Valerie Hobson

Actor · 1917 – 1998 · Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

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.

Movies23

Movie7.5
HorrorScience Fiction
Dr. Frankenstein and his monster both turn out to be alive after being attacked by an angry mob. The now-chastened scientist attempts to escape his past, but a former mentor forces him to assist with the creation of a new creature.
Bride of Frankenstein
1935 · 1.1K votes
Movie7.3
DramaRomance
In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Great Expectations
1946 · 389 votes
Movie7.6
ComedyCrime
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 buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
1949 · 629 votes
Movie6.1
AdventureWar
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 hospitality of Guhl's spacious palace. It's up to the loyal young Prince Azim (Sabu) to warn the troops of Guhl's treachery by tapping out a message on his drum.
The Drum
1938 · 26 votes
Movie6.1
HorrorFantasy
A strange animal attack turns a botanist into a bloodthirsty monster.
Werewolf of London
1935 · 155 votes
Movie5.9
DramaMystery
A choirmaster addicted to opium and obsessed with a beautiful young woman will stop at nothing to possess her.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
1935 · 13 votes
Movie7.0
Comedy
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. If he can just manage to avoid a certain very predatory woman.
The Card
1952 · 42 votes
Movie7.1
ThrillerWar
During early World War II, a Danish sea captain, delayed in a British port, tangles with German spies.
Contraband
1940 · 22 votes
Movie6.4
WarThriller
A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
The Spy in Black
1939 · 66 votes
Movie6.2
DramaThriller
Penniless Blanche Fuller takes a job as a governess at the estate of her rich relations, the Fury family. To better her position in life, Blanche marries her dull cousin, Laurence Fury, who has a daughter she's fond of. But Blanche begins a tempestuous romance with steward Philip Thorn. Together, they hatch a murderous plan to gain control of the estate.
Blanche Fury
1948 · 25 votes
Movie6.4
Thriller
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.
The Small Voice
1948 · 7 votes
Movie6.3
DramaComedy
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.
Train of Events
1949 · 13 votes
Movie6.0
ThrillerMystery
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 aircraft which have disappeared without a trace while over the ocean on their maiden flights; unaware, as they are, that a spy ring has been shooting the planes down with a ray machine hidden aboard a salvage vessel which is on hand to haul the downed aircraft aboard, crews and all.
Q Planes
1939 · 41 votes
Movie8.0
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.
Tugboat Princess
1936 · 1 votes
Movie5.7
AdventureCrime
A London cat burglar falls for the girlfriend of a stockbroker who used to be his partner.
Jump for Glory
1937 · 3 votes
Movie6.2
RomanceWar
British Captain Terence Stevenson accepts an assignment even more dangerous than his everyday job of defusing undetonated bombs. Fluent in Romanian and German and having studied chemical engineering, he's parachuted into Romania to assume the identity of Captain Jan Tartu, a member of the fascist Iron Guard. Tartu makes his way to Czechoslovakia to steal the formula of a new Nazi poison gas and sabotage the factory of its manufacturing.
The Adventures of Tartu
1943 · 18 votes
Movie7.5
DramaRomance
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 if her husband is really his double, a dastardly German spy.
The Great Impersonation
1935 · 2 votes
Movie6.6
RomanceDrama
The MacIver brothers (Michael Redgrave, Griffith Jones) build the first ship to cross the Atlantic by steam power alone.
Atlantic Ferry
1941 · 4 votes
Movie5.3
MysteryComedy
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.
This Man Is News
1938 · 6 votes
Movie6.0
DramaComedy
While his wife, Catherine, is finalizing their divorce, serial philanderer Andre invites his latest conquest, Catherine’s best friend, Patricia, over for dinner. Over the course of the evening, Andre shares his entire romantic history since first coming to London as a young man, including his liaisons with his former boss, a marriage-minded young girl and a kindhearted Frenchwoman.
Monsieur Ripois
1954 · 22 votes
Movie10.0
Comedy
Comedy about two Ruritanian countries who declare war on each other with the mutual intention of losing. Political satire that might have been Britain’s answer to Duck Soup.
The Path of Glory
1934 · 1 votes
Movie6.5
Drama
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 of their endless round of debts.
The Rocking Horse Winner
1949 · 25 votes
Movie10.0
MysteryComedy
A British reporter and his wife, on vacation in Paris, run into a gang of counterfeiters.
This Man in Paris
1939 · 1 votes