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Charlie Chaplin has left an indelible mark in world cinema with his comedy films. Born in London in 1889, Chaplin was forced to provide for his family after his father died and his mother had fallen sick. His career kicked off on stage, where he played the character The Tramp and grabbed the audience’s attention. He went on to become a movie actor and won over viewers with films likeThe Kid,The Gold Rush, andCity Lights.
It wasn’t just his movies that gained worldwide attention. Chaplin’s personal life was also under a massive spotlight. He was married four times and had eleven children. He was married to his fourth wife, Oona O’Neill, until his death. Their relationship raised some eyebrows due to the age difference between them.
The shocking age difference between Charlie Chaplin and Oona O’Neill
Charlie Chaplinand Oona O’Neill tied the knot in 1943 when the actor was 53 years old and she was just 18. The 35-year-old age difference did not go unnoticed by the fans.
Chaplin wrote in his memoir,My Autobiography, that meeting O’Neill was“the happiest event of my life”(via Country Living).
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O’Neill, born in Bermuda, was the daughter of Nobel-winning playwright Eugene O’Neill. Her father left her mother when she was just two years old. She moved to the U.S. and pursued acting, which her father strongly advised her against. O’Neill soon became a prominent socialite in New York City circles, earning the admiration of people like J.D. Salinger.
It was her Hollywood journey that led her to meet Chaplin in 1942. Their romance was pretty much love at first sight and they married the following year. Out of the happy union came eight children: Geraldine, Michael, Josephine, Victoria, Eugene, Jane, Annette, and Christopher. Chaplin wrote about being married to O’Neill in his memoir:
For the last twenty years, I have known what happiness means. I have the good fortune to be married to a wonderful wife. I wish I could write more about this, but it involves love, and perfect love is the most beautiful of all frustrations because it is more than one can express.
While Oona O’Neill wasn’t his youngest wife at 18, the age gap became controversial after his reputation for marrying much younger women. O’Neill’s father disowned her after her marriage to Chaplin, who was around his age.
In 1952, Chaplin’s political views made it impossible for the couple to stay in the United States, and they moved to Corsier-sur-Vevey near Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
O’Neill sacrificed her career to support her husband during these challenging times of political scrutiny. Despite the skepticism, the couple had a strong relationship and were inseparable until Chaplin died in 1977. Chaplin shared about their life at Vevey in his memoir:
As I live with Oona, the depth and beauty of her character are a continual revelation to me. Even as she walks ahead of me along the narrow sidewalks of Vevey with simple dignity, her neat little figure straight, her dark hair smoothed back showing a few silver threads, a sudden wave of love and admiration comes over me for all that she is—and a lump comes into my throat.
O’Neill continued to stay there until her death in 1991.Game of Thronesactress Oona Chaplinis the granddaughter of Chaplin and O’Neill and is named after her grandmother.
Charlie Chaplin was married three other times
Before finding everlasting love with Oona O’Neill, Charlie Chaplin was married three times. With each failed marriage, Chaplin was losing hope for finding true love. His first marriage was to actress Mildred Harris when he was 29 and she was just 16. The marriage happened after a pregnancy scare and they got divorced in 1920. The couple had one child who sadly died in infancy.
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In 1924, Chaplin got married a second time to Lita Grey, who was again a 16-year-old actress. Chaplin turned 35 at the time of this marriage. The couple had two sons, Charles Jr. and Sydney. The marriage saw trouble within a few years and led to a highly publicized divorce in 1927.
Chaplin was married to actress Paulette Goddard in 1936. She was 21 at the time and Chaplin was 47. The marriage was longer than the earlier ones and very private. They had no children at the time of their divorce in 1942. They cited career differences and personal disagreements as the reason for their divorce.
The age differences and circumstances surrounding Chaplin’s marriages showed a pattern, which many observers found disturbing. His public image took a hit due to these accusations and the legal battles that followed his divorces. In the biographyCharlie Chaplin, Theodore Huff shared that Chaplinwent through a difficult timein his forties.
He shared,“The forties brought Chaplin lawsuits, violent press attacks, general unfavorable publicity, and failure of his only film of the decade”(via Country Living). One of the prominent lawsuits was the one filed by Joan Barry, claiming that Chaplin was the father of her daughter. While a blood test proved otherwise, he was still ordered to support the child.
Oona O’Neill’s relationship with author J.D. Salinger
Oona O’Neill’s relationship withCatcher in the Ryeauthor J.D. Salinger was one that caught media attention in later years. They met in the early 1940s when she was a rising star in New York and he was an emerging writer. O’Neill’s other relationships during this short period included New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno andCitizen Kanestar Orson Welles.
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O’Neill and Salinger met while she was on vacation in Brielle, New Jersey. Salinger immediately fell for O’Neill’s beauty and charm, and they started a relationship that seemed very promising. Gloria Murray, a friend of O’Neill’s daughter Elizabeth Chaplin wrote (via Refinery29):
He fell for her on the spot. He was taken with her beauty and impressed that she was the daughter of Eugene O’Neill. They dated when they got back to New York.
The love letters that Salinger wrote O’Neill became famous later. However, the romance didn’t have a happy ending. Salinger joined the army and O’Neill pursued a Hollywood career, which grew them apart. Salinger continued to send her letters but she stopped responding a while later. He had to learn of her marriage to Chaplin from the papers.
Salinger resented the couple, which caused a bit of drama at the time. The failed relationship had a significant effect on Salinger. Author David Shields wrote about the impact of this breakup on Salinger’s life in the bookSalinger(via Refinery29):
It’s significant and revealing that he carried a life-long torch for a relationship that apparently was never consummated. He would replicate this relationship with a series of very young women The girls that followed Oona were time-travel machines. His lifelong obsession with late adolescent girlhood was at least in part an attempt to regain pre-Fall Oona. She reformatted him forever.
Salinger and O’Neill’s short-lived romance was adapted into the filmRebel in the Rye.Nicholas Houltplayed the role of Salinger whileZoey Deutchtook on the role of O’Neill.
Charlie Chaplin’s net worth at the time of his death
At the time of his death in 1977, Charlie Chaplin held on to an estimated wealth of $100 million, which would be around $415 million when adjusted for inflation today (via Celebrity Net Worth). This fortune comes from his decades-long career as an actor, filmmaker, and composer.
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In 1908, Chaplin was signed on to the Fred Karno company at the age of 19. He came out with his first film,Making a Livingin 1914. He became a huge star, especially with his character Charlie the Tramp. A year later, he signed on to Essanay company for a $1,250 weekly salary. He earned $10,000 in bonus according to the deal, which would be $250,000 when accounted for inflation.
In the next year, his salary saw a huge jump when he signed a contract with another company for $10,000 per week with a $150,000 bonus. He had to make 12 films a year according to the deal. In 1918, he signed another deal with First National that earned him a million for eight films. By 1919, he founded his own company, United Artists, with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith.
The first production of United Artists was Fairbanks’His Majesty, the American. His financial success is greatly owed to his business acumen, as he retained creative control over all his projects. These projects continued to generate revenue long after their initial release, amassing him a huge wealth. He received royalties from his films, musical compositions, and other investments.
Chaplin’s assets were frozen in 1927 during his contentious divorce from Lita Grey. It was valued at $16 million at the time, a total of $215 million in today’s value. He had to pay Grey $1 million in settlement. During his exile from the U.S., he enjoyed a comfortable life in the huge estate, Manoir de Ban, overlooking Lake Geneva.
Hashim Asraff
Senior Writer
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Hashim Asraff is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, with over 2,800 articles published on celebrity culture, comic book movies, and major TV franchises. With a background in Sociology and a keen interest in pop culture, Hashim brings a unique lens to breaking news stories, character deep-dives, film rankings, and fan-driven perspectives.His coverage often includes the MCU, DCU, hit network shows, and celebrity profiles, giving readers a rich blend of entertainment and analysis. A longtime fan of crime and investigative series, Hashim has watched thousands of episodes of NCIS, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, Bones, Blue Bloods, and The RookieA passionate storyteller and wordsmith, Hashim has also worked as a ghostwriter and managed multiple social media handles. He brought his writing expertise to FandomWire to also pursue his lifelong love for cinema and television.
