Profile of Mildred Harris on Famous Like Me

Mildred Harris (November 29, 1901 - July 20, 1944) was a notable actress of the silent screen era and first wife of acting legend Charlie Chaplin.

Born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Mildred Harris made her first screen appearances at the age of nine then went on to play a variety of juvenile roles in the "Oz" film series produced by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum. She graduated to leading lady assignments, working under the direction of such prominent filmmakers as Cecil B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith. In 1916 Mildred Harris appeared in Griffith's colossal film epic Intolerance.

On October 23, 1918 she married Charlie Chaplin, a union which caused quite a scandal considering Mildred was sixteen years old and Chaplin was twenty-nine. Mildred gave birth to a male child in 1919, but the child was born extremely deformed and only lived three days. He was buried in the Hollywood Memorial Park cemetery under a headstone with the inscription The Little Mouse. The marriage lasted until 1920 and the divorce was heavily covered by the press with both Harris and Chaplin making scandalous claims against the other. Chaplin charged that Harris spent nights with noted lesbian Ukrainian film star Alla Nazimova; Harris claimed that Chaplin was abusive and a sexual sadist.

Cashing in on the failed marriage, producer Louis B. Mayer signed Harris to a series of films billing her as Mildred Harris- Chaplin, an exploitive decision that resulted in a much publicized public fistfight between Mayer and Chaplin on April 8, 1920 at the fashionable Alexendria Hotel in Los Angeles. The altercation ended with actor Jack Pickford escorting a bloodied Chaplin away. The ensuing publicity certainly helped Mildred's acting career, and 1920's Polly of the Storm Country was a modest success.

Mildred Harris enjoyed moderate film success in the 1920's, but like so many of her acting peers, found the transition to talkies rather difficult. Among her few memorable roles of the talkie era was her parody of a tempermental and demanding movie starlet (a role she played in real life only several years earlier) in the 1936 Three Stooges comedy Movie Maniacs. Harris tried for a second act in vaudeville and burlesque, at one point she toured in a with young comic Phil Silvers. Harris continued to work in film in the early 1940's, largely through the kindness of her former director Cecil B. DeMille, who cast her in bit parts in 1942's Reap the Wild Wind and her last film; 1944's The Story of Dr. Wassell.

In 1944, Mildred Harris died unexpectedly of pneumonia at the age of 43. She was laid to rest at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. For her contribution as an actress in the motion picture industry, Mildred Harris was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6307 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, California.

Mildred Harris filmography

The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944)

Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)

Reap the Wild Wind (1942)

Movie Maniacs (1936)

Great Guy (1936)

Never Too Late (1935)

Lady Tubbs (1935)

Melody Man (1930)

No, No Nanette (1930)

Side Street (1929)

Sea Fury (1929)

Melody of Love (1928)

Speed Classic (1928)

Lingerie (1928)

The Power of the Press (1928)

The Heart of a Follies Girl (1928)

Hearts of Men (1928)

The Show Girl (1927)

The Swell-Head (1927)

Out of the Past (1927)

One Hour of Love (1927)

Wandering Girls (1927)

She's My Baby (1927)

The Adventurous Soul (1927)

The Girl from Rio (1927)

Burning Gold (1927)

Husband Hunters (1927)

The Mystery Club (1926)

Wolf Hunters (1926)

Self Starter (1926)

Cruise of the Jasper B (1926)

Dangerous Traffic (1926)

The Isle of Retribution (1926)

My Neighbor's Wife (1925)

Private Affairs (1925)

The Unknown Lover (1925)

Dressmaker from Paris (1925)

Easy Money (1925)

The Fighting Cub (1925)

Frivolous Sal (1925)

The Iron Man (1925)

Stepping Lively (1924)

Unmarried Wives (1924)

Traffic in Hearts (1924)

One Law for the Woman (1924)

Shadow of the East (1924)

By Divine Right (1924)

The Desert Hawk (1924)

In Fast Company (1924)

The Fog (1923)

Daring Years (1923)

First Woman (1922)

A Prince There Was (1921)

Habit (1921)

Fool's Paradise (1921)

Woman in His House (1920)

Polly of the Storm Country (1920)

Home (1919)

For Husbands Only (1918)

Borrowed Clothes (1918)

Cupid by Proxy (1918)

Doctor and the Woman (1918)

Love Sublime (1917)

Old Fashioned Young Man (1917)

Golden Rule Kate (1917)

Bad Boys (1917)

Cold Deck (1917)

The Americano (1917)

The Old Folks at Home (1916)

Hoodoo Ann (1916)

Intolerance (1916)

The Matrimaniac (1916)

The Warrens of Virginia (1915)

The Absentee (1915)

Enoch Arden (1915)

Shadows of the Past (1914)

His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914)

The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914)

Grand-Dad (1913)

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