy title could tie a lady like Merl down who's an actor's best friend other than their makeup artist well it's whoever's in charge of her lighting of course in 1944 cinematographer Lucen Ballard put together a small light that could be mounted on his camera specifically for Oberon it provided an effect that washed away any blemishes or scars what is now known as a catch light it was originally nicknamed the Obi light after of course obon Lucien Ballard sounds like a pretty devoted cinematographer doesn't he well there may have been a another reason for his intense involvement in inventing the famed obite in 1945 Oberon divorced her longtime partner Alexander Corda and married her beloved cinematographer sadly they were doomed to a sad end the use of the light outlasted their relationship and they divorced in 1949 now backtracking to 1937 Oberon lost her mother Charlotte Selby who as we know was actually her grandmother by this time Oberon was in the dark secret of her parentage but that doesn't mean that she didn't mourn the loss in an utterly heartbreaking gesture Oberon had portraits painted of Charlotte she hung them in each of her homes due to how young her mother was when she was born and her Indian Heritage Merl Oberon spent most of her life obscuring the circumstances of her birth it was only later in life that all her lies began to unravel now while obon hid the fact that she was born in India likely due to the racism in Hollywood at the time it actually means that she had two unique distinctions Not only was she the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated for Best Actress Oscar she was also the first Asian nominated for any Academy Award now after her two relatively short marriages to Corda and Ballard Oberon Finally Found Love and built a family with an Italian businessman they moved to Mexico about 90 minutes south of Mexico City and adopted two children the Starlet continued to make films during these years years but at a much slower rate now the story that Oberon generally told about her birth was that she was born and raised in Tasmania Australia and if pressed for details she would Demmer by claiming that her birth records have been destroyed but as the years wore on more and more people began to question her cover story including the press and even some members of her own family Oberon visited Australia in 1965 and despite all of her Hollywood training she didn't exactly react in the most inconspicuous manner when the Press asked questions about her early life in Australia obron would become nervous and whether this was feigned or not she became sick before her planned visit to hbert Tasmania and flew back to Mexico immediately in 1978 however Oberon actually did visit Tasmania and a ceremony was planned to honor their native daughter but it couldn't have been more of a disaster first the Mayor found out that she wasn't actually Australian but it was too late to cancel the gala now he was ready to cover for her but then oberon's bizarre behavior caused the whole thing to unravel when she got to the party she actually began to deny that she'd been born in Tasmania at all instead she made up a convoluted story about spending some years on the island after her father fell ill once again perhaps realizing that she was in a tail spin of deception Oberon panicked said that she was sick and left the press hounded her but she refused to answer any more questions did we mention that it was hard to tie Oberon down after 15 years of marriage to the Italian businessman she left him for a handsome Dutch actor that she met while making her final film interval the relationship raised some eyebrows the actor Robert walers was 25 years younger than Oberon and later in life Robert ended up as Audrey Hepburn's longtime partner Oberon married Robert in 1975 and stayed with him until her death in 1979 she died of a stroke at 68 years old because while obon sustained serious injuries from the 1937 crash she was able to return to the screen the next year but soon enough her worst nightmare came true because in 1940 she found herself scarred from a combined cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to a prescription drug for a woman who told the press that her face launched her career it must have been devastating oberon's mixed Indian background had long been a badly kept secret in Hollywood but in the final years of oberon's life one of her family members worked to expose the truth about her parentage after oberon's birth her biological mother Constance went on to marry and have four legitimate children all were told that Oberon was their aunt despite the fact that she was actually their halfs sister and for one of those kids the answer wasn't good enough it was one of these half siblings har Selby who found oberon's real birth certificate in Bombay it contained a jaw-dropping revelation Oberon wasn't his aunt she was his half-sister after this discovery Oberon dealt her own brother a heartbreaking betrayal she refused to see him he must have understood her wishes because he didn't discuss the truth of her parentage until 2002 when he participated in a documentary about Oberon and the story about the relationship between constant Selby and Merl obon is even sadder and more disturbing at just 12 years old Constance was assaulted which led to such a young pregnancy and in case that wasn't disturbing enough Charlotte Merl's grandmother who had given birth to constant at just 14 years old went through the exact same thing now what did you find most interesting about Merl oberon's life was it the Heartbreak the love affairs the dark childhood or the struggles let us know 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Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2024