Valerie Hobson
Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s. She was born Babette Valerie Louise Hobson in Larne, County Antrim, Ireland.
She appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive, taking over the role from Mae Clarke, who had played it in the original Frankenstein (1931). Hobson also played opposite Henry Hull that same year in Werewolf of London, the first Hollywood werewolf movie, predating The Wolf Man by six years.
The latter half of the 1940s saw Hobson in perhaps her two most memorable roles: as the adult Estella in David Lean's 1946 adaptation of Great Expectations, and as the refined and virtuous Edith D'Ascoyne in the 1949 black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets.
In 1952 she divorced her first husband, film producer Sir Anthony Havelock-Allan (1904–2003), and married MP John Profumo (1915–2006) in 1954, giving up acting shortly afterwards
Valerie Hobson's last starring role was in the original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play The King and I which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on October 8, 1953. She played Mrs. Anna Leonowens opposite Herbert Lom's King.
After Profumo's ministerial career ended in disgrace in 1963, following revelations he had lied to the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler, she stood by him, and they worked together for charity for the remainder of her life.
Hobson's eldest son, Simon Anthony Clerveaux Havelock-Allan was born in May 1944 with Down's Syndrome. Her middle child, Mark Havelock-Allan, was born on 4 April 1951. Her youngest child is author David Profumo, (b. 16 October 1955) wrote Bringing the House Down (2006) about the scandal.
She died of a heart attack in London in 1998 and is buried in Surrey, England.
Description above from the Wikipedia Valerie Hobson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 1.975 |
Birthday | 1917-04-14 |
Place of Birth | Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland |
Also Known As | Бабетта Валери Луиза Хобсон, Валери Хобсон, Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson, |
1935
Bride of Frankenstein
7.5/961
Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive, not killed as previously believed. Dr. Frankenstein wants to get out of the evil experimen...
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Bride of Frankenstein
1949
Kind Hearts and Coronets
7.7/535
When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be bu...
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Kind Hearts and Coronets
1935
Werewolf of London
6/131
A strange animal attack turns a botanist into a bloodthirsty monster.
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Werewolf of London
1946
Great Expectations
7.272/329
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman....
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Great Expectations
1952
The Card
6.9/37
A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing - some honest, some not quite so...
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The Card
1949
The Rocking Horse Winner
6.568/22
A strange and tragic tale of a young boy who is able to predict race winners at the horse track by riding his own rocking horse to aid his parents out...
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The Rocking Horse Winner
1939
Q Planes
5.8/38
In England, an eccentric police inspector, an earnest test pilot and a spunky female reporter team up to solve the mystery of a series of test aircraf...
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Q Planes
1938
The Drum
5.7/20
Set in the India of the British Raj, the evil and untrustworthy Prince Guhl (Raymond Massey) plans to wipe out the British troops as they enjoy the ho...
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The Drum
1936
Tugboat Princess
0/0
When her parents are drowned at sea, "Princess" Judy is adopted by a soft-hearted old sea captain, Captain Zack, and brought to live on his tugboat.
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Tugboat Princess
1952
The Voice of Merrill
5.9/8
A convicted female blackmailer is found murdered in her flat and suspicion falls on three men, all of whom the police believe may have had reason to w...
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The Voice of Merrill
1943
The Adventures of Tartu
6.2/16
British Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) accepts an assignment even more dangerous than his everyday job of defusing unexploded bombs. Fluent...
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The Adventures of Tartu
1939
The Spy in Black
6.3/57
A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
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The Spy in Black
1935
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
5.5/10
A choirmaster addicted to opium and obsessed with a beautiful young woman will stop at nothing to possess her.
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The Mystery of Edwin Drood
1942
Unpublished Story
6.3/5
Morale-boosting story released in the middle of World War II. A journalist uncovers a peace organisation at the centre of disreputable dealings.
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Unpublished Story
1940
Contraband
6.9/17
When a neutral Danish merchant ship is forced to put into port after trying to evade British wartime contraband control, its captain becomes involved...
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Contraband
1946
The Years Between
6.2/5
Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, Flora Robson and Felix Aylmer star in this moving and sophisticated story of love and loss set against the backdrop...
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The Years Between
1941
Atlantic Ferry
5.5/3
The MacIver brothers (Michael Redgrave, Griffith Jones) build the first ship to cross the Atlantic by steam power alone.
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Atlantic Ferry
1935
Life Returns
4.2/6
A doctor who has spent his career working on ways to revive the dead sees his chance to prove his theory by performing his procedures on a recently de...
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Life Returns
1948
Blanche Fury
6/21
Penniless governess Blanche Fullerton takes a job at the estate of her rich relations, the Fury family. To better her position in life, Blanche marrie...
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Blanche Fury
1939
This Man in Paris
0/0
A British reporter and his wife, on vacation in Paris, run into a gang of counterfeiters.
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This Man in Paris
1949
Train of Events
6.2/10
A train disaster is told in four short stories to give character studies of the people involved, how it will affect them and how they deal with it.
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Train of Events
1937
When Thief Meets Thief
5/2
A London cat burglar falls for the girlfriend of a stockbroker who used to be his partner.
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When Thief Meets Thief
1949
The Interrupted Journey
6/16
When John North, a budding author, pulls the communication cord of a late night train that is taking him away on a weekend with his publishers wife, h...
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The Interrupted Journey
1936
August Week End
5/1
At a high-society dinner party, a wealthy, older and married man sets his sights on a beautiful young girl who's loved by a younger and not-so-wealthy...
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August Week End
1936
Secret of Stamboul
6/1
A man travels to Istanbul to try and prevent a revolution.
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Secret of Stamboul
1948
The Small Voice
6.2/6
A man and his wife take to their house some men they rescue from a road crash and then find they have picked up some dangerous criminals.
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The Small Voice
1938
This Man Is News
4.7/3
A newspaper reporter keeps beating the police to clues in a current murder case. This makes the police think he may be involved in the crime.
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This Man Is News
1935
Chinatown Squad
6/1
Police search for the killer of a man who misused $700,000 intended for the Chinese Communists.
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Chinatown Squad
1934
Strange Wives
0/0
When a young man marries a Russian girl, he finds that he has "married" her entire family.
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Strange Wives
1935
Rendezvous at Midnight
0/0
There are plenty of suspects when an unscrupulous, blackmailing businessman turns up dead, especially the Police Commissioner's current paramour, who...
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Rendezvous at Midnight
1952
Who Goes There!
5.7/3
When Miles Cornwall returns suddenly to the home he shares with his father and sister in a grace-and-favour house at St. James's Palace, he's amazed t...
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Who Goes There!
1953
Background
6/1
Two years of deterioration sees John and Barbara Lomax's marriage reduced to bitter sniping and "keeping up appearances" for the sake of the children....
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Background
1936
No Exit
6/1
A crime novelist stages an imaginative prank to prove that the perfect murder is possible but finds it has catastrophic consequences.
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No Exit
1934
Badger’s Green
0/0
A lovely English village is threatened with "development" by a speculative builder. The annual cricket match with another village shall decide its fat...
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Badger’s Green
1934
The Path of Glory
0/0
Comedy about two Ruritanian countries who declare war on each other with the mutual intention of losing. Political satire that might have been Britain...
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The Path of Glory
1935
The Great Impersonation
0/0
The second of the three film versions of the E. Phillips Oppenheim espionage thriller set largely in an old dark house where a tremulous wife wonders...
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The Great Impersonation
1932
His Lordship
7/1
The commoner is a happy cockney plumber by the name of Bert Gibbs. Bert comes into contact with the celebrated Russian movie star Ilya Myona. Desperat...
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His Lordship
1954
Monsieur Ripois
6.1/15
While his wife, Catherine, is finalizing their divorce, serial philanderer Andre invites his latest conquest, Catherine’s best friend, Patricia, over...
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Monsieur Ripois
1952
Meet Me Tonight
6.7/6
Meet Me Tonight was the American title for the British-filmed Tonight at 8:30, adapted from the Noel Coward stage production of the same name.
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Meet Me Tonight
1939
The Silent Battle
0/0
Secret agents try to defeat terrorists on the Orient Express.
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