Obituary to Deborah Kerr

Deborah Kerr always reminded me of one of those posh subdued English roses with a clipped accent and stiff upper lip. But that's on the surface when she was on the celluloid screen she could act exposing a passionate sexuality.

Her most famous role was bored housewife, Karen Holmes in From Here to Eternity (1953) where she follicked in the waves and on the beach getting down and dirty with her lover, Burt Lancaster.

Very tame now but at the time it caused a commotion with the Motion Picture Association of America where stills of the scene where waves are crashing over the snogging couple were banned as it was seen as too erotic!

I loved her in The Innocents (an adaptation of Henry James's bk The Turn of Screw) were she plays the sexually repressed and haunted governess in this Freudian and gothic chiller. My other favourites include Black Narcissus (1947) directed by the dynamic duo, Pressburger and Powell. Another one of their classics (I saw again over the summer on BBC2) The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). Not terribly fond of Quo Vadis or The King and I.

But she did have hidden depths and qualities that stood out. Joan Crawford was meant to play that role made famous by Kerr. I just can't imagine it myself........