Lita Grey - Actress (Hollywood Classics)

 

Charlie Chaplin is marrying his leading lady, Lita Grey.

UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 24: Charlie Chaplin is marrying his leading lady, Lita Grey.

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Tuesday 21, April 2026, 19:00.

Charles And Lita Chaplin With Infant Son

(Original Caption) Charlie Chaplin (1889 - 1977) and Family. This is the first time photographers were able to get a picture of the famous movie comedian, his second wife, Lita Grey (1908 - 1995) and their baby son, Charles Jnr (1925 - 1968). It was taken on board the SS City of Los Angeles in November 1926, when Mrs. Chaplin and Charles Spencer Jr., sailed from Los Angeles for Honolulu and the Senior Charlie came down to the boat to see them off. 

Grey 

About:

Lita Grey Chaplin with Children

(Original Caption) Family Separated From Charlie Chaplin. A very recent picture of Mrs. Lita Grey Chaplin, wife of Charles Spence Chaplin, with her two children, Sidney Earl (left) and Charles Spencer Jr., (right), taken at the home of her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Curry at Beverly Hills, California, where she fled after her separation from the movie comedian. Mrs. Chaplin's lawyers are preparing a divorce suit against the actor; and Charles Chaplin will in turn bring suit for divorce against his wife.

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Born Lillita Louise MacMurray, April 15, 1908, Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Died December 29, 1995 (aged 87), Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Resting place Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery

Occupation - Actress

Spouses:

1.Charlie Chaplin - (m. 1924; div. 1927)​

2.Henry Aguirre - (m. 1936; div. 1938)​

3.Arthur Day - (m. 1938; div. 1948)​

4. Patsy Pizzolongo - (m. 1956; div. 1966)​

Children: 3, including Charles Jr. and Sydney

Introduction:

Charles Chaplin Departing with Wife and Son

(Original Caption) Mrs. Charlie Chaplin And Son Sail For Honolulu. Photo shows Mr. and Mrs. Chaplin and son. When Mrs. Charles Chaplin and Charles Jr. sailed for Honolulu, the original of that famous name went down to the pier in Los Angeles to see them off. Here's the family just before they parted.

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Lita Grey (born Lillita Louise MacMurray, April 15, 1908 – December 29, 1995), who was known for most of her life as Lita Grey Chaplin, was an American actress. She was the second wife of Charlie Chaplin, and appeared in his films The Kid, The Idle Class, and The Gold Rush.

Background:

Lita Grey

She was born in Hollywood, California, to Lillian Carrillo Curry Grey and Robert Earl McMurray, and christened Lillita Louise MacMurray. Her father was of Scottish descent, and her mother's family was descended from a ninth-generation Californio family, whose lineage included Antonio Maria Lugo. The Lugos were mostly of Native American ancestry, but had an ancestor that originated from the region of Andalusia in Spain, and were one of the first families to bring horses into North America. In a 1993 interview, Grey claimed to be a great-grandniece of former California governor Henry Gage.

Life and career"

Grey married four times. By her own account, she first met Charlie Chaplin at the age of eight at a Hollywood café, and first worked with him at the age of 12 in the part of the "flirting angel" in The Kid. She also appeared briefly as a maid in The Idle Class. Her one-year contract was not renewed. At the age of 15, she met Chaplin again when she heard he was testing brunettes for his next film The Gold Rush. Still only 15, she was initially cast as the leading lady in the film, and then-35-year-old Chaplin started a relationship with Grey.

Grey soon became pregnant, and since Chaplin could have been imprisoned for having sexual relations with a minor, they married that November in secret in Empalme, Sonora, Mexico, to avoid a scandal. She alleged in her divorce complaint that he "sought to have her undergo an illegal operation to prevent the birth of their first child".

They had two sons, Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin, born within ten months of each other in May 1925 and March 1926, respectively.

The marriage was troubled from the start. The two had few interests in common, and Chaplin spent as much time as he could away from home, neglecting both his wife and his children, while working on The Gold Rush, and later, The Circus. They divorced on August 22, 1927, due to his alleged numerous affairs with other women, and he was ordered to pay over US$600,000 ($11.1 million in 2025 dollars) and US$100,000 ($1.9 million in 2025 dollars) in trust for each child, the largest divorce settlement at the time. Copies of her lengthy divorce complaint, which made scandalous sexual claims against Chaplin, were published, and publicly sold, and the divorce became a sensational media event. Less than five months after the divorce, Grey's former butler Don Solovich was murdered in Utah, and articles speculated about connections between Chaplin and the murder.

She later married Henry Aguirre, then Arthur Day. The 1940 United States census states that Lita and Arthur lived at 38 East 50th Street in New York City, and that in 1935 she had lived in England. The census listed her occupation as "singer", and Arthur's as "manager personal". Lita and Arthur adopted a baby boy in 1940, whom they named Robert. When they split up in 1946, Bobby went to live with his paternal grandmother, and Lita had little contact with him after that.

She married her fourth husband, Patsy Pizzolongo (aka Pat Longo), on September 22, 1956, in Los Angeles, California. They were divorced in June 1966.

In the 1970s and 1980s, she worked as a clerk at Robinson's Department Store in Beverly Hills. She wrote two autobiographical volumes covering her life with Chaplin. My Life with Chaplin (1966) was, by her own admission, largely a work of exaggeration and fabrication. She claimed to tell the story as it really was in her second memoir Wife of the Life of the Party (1998). She is portrayed by Deborah Moore in the 1992 film Chaplin, but Grey was depicted on screen for less than a minute in the final film.

Death:

Lita Grey attends the "Chaplin" Los Angeles Premiere on December 4, 1992 at Los Angeles Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

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She died of cancer on December 29, 1995, in Los Angeles, aged 87, and was buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.

Filmography:

Year Title Role Note

1921 The Kid Flirtatious Angel Uncredited

1921 The Idle Class Maid Uncredited

1925 The Gold Rush Extra Uncredited

1933 Seasoned Greetings Store Owner Short

1933 Mr. Broadway Lita Grey

1949 The Devil's Sleep Judge Rosalind Ballentine

1953 This Is Your Life Herself Television, one episode

1979 The Hollywood Greats Herself Television, one episode

1983 Unknown Chaplin Herself Television film

Portrait Of Lita Grey Chaplin

Informal full-length portrait of Mrs. Lita Grey Chaplin (1908 - 1995), the second wife of actor/comedian Charlie Chaplin, looking to her left and leaning against an automobile parked on a street in Chicago, Illinois, 1929. Buildings are visible in the background.

Written works:

Chaplin, Charlie - Actor, film director, Great Britain - *16.04.1889-25.12.1977+ - Chaplin and wife Lita Grey (l) with George Bernard Shaw and his wife - 1931 - Vintage property of ullstein bild

(Eingeschränkte Rechte für bestimmte redaktionelle Kunden in Deutschland. Limited rights for specific editorial clients in Germany.) Chaplin, Charlie - Actor, film director, Great Britain - *16.04.1889-25.12.1977+ - Chaplin and wife Lita Grey (l) with George Bernard Shaw and his wife - 1931 - Vintage property of ullstein bild 

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"Complaint of the young movie star against her elderly husband : (and famous film magnate)". search.worldcat.org. OCLC 1051461671.

Chaplin, Lita; Cooper, Morton (1966). My life with Chaplin; an intimate memoir. Bernard Geis Associates. OCLC 1304298.

Chaplin, Lita; Vance, Jeffrey (1998). Wife of the Life of the Party. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810834323. OCLC 1064282220.

VIDEO: Lita Grey Chaplin Interview (1993)

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