Paulette Goddard

Paulette Goddard, was A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a big star in the 1940s. She was married to Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith and Erich Maria Remarque. Goddard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943).

Her first stage performance was, No Foolin in 1926, and played a small role in Rio Rita. The next year she made her stage acting debut in The Unconquerable Male. She also changed her name to Paulette and took her mother's maiden name as her last name. Goddard then returned to Hollywood in 1929 where she performed in small roles in The Girl Habit (1931) and The Mouthpiece (1932).She signed a contract with Hal Roach Studios, and performed in, The Kid from Spain and Hardy's Pack Up Your Troubles (both 1932). In 1932, she met Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin began planning a film with Goddard, that would be released in 1936 as Modern Times.

Goddard also performed in a few films for Samuel Goldwyn Productions. Goddard became a 'Goldwyn Girl' and was featured in films such as Roman Scandals (1933) and Kid Millions (1934).

Following the film Modern Times, Chaplin planned other films with Goddard in mind as a co-star. Tired of waiting around for things to happen, she signed a contract with David O. Selznick and was interested in the role of Scarlett O'Hara in his planned film version of Gone with the Wind. She performed in the comedy The Young in Heart (1938) before Selznick loaned her to MGM to perform in, Dramatic School (1938) and The Women (1939). With an all-female cast headed by Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell, Goddard played the supporting role of Miriam Aarons.

Goddard signed a contract with Paramount Pictures and her next film The Cat and the Canary (1939), was a turning point in the careers of both actors. She starred with Chaplin again in his 1940 film The Great Dictator.

She was Fred Astaire's leading lady in the musical Second Chorus (1940), where she met Burgess Meredith. One of her best-remembered film appearances was in the variety musical Star Spangled Rhythm (1943) in which she sang a comic number "A Sweater, a Sarong, and a Peekaboo Bang" with contemporary sex symbols Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake.

She received her only Oscar nomination, for the 1943 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in So Proudly We Hail! Her most successful film was Kitty (1945), where she played the title role. In The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946).

Her career faded in the late 1940s. In 1947 she made An Ideal Husband. In 1949, she formed Monterey Pictures with John Steinbeck. Her last starring roles were the English production A Stranger Came Home, and Charge of the Lancers in 1954. She also acted in summer stock and on television, including in the 1955 television remake of The Women, playing a different character than she played in the 1939 film. In 1964, she attempted a comeback in films with a supporting role in the Italian film Time of Indifference, but that turned out to be her last feature film. Her last acting role was in The Snoop Sisters (1972) for television.