Merle Oberon

‘Princess Merle’, her biography by Charles Higham and Roy Moseley apprised that in 1940 her complexion suffered damage due to allergic reactions. Korda made arrangements for her skin treatment in New York City where she had to undergo many dermabrasion procedures which gave partial results and without makeup the flaws of her skin would remain noticeable. On June 4, 1945, the couple divorced.

On 26th June 1945, Merle married cinematographer Lucien Ballard. A special camera light was introduced by Ballard to tactfully hide her facial flaws on film which became famous as the ‘Obie’. Their marriage lasted till February 11, 1949.

She was born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson on February 19, 1911, in Bombay (presently called Mumbai) in British India.

All through her life she concealed her mixed ancestry and even concocted a story claiming her birthplace as Tasmania, Australia. However such story was debunked following her demise.

Some sources claim her parents to be Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a mechanical engineer from England who served ‘Indian Railways’ and Charlotte Selby, a Eurasian lady with partial Māori background hailing from Ceylon (at present Srilanka).

According to sources Charlotte gave birth to a daughter called Constance in Ceylon, out of her relationship with Irish foreman Henry Alfred Selby, when she was 14-year-old. When Constance was 12-year-old, she gave birth to Merle.

However, Merle was raised by Charlotte as her younger daughter and as younger sister of Constance. Merle’s birth certificate lists Arthur Thompson as her father with the first name misspelt as ‘Arther’.

Oberon was crazy about films and would frequent the nightclubs of Calcutta.

According to Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, an Indian journalist, Oberon served for a while as a telephone operator using the name Queenie Thompson.

Her first performance was with an amateur theater group ‘Calcutta Amateur Dramatic Society’.

She got acquainted with Colonel Ben Finney, a former actor, at ‘Firpo’s Restaurant’ in 1929, where she won a contest, and soon started dating him. However the relationship did not took off as Finney distanced himself from her upon knowing about her mixed ancestry.

However she relocated to France taking word of Finney to introduce her to Irish film director Rex Ingram. Her exotic look made Ingram hire her as an extra in 1929 British silent drama film ‘The Three Passions’ that marked her first step in the film industry. Thereafter she performed in several films for the next few years mostly doing trivial roles which went without any credit.

‘Hollywood Walk of Fame’ has a star on her, for motion pictures at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard.