Harry eventually moved to Toronto, Canada, retaining Charlotte’s maiden name, Selby. He lived in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. Stanislaus was the only child to keep his father's surname of Soares. Edna and Douglas moved to the UK at an early age.

Ĭonstance married Alexander Soares and had four other children: Edna, Douglas, Harry, and Stanislaus (Stan). In their 1983 biography of Oberon, Charles Higham and Roy Moseley also wrote that Selby had Māori ancestry, though the iwi was not known. Charlotte had herself given birth to Constance at the age of 14 as the result of rape by Henry Alfred Selby, the Anglo-Irish foreman of a tea plantation. To avoid scandal, Charlotte raised Merle as Constance's half-sister. However, according to her birth certificate, Merle's biological mother was Charlotte's then-12-year-old daughter, Constance. She was raised as the daughter of Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a Welsh mechanical engineer from Darlington who worked in Indian Railways and his wife, Charlotte Selby, a Eurasian from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Parentage įor most of her life, Merle protected herself by concealing the truth about her parentage, claiming that she had been born in Tasmania, Australia, and that her birth records had been destroyed in a fire. Merle was given 'Queenie' as a nickname, in honour of Queen Mary, who visited India along with King George V in 1911. Her other notable films are These Three (1936), A Song to Remember (1945), Berlin Express (1948) and Désirée (1954).Ī traffic collision in 1937 caused facial injuries that could have ended her career, but she recovered and remained active in film and television until 1973.Įstelle Merle O'Brien Thompson was born in Bombay, British India, on 19 February 1911.

She was perhaps best known for her portrayal of Catherine Earnshaw in the 1939 film adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights directed by William Wyler. Oberon hid her mixed heritage out of fear of discrimination and the impact it would have had on her career. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Dark Angel (1935). After her success in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), she travelled to the United States to make films for Samuel Goldwyn. Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson 19 February 1911 – 23 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933).

Queenie korda