Farewell Mrs. Anna

One of my all-time favorite actresses, Deborah Kerr, has left the planet. When I was 14, I remember watching An Affair to Remember starring Deborah and Cary Grant, nine times in one week. This was long before movie videos came out, so I watched it on "The Million Dollar Movie" every night of the week, twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday. Each time I cried my eyes out, just like the ladies in Sleepless in Seattle (another all-time fave; I'm a chick flick addict). Soon after that memorable week of watching a movie over and over again, I caught The King and I on "Sunday Night at the Movies" and there was Deborah Kerr again, starring as the beautiful Mrs. Anna who taught Yul Brynner's King of Siam how to waltz. Mrs. Anna wore amazing satin and lace hoop-skirted dresses that were prettier than those worn by Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. And those big dresses were all she wore throughout the movie. I imagined washing dishes in a dress like that. I visualized stepping up to the sink and having that big skirt kick up in back to show off my behind. I'm getting off track.

Deborah Kerr's best-known scene was way out-of-character for her. There can't be many people over 50 who don't remember that amazing kiss shared by Deborah and Burt Lancaster (thank you Lindsey) on the beach with the Hawaii surf splashing over them in From Here to Eternity. Deborah's character was a sex-starved alcoholic. She reminded me of some of my mom's friends back then, but we won't go there.

My late good friend, the game show writer Jerry Payne, knew Deborah Kerr and her husband, Peter Viertel, and visited them in Switzerland. I loved to hear Jerry talk about what a "great dame" she was, but what I really wanted to know was if she ever mentioned who was the best kisser - Cary or Burt. Guess I'll never know.