Born: 14 April 1917, United Kingdom
Died: 13 November 1998
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Bridget Hourican. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Hobson, Valerie (1917–98), actress, was born 14 April 1917 at Larne, Co. Antrim, daughter of Commander Robert Gordon Hobson (1877–1940), naval officer, and Violette Hobson (née Hamilton-Willoughby). Educated at St Augustine’s Priory, London, she was stage-struck from a young age. Starting ballet at three, she was taught by Espinosa in London from the age of five. However, she was too tall to be a ballerina and settled instead on acting, enrolling in RADA. Her stage debut, at the age of 15, was in Basil Foster’s ‘Orders are orders’, where she was spotted by Oscar Hammerstein, who cast her in his West End show ‘Ball at the Savoy’ in Drury Lane. This showcased her talents as a comedienne and led to a series of appearances in British B movies, including Two hearts in waltz time, The path to glory, and Badger’s Green, all in 1934. Still a minor, she had to be accompanied to the studio by her nanny. At 18 she won a contract with Universal Studios; however, Hollywood proved a disappointment. After appearing in a succession of farces and thrillers, of which only The bride of Frankenstein (1935) is remembered, she fell victim to the reorganisation of the studios in the mid 1930s, following a financial crisis, and her contract was not renewed, though her marked prowess as a screamer meant that Universal filed her top decibels in the studio sound library.
Back in England she was cast opposite Douglas Fairbanks, jr, in Jump for glory (1937), in which she caught the eye of Alexander Korda, who signed her to a long-term contract. She made, however, only two films for Korda: The drum (1938), about the North-West Frontier, and Q planes (1939) with Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier. During this period she also worked twice for Michael Powell: in The spy in black (1939) and Contraband (1940), both with Conrad Veidt. In 1939 she married Anthony Havelock-Allan, her former co-star in Badger’s Green and now a producer. Three years later she was offered a second Hollywood contract by David O. Selznick, who wanted her for Jane Eyre. However, with the war at its height she was unwilling to leave her husband. He subsequently founded, with David Lean and Ronald Neame, the Cineguild production company, of which he was eventually head. Cineguild provided Hobson with some of her strongest roles, including Estella in David Lean’s Great expectations (1946) and the title role in Blanche Fury (1948), a period melodrama with Stewart Granger. Excellent as Estella, a part that suited what the Daily Telegraph (14 Nov. 1998) called the ‘slightly smug, lecturing strain in her on-screen personality’, she was not in general convincing as the love interest. Although beautiful, with long auburn hair, she was upper-crust and aloof and seemed too prim and ladylike to appear opposite matinée idols such as Granger and Gérard Philippe.
Havelock-Allan left Cineguild in 1947, taking Hobson with him. Together they made The small voice (1948), about an ordinary family held to ransom by escaped convicts. Her subsequent career consisted of minor melodramas and comedies, of which the most celebrated is Kind hearts and coronets (1949) opposite Alec Guinness. The part of the prudish, aristocratic Edith D’Ascoyne suited her talents perfectly, as did that of the governess in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical ‘The king and I’, which she played in Drury Lane in 1953 after a long absence from the stage. Though not musically trained, she made a success of the part and the play ran for a year. Remarking that she was unlikely to be offered as good a role again, she retired at the age of 37. Her last screen appearance was in Knave of hearts (1954). That year she married (31 December) the wealthy tory MP for Stratford (1950–63), Jack Profumo, having divorced Havelock-Allan in 1952.
A life as socialite, MP’s wife, and mother was disrupted by the ‘Profumo scandal’ of 1963. Her husband, secretary of state for war since 1960, denied in the house of commons (22 March 1963) having had an affair with Christine Keeler, the lover of a Soviet official. Subsequently proved to have lied, he had to resign both from his ministry and his seat three months later. Hobson told Lord Denning, who conducted an inquiry, that stress, exhaustion, and sleeping pills contributed to her husband’s making his false statement to the commons. She stood by him and joined him in his later career as charity worker. He established the Toynbee Hall centre in east London for people experiencing alcoholism and drug addiction (for which he received a CBE in 1975) while she put her energy into working for children with intellectual disabilities (with whom she had an affinity, as her eldest son from her first marriage had Down’s syndrome). For Lepra, a leprosy relief organisation, she dreamed up the ‘ring appeal’, which encouraged wealthy people, including members of the royal family, to hand over rings to raise money. She died 13 November 1998 in England, and was survived by both husbands and a son from each marriage: Mark Havelock-Allan and the writer David Profumo.