Valerie Hobson

Born: 1917-04-14

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.


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Bride of Frankenstein

as Elizabeth
Released: 1935-04-20

Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive, not killed as previously believed....

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Werewolf of London

as Lisa Glendon
Released: 1935-05-13

A strange animal attack turns a botanist into a bloodthirsty monster.

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Great Expectations

as Estella
Released: 1946-12-26

In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious...

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Kind Hearts and Coronets

as Edith D'Ascoyne
Released: 1949-06-21

When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her...

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The Card

as Countess of Chell
Released: 1952-02-25

A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in...

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The Drum

as Mrs. Carruthers
Released: 1938-09-29

Set in the India of the British Raj, the evil and untrustworthy Prince Guhl (Raymond Massey)...

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The Spy in Black

as The School Mistress
Released: 1939-08-03

A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.

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Contraband

as Mrs. Sorensen
Released: 1940-05-11

When a neutral Danish merchant ship is forced to put into port after trying to evade British...

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The Adventures of Tartu

as Maruschuka Lanova
Released: 1943-10-01

British Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) accepts an assignment even more dangerous than...

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Q Planes

as Kay Lawrence
Released: 1939-02-21

In England, an eccentric police inspector, an earnest test pilot and a spunky female reporter...

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The Voice of Merrill

as Alycia Roche
Released: 1952-12-01

A convicted female blackmailer is found murdered in her flat and suspicion falls on three men,...

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The Small Voice

as Eleanor Byrne
Released: 1948-11-27

A man and his wife take to their house some men they rescue from a road crash and then find they...

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The Rocking Horse Winner

as Hester Grahame
Released: 1949-11-30

A strange and tragic tale of a young boy who is able to predict race winners at the horse track...

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Atlantic Ferry

as Mary Ann Morison
Released: 1941-09-06

The MacIver brothers (Michael Redgrave, Griffith Jones) build the first ship to cross the...

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Life Returns

as Mrs. Kendrick
Released: 1935-01-02

A doctor who has spent his career working on ways to revive the dead sees his chance to prove...

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Chinatown Squad

as Janet Baker
Released: 1935-05-31

Police search for the killer of a man who misused $700,000 intended for the Chinese Communists.

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Train of Events

as Stella
Released: 1949-01-18

A train disaster is told in four short stories to give character studies of the people involved,...

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Unpublished Story

as Carol Bennett
Released: 1942-08-10

Morale-boosting story released in the middle of World War II. A journalist uncovers a peace...

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The Interrupted Journey

as Carol North
Released: 1949-10-11

When John North, a budding author, pulls the communication cord of a late night train that is...

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Blanche Fury

as Blanche Fury
Released: 1948-02-19

Penniless governess Blanche Fullerton takes a job at the estate of her rich relations, the Fury...

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Monsieur Ripois

as Catherine Ripois
Released: 1954-09-30

While his wife, Catherine, is finalizing their divorce, serial philanderer Andre invites his...

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The Mystery of Edwin Drood

as Helena Landless
Released: 1935-02-04

A choirmaster addicted to opium and obsessed with a beautiful young woman will stop at nothing...

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Tugboat Princess

as Sally
Released: 1936-10-15

When her parents are drowned at sea, "Princess" Judy is adopted by a soft-hearted old sea...

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This Man Is News

as Pat Drake
Released: 1938-09-16

A newspaper reporter keeps beating the police to clues in a current murder case. This makes the...

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The Great Impersonation

as Eleanor Dominey
Released: 1935-12-08

The second of the three film versions of the E. Phillips Oppenheim espionage thriller set...

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The Silent Battle

as Draguisha
Released: 1939-03-01

Secret agents try to defeat terrorists on the Orient Express.

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Strange Wives

as Mauna
Released: 1934-11-30

When a young man marries a Russian girl, he finds that he has "married" her entire family.

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This Man in Paris

as Pat Drake
Released: 1939-07-01

A British reporter and his wife, on vacation in Paris, run into a gang of counterfeiters.

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Who Goes There!

as Alex Cornwall
Released: 1952-06-09

When Miles Cornwall returns suddenly to the home he shares with his father and sister in a...

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The Years Between

as Diana Wentworth
Released: 1946-07-08

Michael Redgrave, Valerie Hobson, Flora Robson and Felix Aylmer star in this moving and...

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No Exit

as Laura Anstey
Released: 1936-11-26

A crime novelist stages an imaginative prank to prove that the perfect murder is possible but...

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Meet Me Tonight

as Stella Cartwright
Released: 1952-09-09

Meet Me Tonight was the American title for the British-filmed Tonight at 8:30, adapted from the...

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Secret of Stamboul

as Tania
Released: 1936-10-05

A man travels to Istanbul to try and prevent a revolution.

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When Thief Meets Thief

as Glory Fane
Released: 1937-01-01

A London cat burglar falls for the girlfriend of a stockbroker who used to be his partner.

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His Lordship

as Last Face in Montage (uncredited)
Released: 1932-06-02

The commoner is a happy cockney plumber by the name of Bert Gibbs. Bert comes into contact with...

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Rendezvous at Midnight

as Sandra Rogers
Released: 1935-02-11

There are plenty of suspects when an unscrupulous, blackmailing businessman turns up dead,...

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August Week End

as Claire Barry
Released: 1936-02-17

At a high-society dinner party, a wealthy, older and married man sets his sights on a beautiful...

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Background

as Barbie Lomax
Released: 1953-11-09

Two years of deterioration sees John and Barbara Lomax's marriage reduced to bitter sniping and...

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