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Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson. Birthdate: estimated between 1848 and 1908. Death: Immediate Family: Brother of Jessie Margaret Gonsalves. Managed by: Hayley Maud Barrodeen.
- Murky Origins
- Great on Paper…
- Seeing Double
- Corrupted Youth
- The Road to Hollywood
- Cries & Whispers
- So Much to Mourn
- Kids Can Be So Cruel
- Breaking Point
- The Little Queen
Merle Oberon's affairs and relationships might have set Hollywood a titter during her adult life, but the starlet was quite literally born into scandal as well. While Oberon's birth certificate lists Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson and Charlotte Selby as her parents, in reality, the truth was so much stranger and darker. Wikipedia
Merle Oberon was born Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson in 1911 in Bombay, British India—what we know today as Mumbai, India. Oberon's father, Arthur Thompson, was a British mechanical engineer who worked for Indian Railways. Oberon's mother, Charlotte Selby, was from Ceylon—now known as Sri Lanka—and was of mixed ancestry, including some Maori roots....
Oberon’s birth certificate hid a twisted secret—Charlotte Selby, the woman listed as her mother, was actually her grandmother. Charlotte’s 12-year-old daughter Constance was Oberon’s real mother, and the starlet's real father is unknown to this day. In order to avoid prevent public embarrassment, Charlotte put her own name on the birth certificate....
How did Charlotte Selby pass a baby off as her own when she already had a 12-year-old daughter? Even though you might think that Charlotte would have been to old to pull off the lie,you'd be wrong.Charlotte herself had been an incredibly young mother, giving birth to Constance at just 14 years of age. When Oberon was born, Charlotte became a secret...
After appearing in a number of British films, Merle Oberon became Hollywood royalty nearly overnight thanks to a contract with legendary producer Samuel Goldwyn. She was just 24 when she appeared in the hit film The Dark Angel. Not only did Dark Angel launch Oberon's career, it also sky-rocketed her into cinema history. She netted an Oscar nominati...
Young Merle was just three years old when the man she thought was her father, Arthur Thompson, died during WWI. He perished on the Western Front at the Battle of the Somme—but he didn’t die in combat. Instead, pneumonia took his life in 1914. Wikimedia Commons
Thompson’s death left Charlotte, Constance, and Merle alone and impoverished in Bombay—until 1917, when it finally looked like their lives were turning around. They moved to Calcutta where Oberon received a scholarship to attend one of the finest private schools in the city. It should’ve been a step toward a better life, but it was the beginning of...
Oberon was relentlessly bullied at La Martiniere Calcutta School for Girls. They targeted her home life—she had no father anymore, and her single mother was poor and a woman of color. Kids always seem to know what will cut the deepest. Flickr
These early years should’ve been some of the happiest of Oberon’s life, but the bullying became so bad that she couldn't bear to attend the private school any longer. Oberon dropped out of school and begin home-schooling with her mother. Despite these setbacks, this difficult time had one enormous silver lining: This was when Oberon fell in love wi...
As a girl and into her teen years, Oberon went by the nickname “Queenie.” She was given it at birth, since her arrival on this planet coincided with Queen Mary’s and King George V’s 1911 visit to India. Wikimedia Commons
She was raised as the daughter of Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a Welsh mechanical engineer from Darlington who worked in Indian Railways and his wife, Charlotte Selby, a Burgher from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). (Charlotte's full name was Constance Charlotte Thompson, according to her 1937 obituary.)
Feb 19, 2017 · She claimed to have born in Tasmania to aristocratic parents, and merely raised in India. In reality, Oberon was indeed born in India, to Arthur Terrence O’Brien Thompson, a British engineer who worked for Indian Railways, and teenaged Constance Shelby.
Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson was the father of film actress and producer Merle Oberon. Birth. Darlington. Death. Cause of death: Pneumonia 1914. Nationality. United Kingdom. Occupation. Mechanical Engineer.
- Arthur Thompson
- Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson
- Male
Sep 2, 2023 · Her father was Arthur Terrence O’Brien Thompson, an Anglo-Irish mechanical engineer for the Indian Railways. Her mother was Constance Selby, believed to have been of Sri Lankan and Māori ancestry: she was just 14 when she gave birth to Merle in 1911.
Some sources claim her parents to be Arthur Terrence O'Brien Thompson, a mechanical engineer from England who served ‘Indian Railways’ and Charlotte Selby, a Eurasian lady with partial Māori background hailing from Ceylon (at present Srilanka).
