#Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress, a child fashion model and a performer in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl; she became a major star of Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. Her most notable films were her first major role, as Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Modern Times, and Chaplin's subsequent film The Great Dictator. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her husbands included Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.
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#Studio publicity portrait, 1947
Born Marion Levy, June 3, 1910, Whitestone Landing, Queens, New York, U.S.
Died April 23, 1990 (aged 79), Ronco sopra Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland
Resting place Ronco Village Cemetery, Ticino, Switzerland
Nationality American
Occupation Actress, film producer, dancer, model
Years active 1926–1972
Spouse(s)
1.Edgar James
(m. 1927; div. 1932)
2.Charlie Chaplin
(m. 1936; div. 1942)
3.Burgess Meredith
(m. 1944; div. 1949)
4.Erich Maria Remarque
(m. 1958; died 1970)
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Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress, a child fashion model and a performer in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl; she became a major star of Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. Her most notable films were her first major role, as Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Modern Times, and Chaplin's subsequent film The Great Dictator. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her husbands included Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.
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Goddard was the daughter of Joseph Russell Levy (1881–1954), the son of a prosperous Jewish cigar manufacturer from Salt Lake City, and Alta Mae Goddard (1887–1983), who was of Episcopalian English heritage. They married in 1908 and separated while their daughter was very young, although the divorce did not become final until 1926. According to Goddard, her father left them, but according to J. R. Levy, Alta absconded with the child. Goddard was raised by her mother, and did not meet her father again until the late 1930s, after she had become famous.
In a 1938 interview published in Collier's, Goddard claimed Levy was not her biological father. In response, Levy filed a suit against his daughter, claiming that the interview had ruined his reputation and cost him his job, and demanded financial support from her. In a December 17, 1945 article written by Oliver Jensen in Life, Goddard admitted to having lost the case and being forced to pay her father $35 a week.
To avoid a custody battle, she and her mother moved often during her childhood, even relocating to Canada at one point. Goddard began modeling at an early age to support her mother and herself, working for Saks Fifth Avenue, Hattie Carnegie, and others. An important figure in her childhood was her great uncle, Charles Goddard, the owner of the American Druggists Syndicate. He played a central role in Goddard's career, introducing her to Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld.
In 1926, she made her stage debut as a dancer in Ziegfeld's summer revue, No Foolin', which was also the first time that she used the stage name Paulette Goddard. Ziegfeld hired her for another musical, Rio Rita, which opened in February 1927, but she left the show after only three weeks to appear in the play The Unconquerable Male, produced by Archie Selwyn. It was, however, a flop and closed after only three days following its premiere in Atlantic City.
Soon after the play closed, Goddard was introduced to Edgar James, president of the Southern Lumber Company, located in Asheville, North Carolina, by Charles Goddard. Aged 17, considerably younger than James, she married him on June 28, 1927 in Rye, New York. It was a short marriage, and Goddard was granted a divorce in Reno, Nevada, in 1929, receiving a divorce settlement of $375,000.
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Goddard first visited Hollywood in 1929, when she appeared as an uncredited extra in two films, the Laurel and Hardy short film Berth Marks (1929), and George Fitzmaurice's drama The Locked Door (1929).
Following her divorce, she briefly visited Europe before returning to Hollywood in late 1930 with her mother. Her second attempt at acting was no more successful than the first, as she landed work only as an extra.
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In 1930, she signed her first film contract with producer Samuel Goldwyn to appear as a Goldwyn Girl in Whoopee! (1930). She also appeared in City Streets (1931) Ladies of the Big House (1931) and The Girl Habit (1931) for Paramount, Palmy Days (1931) for Goldwyn, and The Mouthpiece (1932) for Warners.
Goldwyn and she did not get along, and she began working for Hal Roach Studios, appearing in a string of uncredited supporting roles for the next four years, including Show Business (1932), Young Ironsides (1932), Pack Up Your Troubles (1932) (with Laurel and Hardy), and Girl Grief with Charley Chase.
Goldwyn used Goddard in The Kid from Spain (1932), The Bowery (1933), Roman Scandals (1933), and Kid Millions (1934).
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Studio publicity portrait for Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936), in which Goddard had her first substantial film role.
The year she signed with Goldwyn, Goddard began dating Charlie Chaplin, a relationship that received substantial attention from the press. It marked a turning point in Goddard's career when Chaplin cast her as his leading lady in his next box office hit, Modern Times, in 1936. Her role as "The Gamin", an orphan girl who runs away from the authorities and becomes The Tramp's companion, was her first credited film appearance and garnered her mainly positive reviews, Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times describing her as "the fitting recipient of the great Charlot's championship".
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#Studio publicity portrait for Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936), in which Goddard had her first substantial film role.
Following the success of Modern Times, Chaplin planned other projects with Goddard in mind as a co-star, but he worked slowly, and Goddard worried that the public might forget about her if she did not continue to make regular film appearances. She signed a contract with David O. Selznick and appeared with Janet Gaynor in the comedy The Young in Heart (1938) before Selznick lent her to MGM to appear in two films.
The first of these, Dramatic School (1938), co-starred Luise Rainer, but the film received mediocre reviews and failed to attract an audience.
Her next film, The Women (1939), was a success. With an all-female cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell, the film's supporting role of Miriam Aarons was played by Goddard. Pauline Kael later wrote of Goddard, "she is a stand-out. fun."
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Selznick was pleased with Goddard's performances, particularly her work in The Young in Heart, and considered her for the role of Scarlett O'Hara. Initial screen tests convinced Selznick and director George Cukor that Goddard would require coaching to be effective in the role, but that she showed promise, and she was the first actress given a Technicolor screen test.
Russell Birdwell, the head of Selznick's publicity department, had strong misgivings about Goddard. He warned Selznick of the "tremendous avalanche of criticism that will befall us and the picture should Paulette be given this part...I have never known a woman, intent on a career dependent upon her popularity with the masses, to hold and live such an insane and absurd attitude towards the press and her fellow man as does Paulette Goddard...Briefly, I think she is dynamite that will explode in our very faces if she is given the part."
Selznick remained interested in Goddard for the role of Scarlett. After he was introduced to Vivien Leigh, he wrote to his wife that Leigh was a "dark horse" and that his choice had "narrowed down to Paulette, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivien Leigh".
After a series of tests with Leigh that pleased both Selznick and Cukor, Selznick cancelled the further tests that had been scheduled for Goddard, and the part was given to Leigh. It has been suggested that Goddard lost the part because Selznick feared that questions surrounding her marital status with Charlie Chaplin would result in scandal. However, Selznick was aware that Leigh and Laurence Olivier lived together, as their respective spouses had refused to divorce them, and in addition to offering Leigh a contract, he engaged Olivier as the leading man in his next production Rebecca (1940). Chaplin's biographer Joyce Milton wrote that Selznick was worried about legal issues by signing her to a contract that might conflict with her pre-existing contracts with the Chaplin studio.
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Goddard signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and her next film, The Cat and the Canary (1939) with Bob Hope, was a turning point in the careers of both actors. They promptly were re-teamed in The Ghost Breakers (1940).
Goddard starred with Chaplin again in his 1940 film The Great Dictator. The couple split amicably soon afterward, and Goddard allegedly obtained a divorce in Mexico in 1942, with Chaplin agreeing to a generous settlement.
At Paramount, Goddard was used by Cecil B. De Mille in the action epic North West Mounted Police (1940), playing the second female lead.
She was Fred Astaire's leading lady in Second Chorus (1940), where she met actor Burgess Meredith, her third husband,.
Goddard made Pot o' Gold (1941), a comedy with James Stewart, then supported Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn (1941), from a script by Wilder and Brackett, directed by Mitchell Leisen.
Goddard was teamed with Hope for a third time in Nothing But the Truth (1942), then made The Lady Has Plans (1942), a comedy with Ray Milland.
She did Reap the Wild Wind (1942), playing the lead, a Scarlett O'Hara type character. Co-starring Milland and John Wayne, it was a huge hit.
Goddard did The Forest Rangers (1942). One of her better-remembered film appearances was in the variety musical Star Spangled Rhythm (1943), in which she sang "A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang" with Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake. She and Milland did The Crystal Ball (1943).
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Goddard received one Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the 1943 film So Proudly We Hail!.
Goddard was teamed with MacMurray in Standing Room Only (1944) and Sonny Tufts in I Love a Soldier (1944). She was one of many Paramount stars in Duffy's Tavern (1945).
Goddard's most successful film was Kitty (1945), in which she played the title role.
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At Paramount she did Suddenly It's Spring (1947) and De Mille's Unconquered (1947). During the Hollywood Blacklist, when she and blacklisted husband Meredith were mobbed by a baying crowd screaming "Communists!" on their way to a premiere, Goddard is said to have turned to her husband and said, "Shall I roll down the window and hit them with my diamonds, Bugsy?"
In 1947, she made An Ideal Husband in Britain for Alexander Korda, and was accompanied on a publicity trip to Brussels by Clarissa Spencer-Churchill, niece of Sir Winston Churchill and future wife of future Prime Minister Anthony Eden.
Goddard and her husband were among several stars in On Our Merry Way (1948).
At Paramount, she did two movies with MacDonald Carey: Hazard (1948) and Bride of Vengeance (1949). She then left the studio.
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13. Freelance :
Paulette Goddard in a publicity shot for A Stranger Came Home (1954)
In 1949, she formed Monterey Pictures with John Steinbeck. Goddard starred in Anna Lucasta (1949), then went to Mexico for The Torch (1950). In England, she was in Babes in Bagdad (1952), then she went to Hollywood for Vice Squad (1953), Sins of Jezebel (1953), Paris Model (1953), and Charge of the Lancers (1954). Her last starring role was in the English production A Stranger Came Home (known as The Unholy Four in the United States).
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14. Television :
Goddard began appearing in summer stock and on television, guest starring on episodes of Sherlock Holmes, an adaptation of The Women, this time playing the role of Sylvia Fowler The Errol Flynn Theatre, The Joseph Cotten Show, and The Ford Television Theatre.
She was in an episode of Adventures in Paradise and a TV version of The Phantom.
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In 1964, she attempted a comeback in films with a supporting role in the Italian film Time of Indifference, which was her last feature film.
After Remarque's death in 1970, she made one last attempt at acting, when she accepted a small role in an episode of The Snoop Sisters (1972) for television.
Upon Remarque's death, Goddard inherited much of his money and several important properties across Europe, including a wealth of contemporary art, which augmented her own long-standing collection. During this period, her talent at accumulating wealth became a byword among the old Hollywood élite. During the 1980s, she became a fairly well known (and highly visible) socialite in New York City, appearing covered with jewels at many high-profile cultural functions with several well-known men, including Andy Warhol, with whom she sustained a friendship for many years until his death in 1987.
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Goddard underwent invasive treatment for breast cancer in 1975, successfully by all accounts. On April 23, 1990, aged 79,, she died at her home in Switzerland from heart failure while under respiratory support due to emphysema, She is buried in Ronco Village Cemetery, next to Remarque and her mother.
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Goddard married the much older lumber tycoon Edgar James on June 28, 1927, when she was 17 years old; the couple moved to North Carolina. They separated two years later and divorced in 1932.
In 1932, Goddard began a relationship with Charlie Chaplin. She later moved into his home in Beverly Hills. They were reportedly married in secret in Canton, China, in June 1936. Years later Chaplin privately told relatives that they were married only in common law. Aside from referring to Goddard as "my wife" at the October 1940 premiere of The Great Dictator, neither Goddard nor Chaplin publicly commented on their marital status. On June 4, 1942, Goddard was granted a Mexican divorce from Chaplin.
In May 1944, she married Burgess Meredith at David O. Selznick's home in Beverly Hills. They divorced in June 1949.
In 1958, Goddard married author Erich Maria Remarque. They remained married until Remarque's death in 1970.
Goddard had no children. In October 1944, she suffered the miscarriage of a son with Burgess Meredith.
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Arguably, Goddard's foremost legacies remain her two feature films with Charles Chaplin, Modern Times and The Great Dictator, and a large donation to a prominent American educational institution. Goddard, whose own formal education did not go beyond high school, bequeathed US$20 million to New York University (NYU) in New York City.
This contribution was also in recognition of her friendship with the Indiana-born politician and former NYU President John Brademas. Goddard Hall, a residence hall for NYU freshmen in Greenwich Village, is named in her honor. Efforts to raise CHF 6.2M ($7M) to purchase and save Remarque and Goddard's villa from demolition are underway, proposing to transform the Casa Monte Tabor into a museum and home to an artist-in-residence program, focused on creativity, freedom, and peace.
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Goddard was portrayed by Gwen Humble in the made-for-TV movie Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), by Diane Lane in the 1992 film Chaplin, and by actress Natalie Wilder in the 2011 play Puma, written by Julie Gilbert, who also wrote Opposite Attraction: The Lives of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard.
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Film
Year Title Role
1929 Berth Marks Train passenger Short, Uncredited
1929 The Locked Door Girl on rum boat Uncredited
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1930 Whoopee! Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1931 City Streets Dance extra Uncredited
1931 The Girl Habit Lingerie salesgirl
1931 Palmy Days Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1931 Ladies of the Big House Inmate in midst of crowd Uncredited
1932 The Mouthpiece Blonde at party Uncredited
1932 Show Business Blonde train passenger Short, Uncredited
1932 Young Ironsides Herself, Miss Hollywood Short, Uncredited
1932 Pack Up Your Troubles Bridesmaid Uncredited
1932 Girl Grief Student Short, Uncredited
1932 The Kid from Spain Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1933 Hollywood on Parade No. B-1 Herself Short
1933 The Bowery Blonde who announces Brodie's jump Uncredited
1933 Hollywood on Parade No. B-5 Herself Short
1933 Roman Scandals Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1934 Kid Millions Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1936 Modern Times Ellen Peterson – A Gamine
1936 The Bohemian Girl Gypsy vagabond Uncredited
1938 The Young in Heart Leslie Saunders
1938 Dramatic School Nana
1939 The Women Miriam Aarons
1939 The Cat and the Canary Joyce Norman
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1940 The Ghost Breakers Mary Carter
1940 The Great Dictator Hannah
1940 Screen Snapshots: Sports in Hollywood Herself Short
1940 North West Mounted Police Louvette Corbeau Alternative titles: Northwest Mounted Police The Scarlet Riders
1940 Second Chorus Ellen Miller
1941 Pot o' Gold Molly McCorkle Alternative titles: The Golden Hour Jimmy Steps Out
1941 Hold Back the Dawn Anita Dixon
1941 Nothing But the Truth Gwen Saunders
1942 The Lady Has Plans Sidney Royce
1942 Reap the Wild Wind Loxi Claiborne Alternative title: Cecil B. DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind
1942 The Forest Rangers Celia Huston Stuart
1942 Star Spangled Rhythm Herself
1943 The Crystal Ball Toni Gerard
1943 So Proudly We Hail! Lt. Joan O'Doul Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1944 Standing Room Only Jane Rogers / Suzanne
1944 I Love a Soldier Evelyn Connors
1945 Duffy's Tavern Herself
1945 Kitty Kitty
1946 The Diary of a Chambermaid Célestine Producer, Uncredited
1947 Suddenly, It's Spring Mary Morely
1947 Variety Girl Herself
1947 Unconquered Abigail "Abby" Martha Hale
1947 An Ideal Husband Mrs. Laura Cheveley Alternative title: Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband
1948 On Our Merry Way Martha Pease
1948 Screen Snapshots: Smiles and Styles Herself Short
1948 Hazard Ellen Crane
1949 Bride of Vengeance Lucretia Borgia
1949 Anna Lucasta Anna Lucasta
1949 A Yank Comes Back Herself Short, Uncredited
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1950 The Torch María Dolores Penafiel Associate producer Alternative title: Bandit General
1952 Babes in Bagdad Kyra
1953 Vice Squad Mona Ross Alternative title: The Girl in Room 17
1953 Sins of Jezebel Jezebel
1953 Paris Model Betty Barnes Alternative title: Nude at Midnight
1954 Charge of the Lancers Tanya
1954 A Stranger Came Home Angie Alternative title: The Unholy Four
1964 Time of Indifference Mariagrazia Alternative titles: Les Deux Rivales Gli Indifferenti
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Year Title Role Notes
1951 Four Star Revue Guest actress Episode #1.41
1952 The Ed Sullivan Show Herself 2 episodes
1953 Ford Theatre Nancy Whiting Episode: "The Doctor's Downfall"
1954 Sherlock Holmes Lady Beryl Episode: "The Case of Lady Beryl"
1955 Producers' Showcase Sylvia Fowler Episode: "The Women"
1957 The Errol Flynn Theatre Rachel Episode: "Mademoiselle Fifi"
1957 The Joseph Cotten Show: On Trial Dolly Episode: "The Ghost of Devil's Island"
1957 Ford Theatre Holly March Episode: "Singapore"
1959 Adventures in Paradise Mme. Victorine Reynard Episode: "The Lady from South Chicago"
1959 What's My Line? Guest panelist November 29, 1959 episode
1961 The Phantom Mrs. Harris TV movie
1972 The Snoop Sisters Norma Treet TV movie
Alternative title: Female Instinct (last acting role and last live appearance on celluloid)
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Year Title Role Notes
1939 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Front Page Woman"
1939 The Campbell Playhouse Episode: "Algiers"
1940 The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre Episode: "The Firebrand"
1941 The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre Episode: "Destry Rides Again"
1941 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Hold Back the Dawn"
1941 Cavalcade of America Episode: "The Gorgeous Hussy"
1941 Screen Guild Players Frenchy Episode: "Destry Rides Again"
1942 Philip Morris Playhouse Episode: "They All Kissed the Bride"
1942 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "Parent by Proxy"
1942 The Screen Guild Theater The night club queen Episode: "Ball of Fire"
1942 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "Torrid Zone"
1942 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "North West Mounted Police"
1942 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "Ball of Fire"
1943 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Reap the Wild Wind"
1943 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "So Proudly We Hail!"
1944 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: 'I Love You Again"
1944 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Standing Room Only"
1944 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "You Belong to Me"
1945 Harold Lloyd Comedy Theatre Episode: "Standing Room Only"
1945 Theatre Guild on the Air Episode: "At Mrs. Beam's"
1947 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Kitty"
1947 Hollywood Players Episode: "5th Ave. Girl"
1948 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "Suddenly It's Spring"
1952 Philip Morris Playhouse Episode: "The Romantic Years"
1952 Broadway Playhouse Standing Room
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Among Chaplin’s leading ladies, Paulette Goddard stands out for a number of reasons. She was the female lead in his last silent film (Modern Times 1936) and in his first talkie (The Great Dictator 1940). She enjoyed a success beyond and independent of Chaplin, right up in to the 1970s, with the TV film, The Snoop Sisters (1972) - she made forty-seven films in all. She was something of a match for Chaplin - strong willed, independent, a lover of life - her very personality an influence itself on the characters Charlie wrote for her in her two Chaplin films.
#Paulette Goddard, Modern Times publicity photo
She became his third wife, but unlike the previous two, was strong enough to survive the experience and part company without bitterness or sensationalism. It is difficult not to have an admiration of this free spirit of Hollywood, a town that she may not have got the better of, but that she certainly used as a playground to some extent.
She was born on June 3rd in 1911 as Marion Levy in Whitestone, New York - though her mother called her Pauline from a young age. This soon became Paulette, and the name Goddard came from her wealthy uncle, Charlie Goddard, who was something of an influence on her, mainly thanks to the lavish parties he threw at which a number of the stars of the day would turn up - inspiring the young Paulette to think of a future as a star herself.
#Paulette Goddard in Modern Times, 1936
It wasn’t long before she was modeling Hattie Carnegie fashions, and just three years later saw her on Broadway as a Ziegfeld girl in No Foolin’ (1926) and then Rio Rita, jobs probably secured thanks to uncle Charlie’s acquaintance with Florenz Ziegfeld. She also had a small part in Archie Selwyn’s The Conquering Male. The life of a pretty showgirl would never be short of the attentions of the social elite of New York, and in 1927 she met and married millionaire playboy Edgar James, president of the Southern States Lumber Company of Asheville. Their life together took them to North Carolina where the business was based, but it was not a place, or lifestyle, that Paulette found comfortable. She divorced James, and along with a generous alimony settlement, she headed for Hollywood.
Paulette’s first film saw her with a bit part in the Laurel and Hardy short Berth Marks (1929) whilst other films included The Girl Habit (1931), Kid from Spain, Young Ironsides and another Laurel and Hardy picture, Pack Up Your Troubles (all 1932). She was still signed with Hal Roach when she finally met Chaplin in 1932.
#Paulette Goddard, Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin at Pickford's wedding to Buddy Rogers, 1937
Chaplin had been invited for a weekend cruise aboard Joe Schenck’s yacht - Schenck was the then president and chairman of United Artists, the company Chaplin had helped to found along with Doug Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W Griffith. Paulette, another guest, was considering investing $50,000 of her alimony payment in a dubious movie company and asked Chaplin’s advice. 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. Obviously taking more than a shine to this pretty and charismatic actress, he bought out her Roach contract and signed her up for himself.
#Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard, Catalina Island, 1934
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#Paulette Goddard and Chaplin in Modern Times, 1936
Modern Times saw a brilliant team up for Paulette and Charlie - he as the Tramp, and her as the Gamine, surviving by her wit and courage on the waterfront, stealing bananas and handing them out to her fellow urchins. You can see Paulette as many things in this film - a female version of Charlie himself, a loner at odds with the world, making her own rules dictated by circumstance, or, on the same track, the Kid grown up - a female version of course - though this leads again to the Charlie-girl. Perhaps the main difference between them in the film is the way in which their characters defy authority - Charlie with an air of innocence, whilst Paulette certainly does so with intent and purpose. Paulette was pretty much an equal in Modern Times and the ending, the two outsiders against The World silhouetted as they walk off bravely in to their future (and a sunset) gave a new twist to the quintessential Chaplin ending - this time, for the last time, not alone.
#Modern Times ending, 1936
When the film had been completed and premiered (at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on February 12th 1936) Chaplin and Paulette went for a trip round the Pacific Rim - taking in Hawaii and Singapore along the way. The major event of this trip was that they were at last married, though neither of them would confirm this to reporters upon their return to California. But it was not all plain sailing. There is little doubt that Charlie and Paulette were very good for each other for a time - and that time was somewhat longer and happier than Charlie’s involvement with either of his two previous wives. While Paulette was said to have had a brief fling with George Gershwin during her time with Chaplin, in the end she may have just been too ambitious and independent to stay at Charlie’s careful, creative pace, and they eventually began to drift apart.
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#Goddard and Chaplin on the set of The Great Dictator
Generally, they remained on good terms, however, and by the time Chaplin was ready to make his next film (The Great Dictator) Paulette was to be his leading lady once again. There were a few other films before this one for Paulette. They included yet another Laurel and Hardy feature, The Bohemian Girl (1936), two highly thought of films in 1939 - The Women (with Joan Crawford) and the Cat and the Canary (with Bob Hope), and also Second Chorus in 1940 with Fred Astaire. In 1938 she was a serious contender for the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (it eventually went to Vivien Leigh). By 1940 however, she was well on her to becoming a major Hollywood star and had a ten year contract with Paramount Studios.
For Chaplin’s first talkie she was cast much more as second fiddle to Charlie’s excellent performances as both the Jewish barber and the mad dictator himself, Adenoid Hynkel, though her scenes in which she does battle with the storm troopers in the streets of the ghetto are one of the highlights of the film. Again she plays her character feisty and determined, though less of a motivator than the gamine, and once she leaves the country with her family she is pretty much ignored until the ending and Charlie’s words of ‘wherever you are, look up Hannah!’.
#Paulette Goddard on the set of The Great Dictator
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It has been said that Paulette quarreled with director Cecil B. DeMille on the set of Unconquered which in turn led to a lower volume in her career and a relegation to the B-Movies of the industry for most of the 50’s - including Babes in Bagdad, Paris Model and Vice Squad. Her last film for the silver screen was in 1964 - Time of Indifference (or Gli Indifferenti).
Her personal life was no less lively than her screen career. In 1944 she married actor Burgess Meredith. They divorced in 1950 and eight years later she married the German novelist Erich Maria Remarque, author of the classic All Quiet on the Western Front. Another novelist and a close friend of Paulette’s, Anita Loos, claimed that Paulette was the inspiration for her heroine in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Loos would later say “Gentlemen prefer blondes, until they get a load of Paulette!”.
Sydney (Charlie’s son) would stay in touch with his one-time step mother, as this story from Jerry Epstein’s Remembering Charlie testifies;
‘Sydney would always invite Paulette Goddard [to his performances at the Circle Theatre]… … Whenever she came, her infectious laugh set off the audience, and made many of our shows a hit. For the Rain premiere, she arrived every inch the movie queen, with a long evening gown and tiara, and sat on the front row. She found Oona and Charlie sitting on one side, and Charlie’s second wife [and Sydney’s mother], Lita Grey, on the other. Never before had three of Charlie’s wives been in one room together. Charlie took it all in his stride.’
Like Chaplin, Paulette’s life ended in Switzerland. She and Remarque had moved there and on one occasion they even chanced upon the Chaplins (Charlie and Oona) in a restaurant and joined each other for dinner. Remarque died in 1970, but Paulette survived him by twenty years, dying on the 23rd of April 1990 from heart failure.
THE END.
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13/02/2020.
Paulette Goddard - Actress, film producer, dancer, model
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Profile :
#Studio publicity portrait, 1947
Born Marion Levy, June 3, 1910, Whitestone Landing, Queens, New York, U.S.
Died April 23, 1990 (aged 79), Ronco sopra Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland
Resting place Ronco Village Cemetery, Ticino, Switzerland
Nationality American
Occupation Actress, film producer, dancer, model
Years active 1926–1972
Spouse(s)
1.Edgar James
(m. 1927; div. 1932)
2.Charlie Chaplin
(m. 1936; div. 1942)
3.Burgess Meredith
(m. 1944; div. 1949)
4.Erich Maria Remarque
(m. 1958; died 1970)
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2. Introduction :
Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 – April 23, 1990) was an American actress, a child fashion model and a performer in several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl; she became a major star of Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. Her most notable films were her first major role, as Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Modern Times, and Chaplin's subsequent film The Great Dictator. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her husbands included Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.
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3. Early life :
Goddard was the daughter of Joseph Russell Levy (1881–1954), the son of a prosperous Jewish cigar manufacturer from Salt Lake City, and Alta Mae Goddard (1887–1983), who was of Episcopalian English heritage. They married in 1908 and separated while their daughter was very young, although the divorce did not become final until 1926. According to Goddard, her father left them, but according to J. R. Levy, Alta absconded with the child. Goddard was raised by her mother, and did not meet her father again until the late 1930s, after she had become famous.
In a 1938 interview published in Collier's, Goddard claimed Levy was not her biological father. In response, Levy filed a suit against his daughter, claiming that the interview had ruined his reputation and cost him his job, and demanded financial support from her. In a December 17, 1945 article written by Oliver Jensen in Life, Goddard admitted to having lost the case and being forced to pay her father $35 a week.
To avoid a custody battle, she and her mother moved often during her childhood, even relocating to Canada at one point. Goddard began modeling at an early age to support her mother and herself, working for Saks Fifth Avenue, Hattie Carnegie, and others. An important figure in her childhood was her great uncle, Charles Goddard, the owner of the American Druggists Syndicate. He played a central role in Goddard's career, introducing her to Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld.
In 1926, she made her stage debut as a dancer in Ziegfeld's summer revue, No Foolin', which was also the first time that she used the stage name Paulette Goddard. Ziegfeld hired her for another musical, Rio Rita, which opened in February 1927, but she left the show after only three weeks to appear in the play The Unconquerable Male, produced by Archie Selwyn. It was, however, a flop and closed after only three days following its premiere in Atlantic City.
Soon after the play closed, Goddard was introduced to Edgar James, president of the Southern Lumber Company, located in Asheville, North Carolina, by Charles Goddard. Aged 17, considerably younger than James, she married him on June 28, 1927 in Rye, New York. It was a short marriage, and Goddard was granted a divorce in Reno, Nevada, in 1929, receiving a divorce settlement of $375,000.
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4. Film career :
5. Early films :
Goddard first visited Hollywood in 1929, when she appeared as an uncredited extra in two films, the Laurel and Hardy short film Berth Marks (1929), and George Fitzmaurice's drama The Locked Door (1929).
Following her divorce, she briefly visited Europe before returning to Hollywood in late 1930 with her mother. Her second attempt at acting was no more successful than the first, as she landed work only as an extra.
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6. Sam Goldwyn :
In 1930, she signed her first film contract with producer Samuel Goldwyn to appear as a Goldwyn Girl in Whoopee! (1930). She also appeared in City Streets (1931) Ladies of the Big House (1931) and The Girl Habit (1931) for Paramount, Palmy Days (1931) for Goldwyn, and The Mouthpiece (1932) for Warners.
Goldwyn and she did not get along, and she began working for Hal Roach Studios, appearing in a string of uncredited supporting roles for the next four years, including Show Business (1932), Young Ironsides (1932), Pack Up Your Troubles (1932) (with Laurel and Hardy), and Girl Grief with Charley Chase.
Goldwyn used Goddard in The Kid from Spain (1932), The Bowery (1933), Roman Scandals (1933), and Kid Millions (1934).
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7. Charlie Chaplin :
Studio publicity portrait for Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936), in which Goddard had her first substantial film role.
The year she signed with Goldwyn, Goddard began dating Charlie Chaplin, a relationship that received substantial attention from the press. It marked a turning point in Goddard's career when Chaplin cast her as his leading lady in his next box office hit, Modern Times, in 1936. Her role as "The Gamin", an orphan girl who runs away from the authorities and becomes The Tramp's companion, was her first credited film appearance and garnered her mainly positive reviews, Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times describing her as "the fitting recipient of the great Charlot's championship".
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8. David O. Selznick & MGM :
#Studio publicity portrait for Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936), in which Goddard had her first substantial film role.
Following the success of Modern Times, Chaplin planned other projects with Goddard in mind as a co-star, but he worked slowly, and Goddard worried that the public might forget about her if she did not continue to make regular film appearances. She signed a contract with David O. Selznick and appeared with Janet Gaynor in the comedy The Young in Heart (1938) before Selznick lent her to MGM to appear in two films.
The first of these, Dramatic School (1938), co-starred Luise Rainer, but the film received mediocre reviews and failed to attract an audience.
Her next film, The Women (1939), was a success. With an all-female cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell, the film's supporting role of Miriam Aarons was played by Goddard. Pauline Kael later wrote of Goddard, "she is a stand-out. fun."
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9. Scarlett O'Hara :
Selznick was pleased with Goddard's performances, particularly her work in The Young in Heart, and considered her for the role of Scarlett O'Hara. Initial screen tests convinced Selznick and director George Cukor that Goddard would require coaching to be effective in the role, but that she showed promise, and she was the first actress given a Technicolor screen test.
Russell Birdwell, the head of Selznick's publicity department, had strong misgivings about Goddard. He warned Selznick of the "tremendous avalanche of criticism that will befall us and the picture should Paulette be given this part...I have never known a woman, intent on a career dependent upon her popularity with the masses, to hold and live such an insane and absurd attitude towards the press and her fellow man as does Paulette Goddard...Briefly, I think she is dynamite that will explode in our very faces if she is given the part."
Selznick remained interested in Goddard for the role of Scarlett. After he was introduced to Vivien Leigh, he wrote to his wife that Leigh was a "dark horse" and that his choice had "narrowed down to Paulette, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivien Leigh".
After a series of tests with Leigh that pleased both Selznick and Cukor, Selznick cancelled the further tests that had been scheduled for Goddard, and the part was given to Leigh. It has been suggested that Goddard lost the part because Selznick feared that questions surrounding her marital status with Charlie Chaplin would result in scandal. However, Selznick was aware that Leigh and Laurence Olivier lived together, as their respective spouses had refused to divorce them, and in addition to offering Leigh a contract, he engaged Olivier as the leading man in his next production Rebecca (1940). Chaplin's biographer Joyce Milton wrote that Selznick was worried about legal issues by signing her to a contract that might conflict with her pre-existing contracts with the Chaplin studio.
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10. Paramount :
Goddard signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and her next film, The Cat and the Canary (1939) with Bob Hope, was a turning point in the careers of both actors. They promptly were re-teamed in The Ghost Breakers (1940).
Goddard starred with Chaplin again in his 1940 film The Great Dictator. The couple split amicably soon afterward, and Goddard allegedly obtained a divorce in Mexico in 1942, with Chaplin agreeing to a generous settlement.
At Paramount, Goddard was used by Cecil B. De Mille in the action epic North West Mounted Police (1940), playing the second female lead.
She was Fred Astaire's leading lady in Second Chorus (1940), where she met actor Burgess Meredith, her third husband,.
Goddard made Pot o' Gold (1941), a comedy with James Stewart, then supported Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn (1941), from a script by Wilder and Brackett, directed by Mitchell Leisen.
Goddard was teamed with Hope for a third time in Nothing But the Truth (1942), then made The Lady Has Plans (1942), a comedy with Ray Milland.
She did Reap the Wild Wind (1942), playing the lead, a Scarlett O'Hara type character. Co-starring Milland and John Wayne, it was a huge hit.
Goddard did The Forest Rangers (1942). One of her better-remembered film appearances was in the variety musical Star Spangled Rhythm (1943), in which she sang "A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang" with Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake. She and Milland did The Crystal Ball (1943).
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11. Oscar nomination :
Goddard received one Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the 1943 film So Proudly We Hail!.
Goddard was teamed with MacMurray in Standing Room Only (1944) and Sonny Tufts in I Love a Soldier (1944). She was one of many Paramount stars in Duffy's Tavern (1945).
Goddard's most successful film was Kitty (1945), in which she played the title role.
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12. Producer :
In The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), Goddard starred with Burgess Meredith, to whom she was married at the time, under the direction of Jean Renoir. It was made for United Artists.
At Paramount she did Suddenly It's Spring (1947) and De Mille's Unconquered (1947). During the Hollywood Blacklist, when she and blacklisted husband Meredith were mobbed by a baying crowd screaming "Communists!" on their way to a premiere, Goddard is said to have turned to her husband and said, "Shall I roll down the window and hit them with my diamonds, Bugsy?"In 1947, she made An Ideal Husband in Britain for Alexander Korda, and was accompanied on a publicity trip to Brussels by Clarissa Spencer-Churchill, niece of Sir Winston Churchill and future wife of future Prime Minister Anthony Eden.
Goddard and her husband were among several stars in On Our Merry Way (1948).
At Paramount, she did two movies with MacDonald Carey: Hazard (1948) and Bride of Vengeance (1949). She then left the studio.
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13. Freelance :
Paulette Goddard in a publicity shot for A Stranger Came Home (1954)
In 1949, she formed Monterey Pictures with John Steinbeck. Goddard starred in Anna Lucasta (1949), then went to Mexico for The Torch (1950). In England, she was in Babes in Bagdad (1952), then she went to Hollywood for Vice Squad (1953), Sins of Jezebel (1953), Paris Model (1953), and Charge of the Lancers (1954). Her last starring role was in the English production A Stranger Came Home (known as The Unholy Four in the United States).
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14. Television :
Goddard began appearing in summer stock and on television, guest starring on episodes of Sherlock Holmes, an adaptation of The Women, this time playing the role of Sylvia Fowler The Errol Flynn Theatre, The Joseph Cotten Show, and The Ford Television Theatre.
She was in an episode of Adventures in Paradise and a TV version of The Phantom.
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15. Later life :
After her marriage to Erich Maria Remarque, Goddard largely retired from acting and moved to Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland.In 1964, she attempted a comeback in films with a supporting role in the Italian film Time of Indifference, which was her last feature film.
After Remarque's death in 1970, she made one last attempt at acting, when she accepted a small role in an episode of The Snoop Sisters (1972) for television.
Upon Remarque's death, Goddard inherited much of his money and several important properties across Europe, including a wealth of contemporary art, which augmented her own long-standing collection. During this period, her talent at accumulating wealth became a byword among the old Hollywood élite. During the 1980s, she became a fairly well known (and highly visible) socialite in New York City, appearing covered with jewels at many high-profile cultural functions with several well-known men, including Andy Warhol, with whom she sustained a friendship for many years until his death in 1987.
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16. Death :
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17. Personal life :
Goddard married the much older lumber tycoon Edgar James on June 28, 1927, when she was 17 years old; the couple moved to North Carolina. They separated two years later and divorced in 1932.
In 1932, Goddard began a relationship with Charlie Chaplin. She later moved into his home in Beverly Hills. They were reportedly married in secret in Canton, China, in June 1936. Years later Chaplin privately told relatives that they were married only in common law. Aside from referring to Goddard as "my wife" at the October 1940 premiere of The Great Dictator, neither Goddard nor Chaplin publicly commented on their marital status. On June 4, 1942, Goddard was granted a Mexican divorce from Chaplin.
In May 1944, she married Burgess Meredith at David O. Selznick's home in Beverly Hills. They divorced in June 1949.
In 1958, Goddard married author Erich Maria Remarque. They remained married until Remarque's death in 1970.
Goddard had no children. In October 1944, she suffered the miscarriage of a son with Burgess Meredith.
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18. Legacy :
Arguably, Goddard's foremost legacies remain her two feature films with Charles Chaplin, Modern Times and The Great Dictator, and a large donation to a prominent American educational institution. Goddard, whose own formal education did not go beyond high school, bequeathed US$20 million to New York University (NYU) in New York City.
This contribution was also in recognition of her friendship with the Indiana-born politician and former NYU President John Brademas. Goddard Hall, a residence hall for NYU freshmen in Greenwich Village, is named in her honor. Efforts to raise CHF 6.2M ($7M) to purchase and save Remarque and Goddard's villa from demolition are underway, proposing to transform the Casa Monte Tabor into a museum and home to an artist-in-residence program, focused on creativity, freedom, and peace.
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19. Fictional portrayals :
Goddard was portrayed by Gwen Humble in the made-for-TV movie Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), by Diane Lane in the 1992 film Chaplin, and by actress Natalie Wilder in the 2011 play Puma, written by Julie Gilbert, who also wrote Opposite Attraction: The Lives of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard.
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20. Filmography :
Film
Year Title Role
1929 Berth Marks Train passenger Short, Uncredited
1929 The Locked Door Girl on rum boat Uncredited
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1930 Whoopee! Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1931 City Streets Dance extra Uncredited
1931 The Girl Habit Lingerie salesgirl
1931 Palmy Days Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1931 Ladies of the Big House Inmate in midst of crowd Uncredited
1932 The Mouthpiece Blonde at party Uncredited
1932 Show Business Blonde train passenger Short, Uncredited
1932 Young Ironsides Herself, Miss Hollywood Short, Uncredited
1932 Pack Up Your Troubles Bridesmaid Uncredited
1932 Girl Grief Student Short, Uncredited
1932 The Kid from Spain Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1933 Hollywood on Parade No. B-1 Herself Short
1933 The Bowery Blonde who announces Brodie's jump Uncredited
1933 Hollywood on Parade No. B-5 Herself Short
1933 Roman Scandals Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1934 Kid Millions Goldwyn Girl Uncredited
1936 Modern Times Ellen Peterson – A Gamine
1936 The Bohemian Girl Gypsy vagabond Uncredited
1938 The Young in Heart Leslie Saunders
1938 Dramatic School Nana
1939 The Women Miriam Aarons
1939 The Cat and the Canary Joyce Norman
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1940 The Great Dictator Hannah
1940 Screen Snapshots: Sports in Hollywood Herself Short
1940 North West Mounted Police Louvette Corbeau Alternative titles: Northwest Mounted Police The Scarlet Riders
1940 Second Chorus Ellen Miller
1941 Pot o' Gold Molly McCorkle Alternative titles: The Golden Hour Jimmy Steps Out
1941 Hold Back the Dawn Anita Dixon
1941 Nothing But the Truth Gwen Saunders
1942 The Lady Has Plans Sidney Royce
1942 Reap the Wild Wind Loxi Claiborne Alternative title: Cecil B. DeMille's Reap the Wild Wind
1942 The Forest Rangers Celia Huston Stuart
1942 Star Spangled Rhythm Herself
1943 The Crystal Ball Toni Gerard
1943 So Proudly We Hail! Lt. Joan O'Doul Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1944 Standing Room Only Jane Rogers / Suzanne
1944 I Love a Soldier Evelyn Connors
1945 Duffy's Tavern Herself
1945 Kitty Kitty
1946 The Diary of a Chambermaid Célestine Producer, Uncredited
1947 Suddenly, It's Spring Mary Morely
1947 Variety Girl Herself
1947 Unconquered Abigail "Abby" Martha Hale
1947 An Ideal Husband Mrs. Laura Cheveley Alternative title: Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband
1948 On Our Merry Way Martha Pease
1948 Screen Snapshots: Smiles and Styles Herself Short
1948 Hazard Ellen Crane
1949 Bride of Vengeance Lucretia Borgia
1949 Anna Lucasta Anna Lucasta
1949 A Yank Comes Back Herself Short, Uncredited
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1950 The Torch María Dolores Penafiel Associate producer Alternative title: Bandit General
1952 Babes in Bagdad Kyra
1953 Vice Squad Mona Ross Alternative title: The Girl in Room 17
1953 Sins of Jezebel Jezebel
1953 Paris Model Betty Barnes Alternative title: Nude at Midnight
1954 Charge of the Lancers Tanya
1954 A Stranger Came Home Angie Alternative title: The Unholy Four
1964 Time of Indifference Mariagrazia Alternative titles: Les Deux Rivales Gli Indifferenti
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21. Television :
Year Title Role Notes
1951 Four Star Revue Guest actress Episode #1.41
1952 The Ed Sullivan Show Herself 2 episodes
1953 Ford Theatre Nancy Whiting Episode: "The Doctor's Downfall"
1954 Sherlock Holmes Lady Beryl Episode: "The Case of Lady Beryl"
1955 Producers' Showcase Sylvia Fowler Episode: "The Women"
1957 The Errol Flynn Theatre Rachel Episode: "Mademoiselle Fifi"
1957 The Joseph Cotten Show: On Trial Dolly Episode: "The Ghost of Devil's Island"
1957 Ford Theatre Holly March Episode: "Singapore"
1959 Adventures in Paradise Mme. Victorine Reynard Episode: "The Lady from South Chicago"
1959 What's My Line? Guest panelist November 29, 1959 episode
1961 The Phantom Mrs. Harris TV movie
1972 The Snoop Sisters Norma Treet TV movie
Alternative title: Female Instinct (last acting role and last live appearance on celluloid)
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22. Radio :
Year Title Role Notes
1939 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Front Page Woman"
1939 The Campbell Playhouse Episode: "Algiers"
1940 The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre Episode: "The Firebrand"
1941 The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre Episode: "Destry Rides Again"
1941 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Hold Back the Dawn"
1941 Cavalcade of America Episode: "The Gorgeous Hussy"
1941 Screen Guild Players Frenchy Episode: "Destry Rides Again"
1942 Philip Morris Playhouse Episode: "They All Kissed the Bride"
1942 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "Parent by Proxy"
1942 The Screen Guild Theater The night club queen Episode: "Ball of Fire"
1942 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "Torrid Zone"
1942 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "North West Mounted Police"
1942 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "Ball of Fire"
1943 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Reap the Wild Wind"
1943 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "So Proudly We Hail!"
1944 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: 'I Love You Again"
1944 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Standing Room Only"
1944 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "You Belong to Me"
1945 Harold Lloyd Comedy Theatre Episode: "Standing Room Only"
1945 Theatre Guild on the Air Episode: "At Mrs. Beam's"
1947 Lux Radio Theatre Episode: "Kitty"
1947 Hollywood Players Episode: "5th Ave. Girl"
1948 The Screen Guild Theater Episode: "Suddenly It's Spring"
1952 Philip Morris Playhouse Episode: "The Romantic Years"
1952 Broadway Playhouse Standing Room
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23. Tribute : Paulette Goddard - Brilliant Artist and human being
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Among Chaplin’s leading ladies, Paulette Goddard stands out for a number of reasons. She was the female lead in his last silent film (Modern Times 1936) and in his first talkie (The Great Dictator 1940). She enjoyed a success beyond and independent of Chaplin, right up in to the 1970s, with the TV film, The Snoop Sisters (1972) - she made forty-seven films in all. She was something of a match for Chaplin - strong willed, independent, a lover of life - her very personality an influence itself on the characters Charlie wrote for her in her two Chaplin films.
She became his third wife, but unlike the previous two, was strong enough to survive the experience and part company without bitterness or sensationalism. It is difficult not to have an admiration of this free spirit of Hollywood, a town that she may not have got the better of, but that she certainly used as a playground to some extent.
She was born on June 3rd in 1911 as Marion Levy in Whitestone, New York - though her mother called her Pauline from a young age. This soon became Paulette, and the name Goddard came from her wealthy uncle, Charlie Goddard, who was something of an influence on her, mainly thanks to the lavish parties he threw at which a number of the stars of the day would turn up - inspiring the young Paulette to think of a future as a star herself.
It wasn’t long before she was modeling Hattie Carnegie fashions, and just three years later saw her on Broadway as a Ziegfeld girl in No Foolin’ (1926) and then Rio Rita, jobs probably secured thanks to uncle Charlie’s acquaintance with Florenz Ziegfeld. She also had a small part in Archie Selwyn’s The Conquering Male. The life of a pretty showgirl would never be short of the attentions of the social elite of New York, and in 1927 she met and married millionaire playboy Edgar James, president of the Southern States Lumber Company of Asheville. Their life together took them to North Carolina where the business was based, but it was not a place, or lifestyle, that Paulette found comfortable. She divorced James, and along with a generous alimony settlement, she headed for Hollywood.
Paulette’s first film saw her with a bit part in the Laurel and Hardy short Berth Marks (1929) whilst other films included The Girl Habit (1931), Kid from Spain, Young Ironsides and another Laurel and Hardy picture, Pack Up Your Troubles (all 1932). She was still signed with Hal Roach when she finally met Chaplin in 1932.
Chaplin had been invited for a weekend cruise aboard Joe Schenck’s yacht - Schenck was the then president and chairman of United Artists, the company Chaplin had helped to found along with Doug Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W Griffith. Paulette, another guest, was considering investing $50,000 of her alimony payment in a dubious movie company and asked Chaplin’s advice. 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. Obviously taking more than a shine to this pretty and charismatic actress, he bought out her Roach contract and signed her up for himself.
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Modern Times :
The fruit of their professional relationship was the film Modern Times, whilst their personal relationship became the material of Hollywood gossip columns. This bore other consequences too - on the positive side Chaplin’s sons, Charlie Jr. and Sydney, looked up to her as a big sister and loved to play with her and have her around. The flip side of the coin was that Chaplin’s dedicated chauffeur and private secretary, Toraichi Kono, felt usurped by Paulette’s new found place in the Chaplin home, and resigned (though not before Chaplin gave him and his wife $1000 each and secured a job for him at United Artists Japan). Paulette and Charlie went everywhere together and Charlie even bought a yacht so they could spend Sundays cruising out to Catalina.Modern Times saw a brilliant team up for Paulette and Charlie - he as the Tramp, and her as the Gamine, surviving by her wit and courage on the waterfront, stealing bananas and handing them out to her fellow urchins. You can see Paulette as many things in this film - a female version of Charlie himself, a loner at odds with the world, making her own rules dictated by circumstance, or, on the same track, the Kid grown up - a female version of course - though this leads again to the Charlie-girl. Perhaps the main difference between them in the film is the way in which their characters defy authority - Charlie with an air of innocence, whilst Paulette certainly does so with intent and purpose. Paulette was pretty much an equal in Modern Times and the ending, the two outsiders against The World silhouetted as they walk off bravely in to their future (and a sunset) gave a new twist to the quintessential Chaplin ending - this time, for the last time, not alone.
When the film had been completed and premiered (at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on February 12th 1936) Chaplin and Paulette went for a trip round the Pacific Rim - taking in Hawaii and Singapore along the way. The major event of this trip was that they were at last married, though neither of them would confirm this to reporters upon their return to California. But it was not all plain sailing. There is little doubt that Charlie and Paulette were very good for each other for a time - and that time was somewhat longer and happier than Charlie’s involvement with either of his two previous wives. While Paulette was said to have had a brief fling with George Gershwin during her time with Chaplin, in the end she may have just been too ambitious and independent to stay at Charlie’s careful, creative pace, and they eventually began to drift apart.
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The Great Dictator :
Generally, they remained on good terms, however, and by the time Chaplin was ready to make his next film (The Great Dictator) Paulette was to be his leading lady once again. There were a few other films before this one for Paulette. They included yet another Laurel and Hardy feature, The Bohemian Girl (1936), two highly thought of films in 1939 - The Women (with Joan Crawford) and the Cat and the Canary (with Bob Hope), and also Second Chorus in 1940 with Fred Astaire. In 1938 she was a serious contender for the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (it eventually went to Vivien Leigh). By 1940 however, she was well on her to becoming a major Hollywood star and had a ten year contract with Paramount Studios.
For Chaplin’s first talkie she was cast much more as second fiddle to Charlie’s excellent performances as both the Jewish barber and the mad dictator himself, Adenoid Hynkel, though her scenes in which she does battle with the storm troopers in the streets of the ghetto are one of the highlights of the film. Again she plays her character feisty and determined, though less of a motivator than the gamine, and once she leaves the country with her family she is pretty much ignored until the ending and Charlie’s words of ‘wherever you are, look up Hannah!’.
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After Charlie Chaplin :
Not long after (The Great Dictator, Charlie and Paulette made their estrangement official by way of divorce. Paulette received another alimony payment and the yacht that Chaplin had bought during their courtship (part of the settlement was also to include one more film directed by Chaplin for Paulette - this never happened). But the 1940s saw her career just get better and better as she appeared in a huge number of films. These included Nothing but the Truth, Hold Back the Dawn, The Lady Has Plans, The Forest Rangers, Standing Room Only, I Love a Soldier, Kitty, Diary of a Chambermaid, Variety Girl, Unconquered, Ideal Husband, The Torch and Bride of Vengeance. For So Proudly We Hail! she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress (won that year by Katina Paxinou in For Whom the Bell Tolls).It has been said that Paulette quarreled with director Cecil B. DeMille on the set of Unconquered which in turn led to a lower volume in her career and a relegation to the B-Movies of the industry for most of the 50’s - including Babes in Bagdad, Paris Model and Vice Squad. Her last film for the silver screen was in 1964 - Time of Indifference (or Gli Indifferenti).
Her personal life was no less lively than her screen career. In 1944 she married actor Burgess Meredith. They divorced in 1950 and eight years later she married the German novelist Erich Maria Remarque, author of the classic All Quiet on the Western Front. Another novelist and a close friend of Paulette’s, Anita Loos, claimed that Paulette was the inspiration for her heroine in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Loos would later say “Gentlemen prefer blondes, until they get a load of Paulette!”.
Sydney (Charlie’s son) would stay in touch with his one-time step mother, as this story from Jerry Epstein’s Remembering Charlie testifies;
‘Sydney would always invite Paulette Goddard [to his performances at the Circle Theatre]… … Whenever she came, her infectious laugh set off the audience, and made many of our shows a hit. For the Rain premiere, she arrived every inch the movie queen, with a long evening gown and tiara, and sat on the front row. She found Oona and Charlie sitting on one side, and Charlie’s second wife [and Sydney’s mother], Lita Grey, on the other. Never before had three of Charlie’s wives been in one room together. Charlie took it all in his stride.’
Like Chaplin, Paulette’s life ended in Switzerland. She and Remarque had moved there and on one occasion they even chanced upon the Chaplins (Charlie and Oona) in a restaurant and joined each other for dinner. Remarque died in 1970, but Paulette survived him by twenty years, dying on the 23rd of April 1990 from heart failure.
THE END.
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