35 Beautiful Photos of Valerie Hobson in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1917 in Larne, County Antrim, British actress Valerie Hobson appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive in 1935, aged 18. 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 (1908-1991) 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, in 1953. She played Mrs. Anna Leonowens opposite Herbert Lom’s King. The show ran for 926 performances.

Hobson died in 1998, aged 81. Take a look at these beautiful photos to see portraits of a young Valerie Hobson in the 1930s and 1940s.