Actress Deborah Kerr Dead at 86

British idol starred in 'From Here to Eternity' and 'The King and I'

By Sam Gale Rosen, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 18, 2007 11:07 AM CDT

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Actress Deborah Kerr Dead at 86 — Deborah Kerr holds her Oscar, which was presented to her as an honorary award at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, March 21, 1994. Kerr, who shared one of cinema's most famous kisses with Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity," has died in Suffolk, eastern England, her agent said Thursday, Oct.... (Associated Press)

British actress Deborah Kerr has died at age 86, the Telegraph reports. Kerr was a six-time Oscar nominee who is probably best remembered for her beach embrace with Burt Lancaster in 1953's "From Here to Eternity," and her starring role in "The King and I." The Telegraph writes Kerr held audiences spellbound with intense sensuality smoldering beneath a genteel exterior.

"It's an unbelievable terror, a kind of masochistic madness. The older you get the easier it should be, but it isn't." Kerr said of acting. The actress made her debut at the age of 17 in a ballet company, and was appearing in films by the time she was 28. Kerr had recently been suffering from Parkinson's disease. (More Deborah Kerr stories.)

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