Merle Oberon Movies

Want to know the best Merle Oberon movies?  How about the worst Merle Oberon movies?  Curious about Merle Oberon box office grosses or which Merle Oberon movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Merle Oberon movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Merle Oberon (1911-1979) was an Oscar®-nominated Anglo-Indian actress.  Film stardom came when she appeared in 1933’s The Private Life of Henry VIII.  She starred in 29 movies from 1933 to 1948, before he career started slowing up. Her IMDb page shows 61 acting credits from 1928-1973. This page will rank Merle Oberon movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.

Oberon’s seven television appearances, her 11 uncredited roles, her 4 movies not released in North America and her 1 unfinished movie (I, Claudius) were not included in the rankings.  But wait…that leaves 2 movies.  Ok…sadly we were unable to find box office information on 1934’s Thunder in the East and Vegabond Violinist….so they did not make the page either.  This page comes from a request by Cameron and Lupino.

Laurence Olivier & Merle Oberon in 1939’s Wuthering Heights

Merle Oberon Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Merle Oberon Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Merle Oberon films by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Merle Oberon films by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Merle Oberon films by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Merle Oberon films by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Merle Oberon film received.
  • Sort Merle Oberon films by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Merle Oberon Adjusted World Wide Box Office Grosses 

Marlon Brando & Merle Oberon in 1954’s Désirée

Possibly Interesting Facts About Merle Oberon

  1. Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson was born in Bombay, India in 1911.

2. The name “Merle Oberon” was the brain child of director, producer Alexander Korda.  When Korda cast her in 1933’s The Private Life of Henry VIII…that was the name he billed her under.

3. Because of facial scars the actress sustained in a London car crash in 1937, her future husband, cinematographer Lucien Ballard, designed a compact spotlight that he coined the “Obie” (Oberon’s nickname). Mounted on the side of the camera, the device lights the subject head on, thus reducing the incidence of unflattering facial lines and shadows.

4. Merle Oberon was only nominated for one Oscar®.  Surprisingly it was not for 1939’s Wuthering Heights….it was for 1935’s The Dark Angel.

5. Merle Oberon is the only Asian actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar®.

6. Merle Oberon was married four times and had two children.  Her first marriage was to director Alexander Korda.  When Korda was knighted in 1941….Oberon was became Lady Korda.

7. Check out Steve’s Merle Oberon Video….

8. Check out Merle Oberon’s movie career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

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37 thoughts on “Merle Oberon Movies”

  2. After I was without internet access for 2 weeks, I totally forgot about this bit on information I found on Merle Oberon on the net- if you are going to read this to the end, I think you will find it a rather sad piece of “trivia”- at least I do:

    Merle Oberon’s father was English, but her mother was of Eurasian ancestry, partly of Ceylonese with some Maori ancestry, added to European ancestry. She hid that fact until a year before her death with the fiction that she was born in Tasmania, and that all her school records had been destroyed in a fire. She was actually born in Mumbai, India (which was still called Bombay when she was born). Records proving her birth location were located after her death. I note that one slightly shocking fact is that her mother was only 12 years of age at the time of her birth — and had a second child at age 14. Miss Oberon’s mother later married and had four more children for a total of six. Merle Oberon was raised by her mother, but everyone was told that little Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson was her younger sister, and her later children grew up believing that. Merle Oberon concealed her Eurasian ancestry and birth information in order to succeed in her profession and in society in general in an era where people were intolerant of such situations. It is thought, too, that she didn’t want anyone to know her mother was only 12 years old and that she was born out of wedlock.

    Reply

  3. Hi

    She was a very exotic looking actress, who will forever be remembered for Wuthering Heights. I watched a documentary about I, Claudius. If they had completed it I think it would have been a fantastic film as it looked great but just seemed to be plagued with problems.

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris…..thanks for stopping by and checking out our Merle Oberon page. I agree her role in Wuthering Heights is the one that has stood the test of time. That I, Claudius documentary sounds like one to check out. It is a shame that Laughton’s performance has never seen the light of day. Seems that was in his heyday. Good feedback.

      Reply

      1. Hey Who ME? I fixed that error on her Interesting Facts section….I also updated the page…so it now has 3 tables versus one. Thanks for the visit and the heads up.

        Reply

  4. Hello Bruce,
    I am not the good one too, i have just seen Two films and of course it Is Henri VIII and Wuthering Heights, that all, because She Was not on the top at all in Europe…maybe in England…so i am the last….lol…
    Anyway i know She Was in “I Claudius “By Sternberg and produced By Korda and it Was like a film maudit because it Was never finished and it cost a lot of money. I read somewhere that Dietrich Who were turning “The KNight …” In the same Time in ENgland try to do something to Help Mr Von Sternberg but the film Was stoped after a car accident for Miss Obéron.

    Reply

    1. Hey Pierre…it looks like we are in the same boat….having not see many Merle Oberon movies. As our combined total of 5 puts us at the bottom of the tally counts. I have read lots about I Claudius…..too bad the movie was never finished. I imagine Laughton was a top of the his game in that one. Thanks for the feedback on Ms. Oberon.

      Reply

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