Lita Gray

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lita Gray (born April 15, 1908 in Hollywood , Los Angeles , California , as Lillita Louise MacMurray , † December 29, 1995 in Los Angeles, California) was an American actress and the second wife of Charles Chaplin .

Life

Lita Gray was born to a Mexican and a Scot. At the age of six she was discovered by Charlie Chaplin in a restaurant. Still, it would be six more years before her mother, through Chaplin's assistant director Charles Reisner, agreed to a career in Hollywood.

Her first film was the Chaplin production The Kid , in which she played an "Angel of Temptation" reminiscent of Lolita . It was followed by just one more production with the fine people before their first contract with the production company expired. Three years later, Chaplin again offered her the female lead in Gold Rush . While filming, she became pregnant at the age of just 16 after an affair with Chaplin. Since a sexual relationship with a minor was tantamount to rape under California law at the time, getting married immediately was Chaplin's only way to avoid prosecution. On November 26, 1924, he married Lita Gray in Mexico. The birthday of the first son, Charles Chaplin junior (1925–1968), was incorrectly given to the public to ensure the appearance of conjugal conception. A year later, their second son, Sydney Earle Chaplin (1926–2009), was born, who like the parents later embarked on a career in show business. Nevertheless, the relationship between Gray and Chaplin cooled quickly, so that the marriage was divorced on August 22, 1927 after a high-profile process because of the numerous Chaplin affairs and the mother was given sole custody.

In the following years Lita Gray worked temporarily as a singer in the variety theater. During the seventies and eighties she worked as a secretary in Robinson's department store in Beverly Hills .

She was married three more times. The marriages to Henry Aguirre, Arthur Day and Pat Long also ended in divorce. Her memoirs My Life with Chaplin: An Intimate Memoir (German title "Ich war Charlie Chaplins Frau") were published in 1966. In the last two years of her life, Gray was working on another biographical book.

In 1995 she died of cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 87 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Robinson: The little lady and the tramp. In: The Guardian , January 2, 1996.

Web links

Commons : Lita Gray  - Collection of Images
personal data
SURNAME Gray, Lita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES MacMurray, Lillita Louise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-american actress
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Hollywood , Los Angeles , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1995
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States