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An exotic beauty probably best remembered as a spirited Cathy to Olivier's Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1939), Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson was half-English, half-Sinhalese. Born and educated in India, Oberon moved to London in the late 1920's to pursue a film career under the pseudonym Queenie O'Brien. Producer (and first husband) Alexander Korda persuaded her to take the name Merle Oberon and cast her in a succession of costume dramas including The Scarlet Pimpernel (1935). Korda's decision to 'share' Oberon with Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn led to an Oscar nomination for her part in his WW1 drama The Dark Angel (1935). A car accident two years later put paid to filming on I, Claudius in which she was to have acted opposite Charles Laughton, and left Oberon with facial scarring. After a series of acclaimed films in the following decade, Oberon's star waned and she eventually retired to California where she died in 1979 from a stroke.
