Golden Age film star Merle Oberon comes alive in a new biography, sparked in part by the 2023 news that she was half Asian, a secret she kept all of her life.

These circumstances thus demanded that Oberon continue keeping her heritage a secret—even if it meant enduring procedures as torturous as skin bleaching at the behest of studios. But in Oberon’s ...

A Hollywood beauty whose celebrated roles included Anne Boleyn, Merle Oberon kept her South Asian origins a secret from the movie industry and audiences.

These circumstances thus demanded that Oberon continue keeping her heritage a secret—even if it meant enduring procedures as torturous as skin bleaching at the behest of studios. But in Oberon ...