Deborah Kerr, perhaps best known for the famous Hollywood kiss she shared with Burt Reynolds on a Hawaiian beach in the film From Here to Eternity passed away this Tuesday in Suffolk, England. She was 86 and had suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

Kerr was nominated six times for the Academy Award for best actress, but never won. In 1994, she was presented with an honorary Oscar for her distinguished career as an "artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline, and elegance."

Kerr was born in Helensburgh, Scotland. Her family moved to England when she was 5, and she began her study of dance at a school run by her aunt in Bristol. Sad news struck of her parents’ deaths when Kerr was only 14 years old. Later, Kerr was awarded a ballet scholarship in London. She made her stage debut in Prometheus at age 17.

She found her way into drama and eventually became a popular British movie star. In 1946, she went to Hollywood, where she was given the chance to play opposite Clark Gable in The Hucksters. As her career in America developed, Kerr worked with many famous American actors directors, including John Huston, Otto Preminger and Elia Kazan.

Kerr pushed the envelope regarding attitudes towards sex and women in Code-era Hollywood with some of her risqué roles, such as the role of Karen Holmes in From Here to Eternity. This Army officer’s wife was the opposite of the ideal 1950s woman; she was a drunk, and had an affair with another sergeant in the film.

Her best-actress nominations were for Edward, My Son (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953), The King and I (1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), Separate Tables (1958), and The Sundowners (1960).

Her other movies include An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant, Beloved Infidel, The Innocents (an adaptation of the Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw, which Scoop reported on just last week!), The Night of the Iguana with Richard Burton and The Arrangement with Kirk Douglas.

Kerr also performed on Broadway. In 1953, she made her debut as Laura Reynolds, a teacher's wife in Tea and Sympathy. She played this character for a full season, continued for a national tour and even made it into a movie in 1956.

In 1968, she took a leave of absence from acting, citing excessive violence, sexuality and gratuitous nudity in film as concerns, but later returned and acted in films until the 1980s.