Born: March 28, 1949.
Died: July 13, 2023.
Josephine Chaplin, actor, long-time manager of the Charlie Chaplin office in Paris and co-founder of the Charlie Chaplin comedy film festival in Waterville, Co Kerry has died aged 74 in Paris.
Josephine was the sixth child of the star of silent movies Charlie Chaplin and the third of eight children he had with his fourth wife, actor Oona O’Neill. She first appeared on screen at the age of three in Limelight, the 1952 film written and directed by her father, who starred in it.
Josephine Chaplin also appeared in the Charlie Chaplin film A Countess from Hong Kong in 1967. She went on to work in British, Italian, German and Canadian films, but was best known for her work in French films. She starred in L’Odeur des Fauves with Vittorio De Sica and Maurice Ronet, the German-language version of Jack the Ripper with Klaus Kinski, and in Daniel Petrie’s The Bay Boy with Liv Ullman and Kiefer Sutherland. She also starred in Pier Paulo Pasolini’s The Canterbury Tales.
As a child, she holidayed in Waterville, Co Kerry regularly over more than 10 years with her parents and siblings. Charlie Chaplin first came to the Ring of Kerry village on the recommendation of his friend Walt Disney.
They arrived in a fleet of chauffeur-driven limousines. They loved pony trekking from Reenroe beach to Ballinskelligs beach
On the Chaplins’ first visit in 1959 there was no room in the popular Butler Arms Hotel.
They were on their way to Kenmare when the then-owner, Billy Huggard, tracked them down and made room for the Chaplins in the family quarters of the hotel. The Chaplin family loved the fresh sea air and picturesque landscape, making it a regular holiday destination until the early 1970s.
Martin Huggard, the eldest son of Billy and Mary Huggard who ran the Butler Arms Hotel at the time, has fond memories of their visits. “They arrived in a fleet of chauffeur-driven limousines. They loved pony trekking from Reenroe beach to Ballinskelligs beach, going on the sand yachts and playing games with other guests,” he said.
The Chaplin Lounge in the Butler Arms Hotel was named in the actor’s honour, although the new owners call their eatery Charlie’s instead. A 2012 documentary on RTÉ reported that Charlie Chaplin’s great-grandmother was an Irish Traveller from Cork, a fact that was backed up by a local driver who said that the London-born Charlie Chaplin used to stop to speak with Irish Travellers at their encampment near the town when he visited.
Josephine Chaplin maintained strong connections with Waterville, sponsoring the erection of the Charlie Chaplin statue by Alan Ryan Hall on the promenade in 1998. She was also a co-founder of the Charlie Chaplin comedy film festival, which was held in the village throughout the 2010s. And she and her family visited her sister Annette (Annie), who had a house in Waterville for a number of years.
[ Right lot of Charlies turn out for Chaplin festivalOpens in new window ]
Josephine Hannah Chaplin was born in Santa Monica, California but within a few years of her birth, the family moved to live in Switzerland, following public outcry over Charlie Chaplin’s penchant for teenage brides and amid the anti-communist witch hunts in the United States in that era. Oona O’Neill, the daughter of famous American playwright Eugene O’Neill, was 18 and Chaplin 53 when they married in 1943. The couple remained married until his death in 1977. In Switzerland, the family lived in Corsier-Sur-Vevey and their former home is now a museum.
Josephine Chaplin married twice. Her first husband was the Greek businessman Nikki Sistovaris, with whom she had one son, Charles (Charly). She later lived with Ronet and they too had a son, Julien. Following Ronet’s death, she married the archeologist, Jean-Claude Gardin. They had a son, Arthur.
For many years, Josephine Chaplin managed the Chaplin’s family office in Paris on behalf of her siblings. In 2002, she reacquired the rights to many of Charlie Chaplin’s best known movies, which for the previous 30 years had been held by De Dam Films. These included The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925) and The Great Dictator (1940s), his first movie with speaking parts.
Much earlier, following her father’s death, she was caught in a bizarre extortion plot when two men stole the body and coffin of Charlie Chaplin. The family refused to pay a ransom and the remains were recovered some weeks later.
Following a family funeral in Paris, Josephine Chaplin was buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. She is survived by her sons, Charly, Julien and Arthur and her siblings Geraldine, Michael, Victoria, Eugene, Jane, Annette and Christopher. Her second husband, Jean-Claude Gardin, predeceased her.
