Virginia Cherrill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Virginia Cherrill (April 12, 1908 - November 14, 1996) was an American actress best known for her role as the blind flower girl in Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931). She married an English earl in the 1940s, and is also known as Virginia Child-Villiers, Countess of Jersey. Virginia Cherrill was born on a farm in rural Carthage, Illinois, to James E. and Blanche (née Wilcox) Cherrill. She was a Chicago society girl with no thoughts of a film career when she went to Hollywood for a visit and met Charlie Chaplin when he sat next to her at a boxing match. He had failed to find the girl he wanted for his film but decided she would do and cast her in City Lights in which she gave the performance for which she is remembered, although her working relationship with Chaplin on the film was often strained. As indicated in the documentary Unknown Chaplin, Cherrill was in fact fired from the film at one point and Chaplin planned to refilm all her scenes with Georgia Hale, but ultimately realized too much money had already been spent on the picture; as Cherrill recalls in the documentary, close friend Marion Davies suggested Cherrill hold out for more money when Chaplin asked her to return to the film, and she did. She appeared in a few other films subsequently, including the 1931 Gershwin musical Delicious with Janet Gaynor, but gave up her movie career in 1936 after Troubled Waters. Cherrill married four times; her second husband was actor Cary Grant (from 1934 to 1935), and her third was George Child-Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey (from 1937 to 1946). Her longest marriage was to Florian Martini, with whom she lived in Santa Barbara, California from 1948 until her death at age 88; she had no children. She is a part of stars of Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1545 Vine Street.
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Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 2.587 |
Birthday | 1908-04-12 |
Place of Birth | Carthage, Illinois, USA |
Also Known As |
1931
City Lights
8.3/2160
A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suit...
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City Lights
2017
Becoming Cary Grant
6.8/36
For the first time one of Hollywood's greatest stars tells his own story, in his own words. From a childhood of poverty to global fame, Cary Grant, th...
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Becoming Cary Grant
1933
The Nuisance
5/4
Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, un...
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The Nuisance
1928
The Air Circus
0/0
Two eager young pilots at flight school compete over their flight instructor's aviatrix sister.
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The Air Circus
1935
What Price Crime
2/1
Thieves break into a warehouse that stores guns, steal them and kill the night watchman. An undercover agent assigned to the case happens to get into...
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What Price Crime
1933
Fast Workers
5.3/6
Gunner and Bucker are friends who work as riveters. Whenever Bucker gets the urge to marry, which is often, Gunner will hit on his girl to see if she...
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Fast Workers
2004
Cary Grant: A Class Apart
6.7/7
Documentary that explores the life and career of leading man Cary Grant through film clips and interviews. Produced as S18E03 of the long running seri...
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Cary Grant: A Class Apart
1935
Late Extra
5.5/4
A newspaper reporter sets out to track down the murderer of a policeman.
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Late Extra
1936
Troubled Waters
0/0
James Mason is teamed up once again with Virginia Cherill whom he appeared with in his debut film, 'Late Extra'. He plays a government agent (John Mer...
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Troubled Waters
1931
The Brat
5.6/11
A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon h...
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The Brat
1931
Girls Demand Excitement
0/0
Peter Brooks is a hard-working, hard-up college student whose dislike of women attending college weakens under the amorous advances of spoiled sociali...
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Girls Demand Excitement
1933
He Couldn't Take It
0/0
Jimmy Kelly, who can't hold on to a job because of his hot temper, finds his calling as a process server. He serves process on a gangster and exposes...
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He Couldn't Take It
1931
Delicious
6.2/3
A comic group of Europeans coming to the USA have romantic and immigration troubles.
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Delicious
1933
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case
6/1
When a good-for-nothing man named Dan is stabbed to death and his arm broken, Charlie Chan is on the case. His first clue comes from the victim's sist...
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Charlie Chan's Greatest Case
1934
White Heat
4.5/2
In this melodrama filmed on location in Hawaii, a sugar plantation manager finds himself falling in love with a native girl, but instead of committing...
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