So was this child’s father Charlie Chaplin? The mother said yes, the jury said yes, but Chaplin said no. Back in 1942, the Chaplin paternity scandal trial was front page news for weeks. The entire sordid story is detailed on p. 50 of the book Beverly Hills Confidential. Here’s his accuser, Joan Barry in court:
And here’s the jury, they were charmed by Chaplin, but in the end they decided (sans DNA tests in those days) that Chaplin was, indeed the dad and ordered him to pay child support.
Chaplin, who had a penchant for younger women, married playwright Eugene O’Neill’s daughter Oona O’Neill while his trials were ongoing. She was 18. Their marriage lasted 35 years and produced 8 children. Chaplin endured a few more real-life dramas, they are detailed on p. 52. Here are Before & After photos of the Chaplin, O’Neill marriage:
Beverly Hills Confidential 
The paternity trial of Chaplin was a miscarriage of justice; once the blood tests proved the child was not his, all charges should have been dropped and the mother fined for making false statements and trying to extort money. That J. Edgar Hoover went on to harass Chaplin and eventually cause his denial to return to California home with no evidence he was a danger to the US is just one criminal act of many Hoover himself perpetrated. That Hoover was never impeached and charged with wrong doing is monstrous; he ruined many people’s lives because of his own paranoia, not their criminal acts. That he is looked upon as a great American, sickens me. The US owes the Chaplin family a written apology and a statue of Chaplin should be erected outside the FBI building in Virginia as a reminder to all agents they cannot twist and bend the laws to satisfy a personal agenda as Hoover did.
It’s interesting, had this happened today, with DNA tests featured on talk shows, it would have been an entirely different story, as in “Charlie, you are NOT the father!”
In spite of their marriage, the idea of an old man with a so young woman makes me think in nothing but Charles’s pedophile feelings… Although they marriage lasts 35 years, makes me think about she was not that uncomfortable with this guy.
Is not my favorite comic actor… but I admire his work and creativity as much as his unique style.
I don’t think the name of pedophile has much to do with this, the girl was 18, not 12,13,14, or even 16. I consider her a adult, true there was a big age difference, but I simply consider him basically a letch not a child molester. And please if you could forgive me for stereotyping but as far as I’m concerned allllll men are basically sexual animals of the lowest caliber and would go after young women far too young for them if they could. I’m not a woman that hates men as a matter of fact when I was younger I loved the fools, I just have had a lot of years and happen to know more about men than I want to.
I concur Mary. As a lovely 18 year old, many many years ago, I started dating older men. First 10 years older. Then 15 years older. Finally 22 years older. I loved how I was treated, and surprisingly they didn’t pester for sex, like my contempories of the same age. Alas, after about 6 months, the age gap would prove too much for me. I longed to listen to my rock n roll, and just be a young woman. After some therapy, I realized I was trying to recreate a father daughter relationship with these men. AS my own father was a distant, mean and absent scoundrel. One day, a few months before he died, he asked to meet me at some bar lounge. I did, and he told me how sorry he was of his treatment of me. He told me for the first time in my life that he loved me. WELL, those were the magic words. MY obsession with older men vanished…poof…..I started dating a lot of toads my own age….yawn..but one day my prince arrived. Yep, not a lot of money, but loads of class, character, decency, so 30 years later..here I sit trolling on my iPad writing asinine comments like this. Thanks for listening and stay positive. Life truly is a gift. Xxo