Lita Grey
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Lita Grey (April 15, 1908 – December 29, 1995) was an American actress and the second wife of Charles Chaplin. She was born in Hollywood, California in 1908, to a Mexican-born mother and a father of Irish heritage and christened Lillita Louise MacMurray.
[edit] Personal life
Grey married 4 times. In 1924 when she was 16 years old, she became pregnant by Charles Chaplin, who was then 35. Some believe her to be among the inspirations for the title character in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
They married and had two children, Charles Chaplin, Jr. (1925-1968) and Sydney Earle Chaplin (b. 1926).
They divorced on August 22, 1927 due to his numerous affairs with other women, and he was ordered to pay over $600,000 (USD) and $100,000 (USD) in trust for each child. It was the largest divorce settlement up to that time. The divorce was one of the sensational media events of the time. Copies of her lengthy divorce complaint which made then-scandalous sexual claims against Chaplin were published and publicly sold.
She later married Henry Aguirre, then Arthur Day, then Pat Long.
In the 1970's and 1980's, she worked as a clerk at Robinson's Department Store in Beverley Hills.
She died in Los Angeles, California in 1995 of cancer, aged 87. She is interred in the Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood.
She was portrayed by Deborah Moore in Chaplin.
[edit] Filmography
- Unknown Chaplin (1983) (TV)
- The Devil's Sleep (1949)
- Seasoned Greetings (1933)
- Mr. Broadway (1933)
- The Gold Rush (1925)
- The Idle Class (1921)
- The Kid (1921)