PAULETTE GODDARD
BIRTH: June 3, 1910
DEATH: April 23, 1990
AGED: 79 years
DIED FROM: Emphysema and heart issues
REAL NAME: Marion Levy
NICKNAME: The Girl On The Crescent Moon, from the Ziegfeld Follies…she was just 13.
MARRIED: 4 times- Edgar James, a rich lumberman. Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith( Jack Lemmon’s dad in “ Grumpy Old Men”) and Erich Maria Remarque( German novelist of “All Quiet On The Western Front”)
AFFAIRS: George Gershwin, Diego Rivera, Clark Gable, Andy Warhol plus others
: never had any. Miscarried a boy when married to Meredith which greatly saddened her, a rare event.
OSCAR NOMINATIONS: “ So Proudly We Hail”
TALENT: Aside from marrying wealthy men, she was very business savvy and grew her wealth. Her charm, making any party or social function better.
KNOWN FOR: her famous jewelry collection. Her fierce independence, intelligence and shrewd business dealings. She was to be The Scarlet O’ Hara in “Gone With The Wind” until Vivien Leigh appeared so that, along with her “leftist leanings”, she lost the part.
This is another actress who was very close to her mom to the point where they were grifters, when Paulette was a teen, getting a hold of money from unsuspecting rich men and pilfering their wallets. Ahh, what sweetness and delight. When her mom and dad separated, it seems that the mom took her daughter all around the States and even into Canada for a while. Years later, it came out that her mother absconded with her daughter so the father would have no ability to see his daughter. After Paulette became a film star, she went on record that she didn’t know her dad and he sued and won the case receiving $35 per week from his daughter. Paulette and her parents would make a great case study wouldn’t they.
Paulette became a Ziegfeld girl after her influential uncle invited her to meet Florenz Ziegfeld and, from there, she met many older, and rich, men. Paulette married a very wealthy man when she was 17 and divorced soon after with a nice settlement in tow. She got into films and met Charlie Chaplin whom she fell for and starred in 2 of his great films, “Modern Times” and “ The Great Dictator”. He was the one who told her to revert back to her brunette hair rather than the popular platinum hair she had which was all the rage back then. I have read that they never married, merely lived together, but also read they married in Mexico, China and on a ship…who knows, but she was a big influence on Chaplin as well and remained good friends with his 2 sons even after Chaplin and her parted company.
She met her 3rd husband Burgess Meredith on the set of “Second Chorus”with Fred Astaire, a film Astaire considered his worst. She did actually hold her own in the dance numbers but it’s not a great movie, neither is “Pot O’ Gold” with Jimmy Stewart. In fact, this is one of the few actresses that Jimmy Stewart did not care for and the feeling was mutual. She was too brash for him and too much needing to be noticed. She thought he was not a great actor…what does she know.
In the later 50s, she married the German novelist, Erich Maria Remarque but they seemed to live in separate rooms and residences. Well, when he died, she inherited his fortune but she knew how to add to it with shrewd business deals. Later she enjoyed being a socialite known for her intelligence, humour and effervescence. She had to deal with breast cancer in the 1970s and recuperated but, due to her cigarette habit, she got emphysema and died of a heart attack.
She was complicated, independent, fun, talented and so much more than just a gold digger, which, I believe, she was, but she knew how to make money on her own and, when she died, she gave 20 million to the New York University to fund an institute devoted to European studies named in Remarque’s honour. Her art collection, partly inherited when Erich died, and her jewelry collection also went on the auction block although I don’t know where the money went to. She was an interesting woman whom I always enjoyed watching on the big screen.
FILMS
1. Modern Times-1936
2. The Women-1939
3. The Cat And The Canary-1939
4. The Ghostbreakers-1940
5. The Great Dictator-1940
6. Northwest Mounted Police-1940
7. Hold Back The Dawn-1941
8. Reap The Wild Wind-1942
9. Kitty-1945
10. Diary Of A Chambermaid-1946
