American actress . Born Pauline Marion Levee (also seen as Levy), on June 3, 1905, in Whitestone Landing, Long Island, New York; died of heart failure on April 23, 1990, at her villa in Ronco, Switzerland; married Edgar James (a lumber industrialist), around 1927 (divorced 1931); married Charlie Chaplin (an actor, director, producer), in 1936 (divorced 1942); married Burgess Meredith (an actor), in 1944 (divorced 1950); married Erich Maria Remarque (a novelist), in 1958 (died 1970); no children.
Filmography:
(short) Berth Marks (1929); The Locked Door (1929); City Streets (1931); The Girl Habit (1931); The Mouthpiece (1932); (short) Show Business (1932); (short) Young Ironsides (1932); Pack
Up Your Troubles (1932); (short) Girl Grief (1932); The Kid from Spain (1932); Roman Scandals (1933); Kid Millions (1934); Modern Times (1936); The Young in Heart (1938); Dramatic School (1938); The Women (1939); The Cat and the Canary (1939); The Ghost Breakers (1940); The Great Dictator (1940); North West Mounted Police (1940); Second Chorus (1941); Pot o'Gold (1941); Hold Back the Dawn (1941); Nothing but the Truth (1941); The Lady Has Plans (1942); Reap the Wild Wind (1942); The Forest Rangers (1942); (cameo) Star Spangled Rhythm (1942); The Crystal Ball (1943); So Proudly We Hail (1943); Standing Room Only (1944); I Love a Soldier (1944); (cameo) Duffy's Tavern (1945); Kitty (1946); The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946); Suddenly It's Spring (1947); (cameo) Variety Girl (1947); (cameo) Unconquered (1947); An Ideal Husband (UK, 1948); On Our Merry Way (A Miracle Can Happen, 1948); Hazard (1948); Bride of Vengeance (1949); Anna Lucasta (1949); The Torch (1950); Babes in Baghdad (1952); Vice Squad (1953); Paris Model (1953); Sins of Jezebel (1953); The Charge of the Lancers (1954); The Stranger Came Home (The Unholy Four, UK, 1954); Gli Indifferenti (Time of Indifference, It./Fr., 1964).
Paulette Goddard was born Pauline Marion Levee in Whitestone Landing, Long Island, in 1905, and went to work at age 14, shortly after the breakup of her parents' marriage. Reportedly, an uncle used his influence to get her a job with producer Flo Ziegfeld, who billed her as Peaches Browning ( Frances Heenan ) in his 1926 hit No Fooling. The next year, while on the road in Rio Rita, Goddard met and married her first husband Edward James, president of the Southern States Lumber Company, and retired from the stage to become a housewife. However, by 1931, she had obtained a Reno divorce and was headed for Hollywood to break into the movies. Taking her mother's maiden name, Goddard played a series of bit parts in films until signing as a contract player for Hal Roach. She was let go after six months and returned to the stage, appearing in the choruses of a few musicals of the period, such as The Kid from Spain (1932) with Eddie Cantor.
Charlie Chaplin was next in line to impact Goddard's life, but her relationship with him is cloaked in mystery. (Their marriage was not even confirmed until their divorce in 1942.) By some accounts, they met on a yachting excursion, during which he talked her out of investing her alimony in a phony film venture. Captivated by her beauty and her cynical wit, he cast her in the role of the waif in Modern Times, which began shooting in 1932 but did not premiere until 1936 (the year they were supposedly secretly married at sea). Goddard appeared in Chaplin's next film The Great Dictator (1940), but he worked so slowly that while they were in production, she made some other important films, including Second Chorus (1941) in which she briefly danced with Fred Astaire; she also made the acquaintance of Burgess Meredith, whom she married after divorcing Chaplin. Among Goddard's sorrows, at this phase in her career, was the loss of the coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, a part said to have been hers until it was given to Vivien Leigh at the last minute.
Through the 1940s, Goddard was one of Paramount's top stars, usually cast in vixen roles, though she excelled in comedy. She was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail (1943), a war drama with Claudette Colbert and Veronica Lake , and she starred in top-notch movies such as Kitty (1946) and Unconquered (1947). By the 1950s, however, like other actresses her age, her star began to fade, and she could only find leads in B pictures with ludicrous titles, movies like Bride of Vengeance (1949) and Babes in Baghdad (1952).
After divorcing Meredith in 1950, Goddard married the novelist Erich Maria Remarque in 1958 and enjoyed a luxurious retirement shuttling back and forth between Paris and New York. She made one come-back attempt in 1964, as Claudia Cardinale 's mother in the Italian film Time of Indifference. Her final appearance was in the television movie "The Snoop Sisters" (1972). Goddard died of heart failure in April of 1990; in her final bequest, she left $20 million to New York University.
sources:
Katz, Ephraim. The Film Encyclopedia. NY: Harper-Collins, 1994.
Lamparski, Richard. Whatever Became of…? 1st and 2nd Series. NY: Crown, 1968.
Shipman, David. The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years. Boston: Little, Brown, 1995.
Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts
FAQs
Charlie Chaplin's third marriage lasted from 1936 to 1942 and was to Paulette Goddard (1911-1990), the actress who appeared in Modern Times and The Great Dictator. Though Charlie and Paulette divorced, it was by all accounts, on amicable terms.
What is Paulette Goddard famous for? ›
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith and Erich Maria Remarque.
Did Paulette Goddard have any children? ›
Goddard never had any children, but she became a stepmother to Charles Chaplin's two sons, Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin, while she and Charlie were married. In his memoirs, "My Father Charlie Chaplin," from 1960, Charles Jr. describes her as a lovely, caring and intelligent woman throughout the book.
Why did Paulette Goddard move to Switzerland? ›
In 1958, Goddard remarried for the final time to writer Erich Maria Remarque, who was twelve years her senior. Wealthy from shrewd investments, she largely retired from acting and moved with him to Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland, where she lived with Remarque in his villa Casa Monte Tabor.
At what age did Charlie Chaplin have his last child? ›
The legend comedian Charlie Chaplin became a father at the age of 73 with the birth of his youngest son, Christopher, to his wife Oona O'Neill in 1962. Geraldine, Michael, Josephine, Victoria, Eugene, Jane, and Annette were the couple's other seven children.
What happened to Charlie Chaplin's first wife? ›
41-year-old Mildred Harris, first wife of Charlie Chaplin and star of silent films, died in Los Angeles following a brief illness.
Was Paulette Goddard a natural blonde? ›
Not only did he persuade her to forget this dodgy deal, but also to revert her hair color to its natural brunette - Paulette had become a Hollywood platinum blonde, possibly in a bid to win her more parts from studios.
How tall was Charlie Chaplin? ›
The comic actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin may only have been 1.65 metres tall, but he was one of the greats. He died on Christmas Day 1977 at the age of 88, having lived an eventful life. Chaplin was laid to rest in the cemetery at Corsier-sur-Vevey, close to the mansion that had been his home for several decades.
How old was Charlie Chaplin when he married Oona? ›
"[H]e at last found true happiness, and it seems they had both found their soul mates, despite the fact that Oona was only 18, and Charlie was 53," according to the Chaplin Office. Although O'Neill was older than both of his first two wives when they married, the couple's age gap raised eyebrows.
Is Paulette Goddard still alive? ›
Chaplin's son, Shane Saura Chaplin, was born in 1974. His father is Spanish film director Carlos Saura, who directed several films Chaplin appeared in. Chaplin's daughter, Oona, is now an actress in British and Spanish films. Chaplin married Oona's father, Chilean cinematographer Patricio Castilla, in 2006.
Did John Goddard have kids? ›
John Goddard(I)
He is an actor, known for The Rifleman (1958), Wild Youth (1960) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964). He has been married to Virginia Goddard since 25 October 1952. They have three children.
How did Goddard change the world? ›
Goddard is recognized as the “Father of American Rocketry” and as one of the pioneers in the theoretical exploration of space. In 1914, Goddard received two U.S. patents. One was for a rocket using liquid fuel. The other was for a two- or three-stage rocket using solid fuel.
Who was the actress who worked with Charlie Chaplin? ›
Olga Edna Purviance (/pɜːrˈvaɪ. ns/; October 21, 1895 – January 13, 1958) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with him.
Was Carol Ann Charlie Chaplin's daughter? ›
For the jurors in the Chaplin case, overarching cultural attitudes ended up trumping biological truth. Despite blood-group evidence to the contrary, they ruled that Chaplin was Carol Ann's father, citing his romantic ties to her mother.
What was the age difference between Charlie Chaplin and his last wife? ›
Despite an age difference of thirty-six years, Charlie and Oona Chaplin enjoyed a happy marriage that lasted until his death in 1977, and had eight children together.
How old was Charlie Chaplin when he married Lita Grey? ›
Lita Grey began working for Charles Chaplin at his Hollywood studio when she was 12, doing bit parts in a couple of his movies. Three years later, at 15, she met him again and became pregnant by him by the time she was 16; they married in 1924 when she was still 16 and he was 35.
How old was Charlie Chaplin when his parents separated? ›
His marriage to Hannah did not last long, and they separated when Charlie was only about one year old. Charlie Chaplin had little contact with his father, except for a short period when he and Sydney stayed with Charles Chaplin Sr.
Did Charlie Chaplin have a daughter? ›
Josephine Chaplin was the sixth of 11 children fathered by the comedic screen legend and the third of eight with O'Neill, an actor and daughter of the Nobel prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill. Chaplin met O'Neill in 1942 and married her the following year.
