Mildred Harris

 Mildred Harris (April 18, 1901 – July 20, 1944)

Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was 10 years old. She was also the first wife of Charlie Chaplin. In the 1920s, Harris transitioned from child actress to leading lady roles opposite leading men such as Conrad Nagel, Charley Chase, Milton Sills, Lionel Barrymore, Rod La Rocque and the Moore brothers, Owen and Tom. She appeared in Frank Capra's 1928 silent drama The Power of the Press with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Jobyna Ralston and the same year, starred in Universal Pictures first sound film Melody of Love opposite Walter Pidgeon. She found the transition to the "talkies" difficult and her career slowed dramatically. She performed in vaudeville and burlesque, and at one point, toured with comedian Phil Silvers. She was critically praised for her performance in the 1930 film adaptation of the Broadway musical No, No Nanette. Harris continued to work in film in the early 1940s, largely through the kindness of her former director, Cecil B. DeMille. Her last film appearance was in the posthumously released 1945 film Having A Wonderful Crime.

Harris was married three times, her most notable marriage was with Charlie Chaplin (1918 to 1920). The couple quarreled about her contract with Louis B. Mayer and her career. Chaplin felt she was not his intellectual equal. They divorced in 1920. She went on to marry twice more, and had a child with her second husband. Her son with Chaplin, Norman Spencer, died in July 1919, at only three days of age. Harris died of pneumonia following a major abdominal operation, she was 43 years old. She is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.