One of film's most famous scenes: Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)

Deborah Kerr, the classy Scottish redhead and six-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actress who starred in several of the most beloved motion pictures of all-time, has died at the age of eighty-six. She had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease for the past several years.

Kerr is perhaps most famous for her role in From Here to Eternity (1953), in which she locked lips with Burt Lancaster on the beach as the waves roll past them in a scene rather risque for its time (and her proper image), as well as her charming romantic performances in The King and I (1956, opposite Yul Brynner) and An Affair to Remember (1957, opposite Cary Grant). Some, however, will argue that she did her best work in the United Kingdom for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who cast her in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and Black Narcissus (1947), which are both now regarded as classics.

Kerr earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actress 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). She never won outright, but received an Honorary Oscar in 1994 recognizing her as "An artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline, and elegance."

Perhaps she and Cary Grant have finally met up above the Empire State Building, after all.

UPDATE (2:53pm): Per an email I just received from a publicist Turner Classic Movies, TCM will pre-empt its regularly scheduled programming on Sunday evening to pay special tribute to Deborah Kerr with a double-feature of her films. At 8pm, it will air From Here to Eternity (1953), in which she stars as a lonely military wife who seeks happiness through an illicit affair, and at 10:15pm, it will air Separate Tables (1958), in which she plays a spinster completely dominated by her mother while staying at an English seaside resort.