Deborah Jane (Trimmer) Viertel CBE (1921 - 2007)

Born 30 Sep 1921 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Wife of Anthony Charles Bartley DFC — married Nov 1945 in Saint George Hanover Square, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Wife of Peter Viertel — married 23 Jul 1960 in Klosters, Graubünden, Switzerland

Died 16 Oct 2007 at age 86 in Botesdale, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Summer Seely [send private message]

Deborah Kerr (Trimmer) Viertel CBE is Notable.

Biography

Known professionally as Deborah Kerr, she was a Scottish-born film, theatre and television actress. She won a Golden Globe Award (1956), was a three-time winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and was nominated 6 times for an Academy Award.

Born Deborah Jane Trimmer on 30 September 1921 in Hillhead, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, she was the only daughter of Kathleen Rose (née Smale) and Capt. Arthur Charles Trimmer, a World War I veteran who lost a leg at the Battle of the Somme and later became a naval architect and civil engineer.^[1]

She spent the first three years of her life in the nearby town of Helensburgh, where her parents lived with Deborah's grandparents in a house on West King Street. Kerr had a younger brother, Edmund ("Teddy"), who became a journalist. He was killed in a road rage incident in 2004.

Deborah was educated at the independent Northumberland House School, Henleaze in Bristol, and at Rossholme School, Weston-super-Mare. Kerr originally trained as a ballet dancer, first appearing on stage at Sadler's Wells in 1938. After changing careers, she soon found success as an actress. Her first acting teacher was her aunt, Phyllis Smale, who ran the Hicks-Smale Drama School in Bristol.

She adopted the name Deborah Kerr on becoming a film actress ("Kerr" was the middle name of her paternal grandfather, Arthur Kerr TRIMMER).

Marriages

Her 1st marriage was to Squadron Leader Anthony Bartley RAF on 29 November 1945 at St George's, Hanover Square, Middlesex, England. They had two daughters. The marriage was troubled, owing to Bartley's jealousy of his wife's fame and financial success, and because her career often took her away from home. They divorced in 1959.

Her 2nd marriage was to author Peter Viertel on 23 July 1960 in Kloster, Graubünden, Switzerland. In marrying Viertel, she became stepmother to Viertel's daughter. Although she long resided in Klosters, Switzerland and Marbella, Spain, she moved back to Britain to be closer to her own children as her health began to deteriorate. Her husband, however, continued to live in Marbella.

Deborah died aged 86 on 16 October 2007 at Botesdale, a village in county of Suffolk, England, from the effects of Parkinson's disease. She was buried in the family plot in Alfold Cemetery in Alfold, Waverley, Surrey, England.^[2]

Less than three weeks later on 4 November, her husband Peter Viertel died of cancer in Marbella, Spain. At the time of Viertel's death, director Michael Scheingraber was filming the documentary Peter Viertel: Between the Lines, which would include reminiscences concerning Kerr and the Academy Awards.

Career Highlights

During her career, she won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Anna Leonowens in the musical film The King and I (1956) and a Sarah Siddons Award for her performance as Laura Reynolds in the play Tea and Sympathy (a role she originated on Broadway). She was also a three-time winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress.

Kerr was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, more than any other actress without ever winning. In 1994, however, having already received honorary awards from the Cannes Film Festival and BAFTA, she received an Academy Honorary Award with a citation recognising her as "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance".

As well as The King and I (1956), her films include An Affair to Remember, From Here to Eternity with Burt Lancaster, Quo Vadis, The Innocents, Black Narcissus, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, King Solomon's Mines, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Sundowners and Separate Tables.

Sources

1. ↑ "Scotland Statutory Registers - Births" database, National Records of Scotland, ScotlandsPeople (https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ : accessed 09 Jan 2024), Deborah Jane Trimmer, 1921, Hillhead; citing Parish Number 644, Reference Number: 12 / 491.
2. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #22285687

SEE ALSO:

• Wikipedia:Deborah_Kerr
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000039/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Deborah-Kerr
• http://www.helensburgh-heritage.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=730:deborah-kerr-and-helensburgh&catid=81:the-arts&Itemid=458
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Kerr [née Trimmer, Deborah (1921–2007) Brian McFarlane]
• https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/deborah-kerr-in-memory