Merle Oberon(1911 - 1979):true gossip.Her father hailed from Britain and her mother from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).To hide her half-Indian parentage,she would falsely represent to visitors that her mother was the maid.She was selected to star in Claudius (1937) as Messalina,but a serious car accident resulted in filming being abandoned.Oberon was scarred for life,but skilled lighting technicians were able to hide her injuries from cinema audiences.Oberon suffered even further damage to her complexion in 1940 from a combination of cosmetic poisoning and an allergic reaction to sulfa drugs.She went to a skin specialist,where she underwent several dermabrasion procedures.Resultsnly partially successful;without makeup,one could see noticeable pitting and indentation of her skin.In 1949,she commissioned a painting of her mother from an old photograph,instructing the painter to lighten her mother's complexion in the painting to hide the fact that she is part-Indian.