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Why Merle Oberon Kept Her Mixed-Race Background a Secret in Hollywood: ‘She Would Have to Pass as White’
Mayukh Sen, author of the Merle Oberon biography Love, Queenie, exclusively tells Closer about the actress’ decision to keep her mixed-race background a secret.
As Wuthering Heights ’ Catherine Earnshaw, Merle Oberon runs through a gamut of emotions over her tumultuous love affair with Heathcliff, played by Sir Laurence Olivier. “She was often asked to play roles of foreign women — French or Spanish or even Japanese,” says Sen, who explains that Merle’s chance meeting with director Alexander Korda, who would become her first husband, put her on a new path. “Even high-profile papers like the Washington Post started to print rumors that her mother was ‘a Hindu,’” says Sen, who notes that at the time the term was used for “anyone who was of South Asian heritage,” regardless of their religion.
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