Lita Gray ( born Lita Gray , April 15, 1908 - December 29, 1995 ) is an American actress, Charlie Chaplin's second wife.
| Lita Gray | |
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| Lita gray | |
 Studio photography of the 1920s | |
| Birth name | Lillita Louise McMurey |
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| Profession | actress |
| Career | 1921-1949 |
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Biography
Lita Gray, nee Lillita Louise MacMurray, was born in Hollywood on April 15, 1908. Her mother was Mexican, and her father was a native of Ireland .
In 1921, she made her film debut, starring in two films by Chaplin - " Kid " (1921) and " Idle Class " (1921). They began friendships, in 1924, at the age of 16, she became pregnant from him. In order not to go to jail for sexual relations with a minor, Chaplin secretly married Lita Gray in Mexico . Gray bore him two sons: Charles Chaplin Jr. (1925-1968) and Sidney Earl Gray (1926-2009), who, like his father, became actors.
As a wife of Chaplin, Lita Gray appeared only in his film " Gold Rush " (1925), and then in a cameo role. Their marriage went wrong from the very beginning, and in August 1928, tired of her husband’s constant betrayal, Lita Gray divorced him. Chaplin paid Lita $ 700,000 - a record amount for that time, which led to an investigation by the tax authorities. Their divorce was a high-profile event in show business, largely due to the fact that in her claims, Lita announced a sexual relationship with Chaplin, while still a minor. These claims were published and publicly sold in large print runs.
After breaking up with Chaplin, Lita Gray starred in only three films, and until the end of her acting career in 1947, she toured the United States and Europe with one of the theater companies for some time.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Gray worked as a clerk at a department store in Beverly Hills . Lita Gray wrote two biographies about her marriage to Chaplin, in which she spoke in detail about her difficult relationship with the master of silent films. She also took part in the filming of the documentary " Unknown Chaplin ", which was shown in 1983 .
Lita Gray died on December 29, 1995 of cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 87.
Facts
- In 1992, in the biographical film " Chaplin, " the role of Lita Gray was played by the British actress Deborah Moore.
- Chaplin's biographer Joyce Milton, in his book Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin, wrote that the relationship between Chaplin and Lita Gray became the basis of Nabokov ’s novel Lolita .
Bibliography
- Lita Gray. My Life With Chaplin. - 1966.
- Lita Gray. Wife of the Life of the Party. - The Scarecrow Press, 1998. - P. 360. - ISBN 978-0810834323 .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 BNF identifier : Open Data Platform 2011.
- ↑ 1 2 SNAC - 2010.
- ↑ 1 2 Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000