CAUSE: He suffered a slipped disc while making Merrill’s Marauders (1962). On May 13, 1961, he underwent what should have been straightforward surgery at Culver City Hospital, but blood poisoning set in. Another operation ensued, during which he was given 55 pints of blood. He survived that and yet more surgery but his condition steadily declined. The blood poisoning was complicated by pneumonia; he died, aged just 42. Tony Curtis was one of the pallbearers. Chandler is buried in the Hillside Mausoleum of Hillside Memorial Park, 6001 West Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles 90045.
Lane Chandler
(ROBERT LANE OAKES)
Born June 4, 1899
Died September 14, 1972
Prolific cowboy. Born in South Dakota (although some sources list Culbertson, Montana as place of birth, while his death certificate states he was born in South Dakota), 6́ 4˝ Chandler was the son of a horse rancher and was educated at Montana Wesleyan College before leaving to work as a tour bus driver at Yellowstone National Park. He eventually moved to Los Angeles to seek fame and fortune. While waiting for his big break he worked as a car mechanic. Chandler was signed by Paramount in 1927 as a possible Western star. He went on to make more than 330 films, playing villains and good guys alike, although his demeanour seemed to favour the baddies. His only lead role was in the silent Western The Open Range (1927) as Tex Smith, although for a time he and Gary Cooper vied for the best cowboy roles. Paramount realised that with Cooper, Richard Arlen, Frederic March, and Neil Hamilton, it had too many leading men on the roster and Chandler was dropped as an economy move. Chandler did not just feature in Westerns – he appeared in Flash Gordon (1936), The Secret Of Treasure Island (1938), Marie Antoinette (1938), I Am The Law (1938), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), Buck Rogers (1939), The Green Hornet (1940) and Charlie Chan In Panama (1940). His best-known Westerns were Firebrand Jordan (released January 28, 1930), The Lightning Express (April 30, 1930), Riders Of The Rio (December 1, 1930), Hurricane Horseman (October 31, 1931), Cheyenne Cyclone (December 15, 1931), Battling Buckaroo (February 11, 1932), Texas Tornado (April 1, 1932), The Reckless Divider (July 1, 1932), Guns For Hire (September 1, 1932), The Wyoming Whirlwind (December 30, 1932), The Lone Bandit (February 1, 1935), The Outlaw Tamer (March 15, 1935) and Heroes Of The Alamo (August 6, 1937). He also appeared in Zorro Rides Again (1937) and in the 1959 remake. He spent much of the Forties working as a utility actor for director Cecil B. DeMille, before moving to television in the Fifties and Sixties.
CAUSE: He died in Los Angeles, California of cardio-vascular disease. He was 73.
Lon Chaney
Born April 1, 1883
Died August 26, 1930
‘The Man of a Thousand Faces’. Alonso Chaney was born in Colorado Springs. Both his parents were deaf mutes and he used mime to ‘talk’ to them. After working as a stagehand and vaudeville comedian he became the best-known star of horror films in the Twenties because of his ability to assume numerous personas through his talent and clever make-up (he wrote the entry on cosmetics for one edition of Encyclopædia Britannica). Between 1913 (when he appeared in Poor Jake’s Demise) and 1930 he appeared in over 150 films, many in collaboration with director Todd Browning (b. July 12, 1882, d. October 6, 1962). More often than not his roles included physical discomfort for the 5́ 9˝ Chaney. In The Penalty (1920) he played a criminal who had lost his legs. Chaney had his calves tied to his thighs and perambulated on his knees for the part. In The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1923) he played Quasimodo with 70lb of padding. He was also Erik, the lead in The Phantom Of The Opera (1925). His other film credits include The Sea Urchin (1913) as Barnacle Bill, the first of his films in which he donned elaborate make-up, An Elephant on His Hands (1913) as Eddie, Red Margaret, Moonshiner (1913) as Lon, Bloodhounds Of The North (1913) as Mountie, Remember Mary Magdalen (1914), The Menace To Carlotta (1914) as Giovanni Bartholdi, The Old Cobbler (1914) as Wild Bill, Her Grave Mistake (1914) as Nunez, The Oubliette (1914) as Chevalier Bertrand de la Payne, Her Bounty (1914) as Fred Howard, Virtue Is Its Own Reward (1914) as Duncan Bronson, Lights And Shadows (1914) as Bentley, The Lion, The Lamb, The Man (1914) as Fred, When The Gods Played A Badger Game (1915), Where The Forest Ends (1915) as Paul Rouchelle, Maid Of The Mist (1915), Quits (1915) as Frenchy, The Grip Of Jealousy (1916) as Silas Lacey, The Girl In The Checkered Coat (1917) as Hector Maitland, The Talk Of The Town (1918) as Jack Lanchome, The Kaiser, The Beast Of Berlin (1918) as Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, That Devil, Bateese (1918) as Louis Courteau, When Bearcat Went Dry (1919) as Kindard Powers, Treasure Island (1920) as Blind Pew, Oliver Twist (1922) as Fagin, Quincy Adams Sawyer (1922) as Obadiah Strout, All The Brothers Were Valiant (1923) as Mark Shore and Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928) as Tito Beppi. In 1928 and 1929 he was the top male box-office star – his female peer in both years was Clara Bow. In 1914, nine years after their marriage, he divorced his first wife Cleva Creighton and married Hazel Bennett. His son Creighton (b. Oklahoma City, February 10, 1906, d. July 12, 1973) changed his name to Lon Chaney, Jr to get more work and also appeared in around 150 films, many of them horror features.
CAUSE: He died of throat cancer aged 47 a month before his first talkie, The Unholy Three (1930) was released. He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks, 1712 South Glendale Avenue, Glendale, California 91209.
Sir Charlie Chaplin
Born April 16, 1889
Died December 25, 1977
The little tramp with a penchant for little tramps. Born at 8pm in East Lane, Walworth, London, the son of music hall performers Charles Chaplin (b. 22 Orcus Street, Marylebone, London, March 18, 1863) and Hannah Harriett Pedlingham Hill (b. 11 Camden Street, Walworth, London, August 6, 1865). About a year after his birth, Chaplin’s parents separated. Chaplin’s maternal grandmother was committed to an asylum on February 23, 1893. For a time his mother’s career was successful enough for her to feed her family. Charles Chaplin Sr’s life was blighted by alcoholism, which generally meant that he did not face up to his responsibilities. This often led the family to the workhouse. On May 30, 1896, Charlie and his elder brother Sydney (b. March 16, 1885, three months before his parents’ marriage, d. Nice, France, April 16, 1965) were sent to Newington Workhouse. The following year Sydney began training for a life at sea, leaving Charlie to sleep rough in Covent Garden and support himself in a variety of lowly paid jobs. On January 18, 1898, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Charles Chaplin for non-payment of child support. That same day, Charlie left school and two days after that, Sydney left his navy training ship. During that year Charlie and Sydney were admitted to the Lambeth Workhouse on four occasions. Their mother, suffering from the mental problems that had also beset her mother, was committed to Cane Hill Asylum, where she stayed for two months from September 15, 1898. On Boxing Day Charlie got his first real taste of showbiz, appearing as one of Eight Lancashire Lads at the Theatre Royal, Manchester. The year 1901 saw part of the family going their separate ways. Charles was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital, London where he died on May 9, 1901, aged 37 from dropsy, while Sydney sailed around the world as a steward. Two years to the day after her husband’s death, Hannah Chaplin was committed to an asylum as a lunatic. Charlie was listed as her next of kin. By this time Charlie had begun to find reasonably regular work in the theatre, playing Sam in Jim, A Romance Of Cockayne and then Billy in Sherlock Holmes. On his mother’s release from the asylum and Sydney’s return from sea, Charlie was joined by them both on tour. It was to be a short respite, however. Hannah was recommitted as a lunatic on March 16, 1905. The following year Sydney signed a contract with the theatrical impresario Fred Karno, who also gave Charlie a successful audition in February 1908. In 1910 the Karno troupe sailed for America, where they toured for two years. (Another member of the touring party was a promising comedian called Stan Laurel.) On December 16, 1913, Charlie Chaplin began a $150-a-week contract with the Keystone Film Company. He began turning out films quickly: Making A Living (1914) as a swindler, Twenty Minutes Of Love (1914) as a pickpocket, Kid Auto R
aces At Venice (1914) as a tramp, Mabel’s Strange Predicament (1914) as a tramp (the first outing of his famous attire, although this film was released two days after the previous one in which he again donned the tramp’s garb), Between Showers (1914) as a masher, A Film Johnnie (1914) as The Film Johnnie, Tango Tangles (1914) as a half-cut dancer, His Favorite Pastime (1914) as a boozer, Cruel, Cruel Love (1914) as Lord Helpus, the title role in The Star Boarder (1914), Mabel At The Wheel (1914) as a rascal, Mabel’s Busy Day (1914) as a drunken boor, Mabel’s Married Life (1914) as her husband, and many more. That same year he turned to directing and writing, later turning his hand to editing, producing, composing and choreographing. There is a story that an exec at Charlie Chaplin’s studio sent a memo saying that Chaplin would never become a star unless he junked the moustache, cane, bowler, funny walk and ill-fitting suit. Not true – it was a studio joke. In 1915 Chaplin moved to Essanay Studios (formed by Bronco Billy Anderson). The following year, with Sydney and Herbert Clark, Charlie founded Charles Chaplin Music Corporation at 233 South Broadway, Los Angeles. On February 26 of that year he again changed studios, moving to Mutual Film Corporation at a salary of $10,000 per week, with a $150,000 bonus thrown in for good measure. Also in 1916, he became the subject of a cartoon strip, Pa’s Imported Son-in-Law. On March 22 he was subjected to an attack by the Daily Mail because of a clause in his contract forbidding him to return to England to fight for King and Country. He continued to churn out films: he appeared in Work (1915) as Izzy A. Wake’s aide, The Tramp (1915) in the lead role, Shanghaied (1915) as a tramp, A Jitney Elopement (1915), Carmen (1915), The Bank (1915) as a janitor, His New Job (1915) as a film extra, Charlie Chaplin’s Burlesque On Carmen (1915) as Darn Hosiery, The Vagabond (1916) as a busker, Police (1916) as a tramp, Charlie Chaplin’s Burlesque On Carmen (1916) as Don Jose, The Floorwalker (1916) as a tramp, Chase Me Charlie (1917) as Charlie, Easy Street (1917) as a streetwise police recruit and A Dog’s Life (1918) as a tramp. In the summer of 1917 Chaplin signed a million dollar-a-year contract with First National and on August 4 he announced “I am ready and willing to answer the call of my country.” On October 23, 1918, in Los Angeles, California, he married 16-year-old child actress Mildred Harris (b. Cheyenne, Wyoming, November 29, 1901, d. Los Angeles, California July 20, 1944, from pneumonia following an operation). Harris would be the first in a long line of nubile young girls with whom Chaplin would be publicly associated. The marital home was 2000 DeMille Drive, but not for long. The couple divorced on November 13, 1920, on grounds of Chaplin’s mental cruelty. They had one son, Norman Spencer Chaplin (b. Los Angeles, California, July 7, 1919, d. Los Angeles, California July 10, 1919, at 4pm, aged three days) who was born severely handicapped. On February 5, 1919, Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks formed United Artists to produce and sell their own films and those of other independents. That year and 1920 also saw Chaplin working on The Kid (1921), which featured Jackie Coogan in the title role. Chaplin hired Edna Purviance to play the part of Coogan’s mother and also found a part for Lilita McMurray who, he commented, had “so much innocence mixed with such big breasts”. In the summer of 1922 he had a fortnight-long fling with Peggy Hopkins Joyce, who had been married five times, and every husband a millionaire. In the autumn of 1922 Chaplin supposedly became involved with Pola Negri, although how much of the ‘relationship’ was genuine and how much a publicity stunt puzzled many. Their engagement was announced on January 28, 1923, but on March 1 it was all off. A day later, they were back together again but on June 28 they split for good. On October 1, 1923, the première of A Woman Of Paris was held, a romantic melodrama starring Chaplin’s old flame Edna Purviance. However, crowds expecting to see Chaplin slapstick were disappointed and the film flopped. Realising that comedy was what people wanted, Chaplin began preparing the first draft of The Gold Rush (1925) in December 1923. Three months later, on March 2, 1924, Lilita McMurray (now calling herself Lita Grey) was signed as leading lady. On November 19, director Thomas Ince died under mysterious circumstances and Chaplin’s part, if any, in the death has remained the subject of rumour and speculation from that day on. (See Ince entry for full details.) However, the Little Tramp had other things on his mind. A week after Ince’s death he married Lita Grey at Guayamas, Mexico. Like his first wife she was 16 years old, but the second Mrs Chaplin was also pregnant. The union was to produce two sons: Charles Spencer, Jr (b. Los Angeles, California, May 5, 1925, d. California, March 20, 1968) and Sydney Earle (b. Los Angeles, California, March 30, 1926). Chaplin bribed an official to register his second son’s birth as June 28, 1925, to cover up his premarital sex. The Gold Rush was premièred at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre on June 26, supposedly two days before the birth of Charles Jr. The film contains two of the most famous scenes in all of Chaplin’s films: the dance of the bread rolls and Chaplin eating his boots. (Actually, they were made of liquorice.) The film was officially shot over 405 days although only 170 of those actually saw a camera rolling. In the spirit of realism Chaplin hired 2,500 hobos for a day, although they had to provide their own clothes. On July 6, 1925, Chaplin became the first actor to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. His next film was The Circus (1928) which he wrote, directed, produced, edited and starred in as well as composing the music for the reissued version in 1970. On January 10, 1927, Lita Grey filed for divorce, which was granted on August 22, 1927, and became final a year later on August 25, 1928. On May 5 of that year Chaplin began working on City Lights, which would not see the light of day until January 19, 1931. Chaplin plays a tramp whom a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) believes is a millionaire. Chaplin reshot one scene 342 times until he was satisfied with the shot of the blind girl selling the tramp a flower. Indeed, he shot 125 times more film than he actually used. In the early Thirties Chaplin travelled constantly. On March 25, 1933, he began work on Modern Times (1936), yet another Chaplin work with a long gestation. In July of the same year he met the woman who was to become the third Mrs Chaplin. Modern Times was seen as a strongly pro-union film. Chaplin had already spoken in favour of the Soviet Union, opinions that were making him decidedly unpopular in America. The film was banned in Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy and marked the last appearance of Chaplin’s little tramp. The producers of René Clair’s A Nous La Liberté (1931) considered suing Chaplin for plagiarism but the suit was dropped when Clair professed himself flattered by the film. The female lead was played by Paulette Goddard, whom Chaplin treated abysmally on set. Despite this, they married in Canton, China, sometime in June 1936. Goddard, at 31, was virtually old enough to be the mother of Chaplin’s first two wives. The reason for the sudden leap in bridal ages was probably less to do with Chaplin’s desire for maturity in women and more to do with the fact that Goddard lied about her age. In October 1938 Chaplin began working on The Great Dictator (1940), his lampoon of Adolf Hitler, renamed Adenoid Hynkel. Although regarded as a classic by film students, the US public did not take to the movie and were unimpressed by the fact that Chaplin, who made his money in America, had never renounced his British citizenship (as Stan Laurel, Cary Grant and Bob Hope all did). On April 15, Konrad Bercovici sued Chaplin for plagiarism over The Great Dictator. Chaplin later remarked: “Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I could never have made The Great Dictator. I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis.” In June 1941 he put a mentally unstable, voluptuous, red-headed 22-year-old starlet by the name of Joan Barry under contract. It would be another instance of Chaplin allowing his libido to rule his head. The Great Dictator would be Chaplin’s last film for seven years. He had other problems. On June 4, 1942, he and Paulette Goddard were divorced. In late October that year he met 16-year-old Oona O’Neill (b. Spithead, Bermuda, May 13, 1926, d. Manoir de Ban, Vevey sur Corsier, Vaud, Switzerland, September 27, 1991), daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill by his second wife Agnes Boulton. A few weeks later, on December 23, the mad Joan Barry broke into his home armed with a gun.
She threatened to kill herself and later claimed she and Chaplin had had sex that night. Chaplin denied it. In the morning he gave her some money and she left. Seven days passed, then she repeated her performance and this time Chaplin called the police. In court the judge sentenced Barry to 60 days, suspended, and ordered her to leave Los Angeles. In May 1943 she returned pregnant and later (June 4) claimed Chaplin was the father of her baby. Another appearance resulted in her being jailed for a month and then quickly released to the hospital when it was discovered she was with child. At Carpenteria, Santa Barbara, California, on June 16, 1943, Chaplin married Oona O’Neill. He was 55, she was yet to attain her 17th birthday. However, it would prove to be a genuine love match, producing eight children: actress Geraldine Leigh (b. Santa Monica Hospital, California, August 1, 1944); RADA-educated Michael John (b. Santa Monica Hospital, Beverly Hills, California, March 6, 1946); Josephine Hannah (b. St John’s Hospital, Santa Monica, March 28, 1949); Victoria (b. St John’s Hospital, Santa Monica, May 19, 1951); Eugene Anthony (b. August 23, 1953), Jane Cecil (b. May 23, 1957); Annette Emily (b. December 3, 1959) and Christopher James (b. July 8, 1962). The last two were fathered when Chaplin was in his seventies; he called his penis ‘The Eighth Wonder of the World’. More pressing engagements took priority in 1943. The daughter that Chaplin hadn’t fathered was born on October 2, 1943. In 1942, 55-year-old Chaplin began an affair with Barry, paying for plastic surgery to improve her chances of becoming a star. However, by Christmas of the same year Chaplin had decided that perhaps Barry didn’t have what it took after all and reduced the salary his company was paying her. She turned up at his house, threatened him and then took an overdose. In June 1943 Barry filed a paternity suit, naming Chaplin as the father of her unborn offspring. The FBI then charged Chaplin with violating the Mann Act – transporting Barry across state lines for immoral purposes. He was further charged with conspiracy in having Barry thrown in jail for vagrancy, thus depriving her of her constitutional rights. On February 21, 1944, he was arraigned. Five days later, he pleaded not guilty to violating the Mann Act and 17 days later he entered a similar plea to the conspiracy charge. The Mann Act trial lasted from March 21 until April 4, 1944, and defended by Jerry Giesler, Chaplin was acquitted. On May 15 the charges for violation of Barry’s civil rights were dropped. The Barry paternity suit opened on December 13 but on January 2, 1945, a retrial was ordered when the jury locked 7–5 in favour of Chaplin. The new case opened on April 4, 1945, and 13 days later was settled in Barry’s favour by 11 votes to one. However, blood tests proved beyond all shadow of doubt that he could not be the father of Barry’s daughter Carol Ann. Moreover, Chaplin’s lawyers proved that some of Barry’s bills were being paid by billionaire Paul Getty. On April 11, 1947, the world première of Monsieur Verdoux, Chaplin’s first film in almost a decade, was held at the Broadway Theater, New York. By now the public was inexorably turning against Chaplin and the film flopped. In the late Forties and early Fifties Chaplin began working on Limelight (1952). When he sailed to London on September 17, 1952, for the English première his re-entry was barred because of his left-wing views. On January 5, 1953, the Chaplins moved to Manoir de Ban, Vevey sur Corsier, Vaud, Switzerland. On April 17, 1953, Chaplin declared he would not return to the USA after being described as a ‘dangerous alien’ in the communist witch hunts. In protest at the treatment of her husband, Oona O’Neill Chaplin renounced her American citizenship. His last two films, A King In New York (1957) and A Countess From Hong Kong (1967), the latter of which he wrote and directed and in which he played the part of a seasick waiter, were shot in Britain. In September 1964 his autobiography was published, a 500-page book that showed off Chaplin’s remarkable memory to the greatest extent. Eight long years later, he was welcomed back to America, where he received an honorary Oscar on April 16, 1972. Three years later, on March 4, 1975, he became Sir Charles. Not everyone liked Chaplin. The 5́6½˝ Chaplin wasn’t the most modest man in the world. “If people don’t sit at Chaplin’s feet, he goes out and stands where they are sitting,” commented Herman Mankiewicz. Comedian W.C. Fields commented, albeit somewhat wryly: “The son of a bitch is a ballet dancer! He’s the best ballet dancer that ever lived, and if I get a good chance I’ll strangle him with my bare hands.”
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 48