- Joan Barry (American actress)
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For the British actress, see Joan Barry (British actress).
Joan Barry 
Born Mary Louise Gribble[1]
May 24, 1920 (or 1919)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.Died ? Spouse Russell C. Seck (1946-19??)[2] Partner Charlie Chaplin (1941–1942) Joan Barry (May 24, 1920 or 1919 – ?) was an American actress who was at the center of a paternity suit with Charlie Chaplin in 1943.
Biography
Born as Mary Louise Gribble, her father, Jim Gribble, committed suicide before her birth. Her mother remarried a man whose last name was Berry and the family moved to New York before Barry went to California in 1938 to pursue an acting career.[1]
Charlie Chaplin had a brief affair with Barry, whom he was considering for a starring role in Shadows and Substance, a proposed film in 1942,[3] but the relationship ended when she began harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness. After having a child, Carol Ann, on October 2, 1943, [4] she filed a paternity suit against Chaplin in 1943. Although blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father of Barry's child, Barry's attorney, Joseph Scott, convinced the court that the tests were inadmissible as evidence, and Chaplin was ordered to support the child. The injustice of the ruling later led to a change in California law to allow blood tests as evidence. Chaplin's second wife, Lita Grey, later asserted that Chaplin had paid corrupt government officials to tamper with the blood test results. She further stated that "there is no doubt that she [Carol Ann] was his child."[5] Federal prosecutors also brought Mann Act charges against Chaplin related to Barry in 1944, of which he was acquitted.[6]
Married to Russell Seck, a railroad clerk, in 1946, Barry gave birth to sons in 1947 and 1948. The boys moved to Ohio with their father in 1952. The following year, she was institutionalized at Patton State Hospital after being found walking the streets barefoot, carrying a pair of baby sandals and a child's ring, and murmuring: "This is magic".[7] After her mother was committed, Carol Ann went to live with a legally appointed guardian and changed her name. She continued to receive monthly payments from Chaplin until her 21st birthday.
Joan Barry's last contact with her sons was a telephone call in the mid-1960s, after which her whereabouts and fate are unknown. Her eldest son believed she probably remarried, changed her name and later died. A valid social security number was found in FBI documents having to do with Chaplin but nothing meaningful has ever been traced. [8]
References
- ^ a b Maland, Charles J. (1989). Chaplin and American Culture. Princeton University Press. pp. 197. ISBN 0691028605.
- ^ "Joan's Happy in Role of Clerk's Wife". Utica Daily Press (Utica, NY). 1947-01-20. http://fultonhistory.com/Process%20small/Newspapers/Utica%20NY%20Daily%20Press/Utica%20NY%20Daily%20Press%201947.pdf/Utica%20NY%20Daily%20Press%201947%20-%200236.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
- ^ Weissman, Steven (2008). "Fatal Attraction: Joan Barry". Chaplin: A Life. http://www.chaplinalife.com/photo_essays/38.html. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
- ^ Maland, pp. 205-206
- ^ http://www.alternativereel.com/includes/articles/display_article.php?id=00075
- ^ "Mann & Woman". Time. 3 April 1944. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,850389,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-21. "Auburn-haired Joan Barry, 24, who wandered from her native Detroit to New York to Hollywood in pursuit of a theatrical career, became a Chaplin protegee in the summer of 1941. She fitted into a familiar pattern. Chaplin signed her to a $75-a-week contract, began training her for a part in a projected picture. Two weeks after the contract was signed she became his mistress. Throughout the summer and autumn, Miss Barry testified last week, she visited the ardent actor five or six times a week. By midwinter her visits were down to "maybe three times a week". By late summer of 1942, Chaplin had decided that she was unsuited for his movie. Her contract ended."
- ^ "Just Like the Movies". Time. 17 August 1953. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858217,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-21. "Another Chaplin ex-protegee, 33-year-old Joan Barry, who won a 1946 paternity suit against the comedian, was admitted to Patton State Hospital (for the mentally ill) after she was found walking the streets barefoot, carrying a pair of baby sandals and a child's ring, and murmuring: "This is magic"."
- ^ http://www.alternativereel.com/includes/articles/display_article.php?id=00075
External links
Categories:- Actors from California
- American film actors
- People from Detroit, Michigan
- 1919 births
- Year of birth uncertain
- Possibly living people
- Missing people
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