Valerie Hobson

Valerie Hobson
Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a British government minister who became the subject of the Profumo affair in 1963.
Early years
Hobson was born at Sandy Bay, Larne, County Antrim, in Ulster, to Violette (c. 1890-1955; née Hamilton-Willoughby) and Robert Gordon Hobson (1877-1940), who was a Commander in the Royal Navy.
Before she was 11 years old, Hobson had begun to study acting and dancing at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Career
In 1935, aged 17, Hobson appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive. She played opposite Henry Hull that same year in Werewolf of London, the first Hollywood werewolf film. The latter half of the 1940s saw Hobson in perhaps her two most memorable roles: as the adult Estella in David Lean's adaptation of Great Expectations (1946), and as the refined and virtuous Edith D'Ascoyne in the black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
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 8 October 1953. She played Mrs. Anna Leonowens opposite Herbert Lom's King. The show ran for 926 performances.
Personal life and death
In 1952, Hobson divorced her first husband, film producer Anthony Havelock-Allan (1904–2003). In 1954, she married Brigadier John Profumo (1915–2006), a Member of Parliament (MP), giving up acting shortly afterwards. Profumo was a prominent politician of Italian descent.
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, Hobson stood by him, and they worked together for charity for the remainder of her life, though she did miss their more public personas.
Hobson's eldest son, Simon Anthony Clerveaux Havelock-Allan, was born in May 1944 with Down's syndrome, and died in January 1991. Her middle child, Mark Havelock-Allan, was born on 4 April 1951 and became a judge. Her youngest child is the author David Profumo (born 16 October 1955), who wrote Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir (2006) about the scandal. In it, he writes that his parents told him nothing of the scandal and he learned of it from another boy at school.
Hobson died in 1998, aged 81. After her death, Hobson's body was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium in accordance with her wishes. Half her ashes were interred in the family vault in Hersham. The rest were scattered on 1 January 1999 by her sons David Profumo and Mark Havelock-Allan, near the family's farm in Scotland.
In popular culture
Hobson was portrayed by Deborah Grant in the film Scandal (1989), by Joanna Riding in Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical Stephen Ward the Musical, which opened at the Aldwych Theatre on 19 December 2013 and by Emilia Fox in the BBC mini-series The Trial of Christine Keeler in 2019.
Filmography
His Lordship (1932) – Last Face in Montage (uncredited)
For Love of You (1933) – Minor Role (uncredited)
Eyes of Fate (1933) – Rene
The Path of Glory (1934) – Maria
Two Hearts in Waltz Time (1934) – Susie
Badger's Green (1934) – Molly Butler
Great Expectations (1934) – Biddy (scenes deleted)
Strange Wives (1934) – Mauna
The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1934) – Mimi – Carnival Girl (uncredited)
Life Returns (1935) – Mrs. Kendrick
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935) – Helena Landless
Rendezvous at Midnight (1935) – Sandra Rogers
Oh, What a Night (1935) – Susan
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – Elizabeth
Werewolf of London (1935) – Lisa Glendon
Chinatown Squad (1935) – Janet Baker
The Great Impersonation (1935) – Eleanor Dominey
August Weekend (1936) – Claire Barry
The Secret of Stamboul (1936) – Tania
Tugboat Princess (1936) – Sally
No Escape (1936) – Laura Anstey
Jump for Glory (1937) – Glory Howard aka Glory Fane
The Drum (1938) – Mrs. Carruthers
This Man Is News (1938) – Pat Drake
Q Planes (1939) – Kay Hammond
The Silent Battle (1939) – Draguisha
This Man in Paris (1939) – Pat Drake
The Spy in Black (1939) – The School Mistress
Contraband (1940) – Mrs. Sorensen
Atlantic Ferry (1941) – Mary Ann Morison
Unpublished Story (1942) – Carol Bennett
The Adventures of Tartu (1943, aka Sabotage Agent) – Maruschuka Lanova
The Years Between (1946) – Diana Wentworth
Great Expectations (1946, Hobson had acted in the 1934 version in the role of Biddy, but her scenes were cut.) – Estella
Blanche Fury (1948) – Blanche Fury
The Small Voice (1948) – Eleanor Byrne
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) – Edith
Train of Events (1949) – Stella (segment "The Composer")
The Interrupted Journey (1949) – Carol North
The Rocking Horse Winner (1950) – Hester Grahame
The Card (1952) – Countess of Chell
Who Goes There! (1952) – Alex Cornwall
Meet Me Tonight (1952) – Stella Cartwright (segment "Ways and Means")
The Voice of Merrill (1952) – Alycia
Background (1953) – Barbie Lomax
Knave of Hearts (1954) – Catherine Ripois
References
External links
Photographs of Valerie Hobson
1917 births
1998 deaths
British film actresses
People from Larne
20th-century British actresses
British comedy actresses
British expatriates in the United States