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Merle Oberon (18 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was an Indian-born British actress best known for her screen performances in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) and The Cowboy and the Lady (1938). She began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). She travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Dark Angel (1935). A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she soon followed this with her most... MORE

Merle Oberon (18 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was an Indian-born British actress best known for her screen performances in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) and The Cowboy and the Lady (1938). She began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). She travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Dark Angel (1935). A traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she soon followed this with her most renowned performance in Wuthering Heights (1939). Estelle Merle Thompson was born in Bombay, British India on 18 February 1911. According to some sources, her birth date was actually 19 February, and her birth name was Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson. Merle was given "Queenie" as a nickname, in honour of Queen Mary, who visited India along with King George V in 1911. Over the years, Oberon obscured her parentage. Some sources claim Merle's parents as Charlotte Selby, a Eurasian from Ceylon with partial Māori heritage, and Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a British mechanical engineer from Darlington, LESS