1. – Isobel Elsom, Monsieur Verdoux, 1947. Charlie Chaplin intended that the role of the one woman that survived his ladykiller in his “comedy of murders” should go to his eternal co-star. However, having retired after her French film, Education de prince/The Education of a Prince, 1926, Edna was no longer into movies. However, and as with Limelight, 1952, she had an uncredited bit. She was Chaplin’s leading lady in 34 silent movies; at her best in The Kid, 1921, and his United Artists debut, designed to launch her solo career, A Woman of Paris, 1923. He had Josef von Sternberg direct her (twice over) in A Woman of the Sea, 1925. Chaplin directed parts of the second version, never released either (he burnt the negatives) and she retired. But for the shotgun marriage to teenage Mildred Harris, 1918-20, Purivance would have married him. Certainly, he tended her better than any of his three divirced women, keeping her on his payroll until her death at age 62.
Birth year: 1895Death year: 1958Other name: Casting Calls: 0