Background
She was born Babette Valerie Louise Hobson in Larne, County Antrim, in present-day Northern Ireland.
She was born Babette Valerie Louise Hobson in Larne, County Antrim, in present-day Northern Ireland.
Her second husband was John Profumo, a Government Minister who became the subject of a sensational sex scandal in 1963. In 1935, still in her teens, she 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 Doctorate"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 Mistress Anna Leonowens opposite Herbert Lom"s King.
The show ran for 926 performances. 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 life.
Hobson"s eldest son, Simon Anthony Clerveaux Havelock-Allan, was born in May 1944 with Down syndrome. Her middle child, Mark Havelock-Allan, was born on 4 April 1951 and became a judge. Her youngest child is the author David Profumo (b 16 October 1955), who wrote Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir (2006) about the scandal.
After her death, Hobson"s body was cremated in accordance with her wishes, with half her ashes to be interred in the family vault in Hersham.
Hobson was portrayed by Deborah Grant in the film Scandal (1989), and by Joanna Riding in Andrew Lloyd Webber"s stage musical Stephen Ward the Musical, which opened at the Aldwych Theatre on 19 December 2013.