Merle Oberon: Tragic tale of India’s first Hollywood star

by Asjad Nazir

This week marks the birth anniversary of Merle Oberon, who was born on February 19, 1911.

The name may not mean much to modern film fans, but the late great star was the first India-born actress to make it big in Hollywood. The Bombay-born actress overcame an incredibly painful past to become a huge star in the 1930s and remained active as a performer until the early 1970s.

The exotic-looking star married one of the biggest movie moguls from that era and starred opposite A-list leading men like Laurence Olivier. But throughout that remarkable rise, Merle kept her Indian heritage a secret because of a harrowing secret she kept hidden from the world.

It all started with a 14-year-old Charlotte Selby giving birth to her daughter Constance. Merle’s birth certificate said she was also born to Charlotte Selby, a Eurasian of mixed heritage from Ceylon, but in reality, her birth mother was someone she thought was her elder sister.

Constance was just 12 years old when she gave birth to Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson out of wedlock and the identity of the father remained unknown. To hide the scandal Charlotte said Merle was her daughter and bought her up as the younger sister of Constance. The real birth mother Constance later married and had four other children, who all believed Merle was their aunt.

Merle had an impoverished childhood living in a dilapidated flat in Bombay and moved to then Calcutta in search of a better life. The youngster gained a scholarship into a private school, but was taunted for her mixed heritage and quit.

She took an interest in movies and started dating an actor by the late 1920s, but he ended the relationship after he discovered her mixed heritage. Merle packed her belongings and moved to France in search of an acting break, where, after some struggle, she appeared as an extra in a film.

The determined teenager, with exotic sub-continental looks, then journeyed to England in 1928 and balanced working as a club hostess with playing in minor unbilled roles in various films.

She finally got that big break when movie mogul Alexander Korda gave her a small but prominent role, under the name Merle Oberon, in the massively successful film The Private Life of Henry VIII. She later married Korda and got lead roles in movies that would become huge hits.

She made the move to Hollywood and became the first Indian-origin actress to become a huge success there, earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination for The Dark Angel (1935).

She kept her past hidden and cut herself off from family members. Merle covered up her Indian roots by claiming she was born in Tasmania, Australia and saying her birth records were destroyed by a fire.

The exotic looks that were once a disadvantage now made her a successful movie idol. A long list of leading men lined up to either woo or star opposite her.

Merle did her final film role in 1973 and died in 1979 in Malibu California, aged 68 after suffering a stroke. Decades later the real story of India’s first Hollywood star came to light.