A life in parts

摘要

VERY LITTLE about Katherine O'Dell was genuine. Born in south London in 1928, she would come to be celebrated as "the most Irish actress in the world" (her "standard south Dublin" lilt was charming but affected). Her hair's flaming auburn hue came out of a bottle. Her first and only marriage was a sham: a union between a gay man and his young co-star, conceived by the Hollywood studio that had matched them onscreen. Even the name O'Dell was a kind of deception-her mother's maiden name, but "Irished".