Deborah Kerr her long-time friend Robert Mitchum; a mama's girl in "Separate Tables" (1958) opposite David Niven; and a governess in both "The Chalk Garden" (1964) and "The Innocents" (1961) where she plays a governess tormented by apparitions. She also portrayed an earthy Australian sheep-herder's wife in "The Sundowners" (1960) and appeared as lustful and beautiful screen enchantresses in both "Beloved Infidel" (1959) and "Bonjour Tristesse" (1958). Among her most famous roles were Anna Leonowens in the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The King and I" (1956); and opposite Cary Grant as his shipboard romantic interest Terry McKay in
Deborah Kerr popular local female star at the box office. In 1943, she played three women in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp". During the filming, according to Powell's autobiography, Powell and she became lovers: "I realised that Deborah was both the ideal and the flesh-and-blood woman whom I had been searching for". Kerr made clear that her surname should be pronounced the same as "car". To avoid confusion over pronunciation, Louis B. Mayer of MGM billed her as "Kerr rhymes with Star!" Although the British Army refused to co-operate with the producers—and Winston Churchill thought