Merle Oberon

It was only after her death that this was revealed to have been a fabrication. Of these, she is the only one who has not played Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard. Throughout her life, Oberon maintained that she had been born in Tasmania, Australia. She is frequently named one of the four greatest living musical divas alongside Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone and Elaine Paige. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard. However, she was nominated several times: 1975 for Mack and Mabel, 1984 for Sunday in the Park with George, 1993 for The Goodbye Girl, and 2003 for Gypsy, as well as 1972 as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for On the Town. She was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. She has won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical twice: 1985 for Song and Dance and 1999 for Annie Get Your Gun.

She married twice more, to Italian-born Mexican industrialist Bruno Pagliai (two adopted children) and Dutch actor Robert Wolders, before her retirement to Malibu, California, where she died after suffering a stroke. In theatre, she has come to be associated with Stephen Sondheim's music, appearing in his Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and, in 2003, returning to Gypsy as "Mama Rose". Merle Oberon divorced Sir Alexander Korda in 1945, to marry cinematographer Lucien Ballard. In films she is remembered mainly for the movies she made with Steve Martin. During her time as a film star, Oberon went to great lengths to disguise her mixed-race background and when her dark-skinned mother moved in with her in Hollywood, she masqueraded as Oberon's maid. She first attracted critical notice in the Off-Broadway spoof of 1930s musicals, Dames at Sea. She went on to appear as Cathy in Wuthering Heights (1939), as George Sand in A Song to Remember (1945), and as Empress Josephine in Désirée (1954). In her teen years she appeared in The Most Happy Fella (1959), was an understudy for "Dainty June" in the touring company of Gypsy (1961), and was in The Penny Friend (1966) and The Girl In The Freudian Slip (1967).

Merle Oberon was scarred for life, but skilled lighting technicians prevented her injuries being spotted by cinema audiences. She took tap lessons, and at the age of nine got her Equity Card (under the name of Bernadette Peters, to avoid ethnic stereotyping). She was to star in Korda's film of I, Claudius (1937) as Messalina, but a serious car accident resulted in filming being abandoned. She later appeared on Name That Tune and The Horn And Hardart Children's Hour. She received her only Academy Award for Best Actress nomination for The Dark Angel (1935). Her mother started her off in show business by putting her on the television show Juvenile Jury at the age of three and a half years. Oberon's career went on to greater heights partly as a result of her relationship with and later marriage to director Alexander Korda, who had persuaded her to take the name under which she became famous. Her outstanding characteristics are her flawless complexion, bee-stung lips, kewpie-doll voice, and gift for light comedy.

In 1934, she played the female lead in The Scarlet Pimpernel, opposite Leslie Howard. Bernadette Peters is the stage name of Bernadette Lazarra (born February 28, 1948 in Ozone Park, Queens, New York), an actress and singer. Her first major film role was as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella - 1997. Initially she worked as a club hostess under the name Queenie O'Brien and played in minor and unbilled rolls in various films. Into the Woods - 1991. Born in Bombay, India to an Anglo-Irish father and an Anglo-Sinhalese mother, Constance Selby, who gave birth to Merle at the age of 15 and allowed her to be raised as her sister, Merle came to England for the first time in 1928. Sunday in the Park with George - 1986.

Merle Oberon (February 19, 1911 - November 23, 1979), born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson, was a film actress, known for her sultry looks. Slaves of New York - 1989. Annie - 1982. Heartbeeps - 1981. Pennies from Heaven - 1981 (Golden Globe Award, Best Actress).

The Jerk - 1979. Silent Movie - 1976. Gypsy - 2003. Annie Get Your Gun - 1999 (Tony Award, Best Leading Actress in a Musical).

The Goodbye Girl - 1993. Into the Woods - 1987. Song and Dance - 1985 (Tony Award, Best Leading Actress in a Musical). Sunday in the Park with George - 1984.

Mack & Mabel - 1974. On the Town - 1971. La Strada - 1969. George M! - 1968.

Johnny No-Trump - 1967. The Girl in the Freudian Slip -1967. Dames at Sea - 1967.