Born in Bombay in 1911 as Estelle Merle Thompson or Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson, the story of her parentage has been listed as of Eurasian and/or Maori or Chinese descent.
A 2002 documentary The Trouble with Merle chronicles the conflicting stories of her origins.
Oberon grew up in poverty when the man listed as her father on her birth certificate died when she was young. In 1917, her family moved to Calcutta into better circumstances where she began her theater training.
She started dating a former actor named Colonel Ben Finney at Firpo's in 1929 who promised to help her with her acting career until he realized that she was mixed-race and abandoned the relationship.
Her first big break came in England when she played Anne Boleyn opposite Charles Laughton. The role led to major film roles.
She married Alexander Korda. She earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in The Dark Angel (1935).
After a terrible car accident, Oberon was seriously scarred. She would cover the scarring with make-up and went on to star in her biggest film Wuthering Heights opposite Laurence Olivier and many others through the mid 1950s.
She died at age 68 after a stroke. She now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by writer Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks involved in the Mixed experience. Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.
