Paulette Goddard (born Marion Levy; June 3, 1910 â€" April 23, 1990)
was an American actress, a child fashion model and a performer in
several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl; she became a major
star of Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. Her most notable films were
her first major role, as Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Modern
Times, and Chaplin's subsequent film The Great Dictator. She was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her husbands included
Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.Goddard
was the daughter of Joseph Russell Levy (1881â€"1954), the son of a
prosperous cigar manufacturer from Salt Lake City, and Alta Mae
Goddard (1887â€"1983). Her father was Jewish, her mother Episcopalian
of English ancestry. They married in 1908 and separated while their
daughter was very young, although the divorce did not become final
until 1926. According to Goddard, her father left them, but according
to J. R. Levy, Alta absconded with the child. Goddard was raised by
her mother, and did not meet her father again until the late 1930s,
after she had become famous.In a 1938 interview published in
Collier's, Goddard claimed Levy was not her biological father. In
response, Levy filed a suit against his daughter, claiming that the
interview had ruined his reputation and cost him his job, and demanded
financial support from her. In a December 17, 1945 article written by
Oliver Jensen in Life, Goddard admitted to having lost the case and
being forced to pay her father $35 a week.
was an American actress, a child fashion model and a performer in
several Broadway productions as a Ziegfeld Girl; she became a major
star of Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. Her most notable films were
her first major role, as Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Modern
Times, and Chaplin's subsequent film The Great Dictator. She was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her
performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her husbands included
Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.Goddard
was the daughter of Joseph Russell Levy (1881â€"1954), the son of a
prosperous cigar manufacturer from Salt Lake City, and Alta Mae
Goddard (1887â€"1983). Her father was Jewish, her mother Episcopalian
of English ancestry. They married in 1908 and separated while their
daughter was very young, although the divorce did not become final
until 1926. According to Goddard, her father left them, but according
to J. R. Levy, Alta absconded with the child. Goddard was raised by
her mother, and did not meet her father again until the late 1930s,
after she had become famous.In a 1938 interview published in
Collier's, Goddard claimed Levy was not her biological father. In
response, Levy filed a suit against his daughter, claiming that the
interview had ruined his reputation and cost him his job, and demanded
financial support from her. In a December 17, 1945 article written by
Oliver Jensen in Life, Goddard admitted to having lost the case and
being forced to pay her father $35 a week.
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