Oscar Profile #124: Paulette Goddard

Born June 3, 1910 in Whitestone Landing, Queens, New York, to J.R. Levy and his wife, the former Alta Mae Goddard, according to her birth certificate, Paulette Goddard told so many lies that for years her actual birth date was given variously as 1905 and 1915 while her place of birth varied from Long Island to Manhattan to Brooklyn. Her parents divorced while she was very young and the already beautiful girl became a model at age four to support her mother and herself. She joined the Ziegfeld Follies as a teenager and married writer Edgar James in 1917 just after her 17th birthday although Goddard later claimed she only 15 at the time. They were divorced in January, 1932.

In films in mostly un-credited bit parts from 1929, she finally received billing in Charles Chaplin’s Modern Times in 1936. She and Chaplin were married in June of that year. Her next credited role was in 1938’s The Young in Heart in which she was third billed behind Janet Gaynor and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. She was almost signed to play Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind when Vivien Leigh came along and got the part instead. She rebounded with a major role in the 1939 classic, The Women and opposite Bob Hope in both The Cat and the Canary and Ghost Breakers.

She starred opposite Fred Astaire in Second Chorus and James Stewart in Pot o’ Gold before playing another signature role in Hold Back the Dawn in support of Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland.

She starred with Ray Milland and John Wayne in the 1942 Cecil B. DeMille epic, Reap the Wild Wind the year she was divorced from Chaplin. She received an Oscar nomination for the following year’s So Proudly We Hail! in which she co-starred with Claudette Colbert and Veronica Lake.

Married to actor-writer-producer-director Burgess Meredith in 1944, she suffered a miscarriage during her only pregnancy. Artistically this was the best period of her life, in which she starred in several hits, including 1946’s Kitty and The Diary of a Chambermaid and 1947’s An Ideal Husband and Unconquered. Divorced from Meredith in 1949, subsequent roles were difficult to come by and following 1954’s The Unholy Four she spent a decade in occasional TV appearances before making just one more theatrical film, 1964’s Time of Indifference in which she had a supporting role.

Married to All Quiet on the Western Front author, Erich Maria Remarque in 1958, the two lived in separate apartments on New York’s West 57th Street but had dinner together every night until his death in 1970.

Two years after Remarque’s death, Goddard played her last role as the murder victim in the pilot for TV’s The Snoop Sisters with Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick.

Spending the remainder of her life in luxury, Goddard died of heart failure in Ronco, Switzerland on April 3, 1990. She was 79.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE WOMEN (1939), directed by George Cukor

Cukor directed this definitive version of Clare Boothe Luce’s play on the rebound of being fired from Gone With the Wind featuring Scarlett O’Hara reject Goddard in the film’s fifth credited role behind Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and Mary Boland. While Crawford, Russell and Boland garnered the bulk of the film’s rave reviews, Goddard was also singled out for her hirlarious portrayal of Russell’s rival. A 1955 TV remake starred Ruth Hussey, a minor player in this version, in Shearer’s role, Shelley Winters in Crawford’s and Goddard in Russell’s. Boland recreated her classic portrayal of the Countess De Lave.

SO PROUDLY WE HAIL! (1940), directed by Mark Sandrich

One of two major 1943 films focusing on nurses in the Philippines during World War II, this one beat Cry “Havoc” into theatres. The momentum allowed this film with Claudettel Colbert, Goddard and Veronica Lake to gain traction over Margaret Sullivan, Ann Southern and Joan Blondell. Goddard is as much of a star of the film as Colbert, but Oscar votters decided to nominate her in the Supporting Actress category for her powerful performance.

KITTY (1946), directed by Mitchell Liesen

The late 18th and early 19th centuries are the setting for this ribald tale of a wench who marries her way into the aristocracy. Oscar nominated for its stand-out art direction and set design, the film is also notable for its outstanding costume design and cinematography. Goddard in her first full-out starring role is quite memorable despite being surrounded on all sides by veteran scene stealers including Ray Milland, Patric Knowles, Cecil Kellawy and especially Constance Collier.

THE DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (1946), directed by Jean Renoir

Goddard and her then husband Burgess Meredith produced this version of Octave Mirbeau’s 19th Century novel for which Meredith also wrote the screenplay and plays a supporting role. The tone of the film, however, is distinctly Renoir’s as the 1964 remake with Jeanne Moreau would be Luis Bunuel’s.

The film is a mix of high comedy and low tragedy with Goddard at her peak as a maid who wants to become a “mistress”, double entendre intended. Mereidth gave himself second billing despite the brevity of his tole, but third billed Hurd Hatfield and fourth billed Francis Lederer have larger roles as more interesting characters. Judith Anderson, Reginald Owen and Irene Ryan co-star.

AN IDEAL HUSBAND (1947), directed by Alexander Korda

Still in costume mode, but moving closer to the 20th Century, Goddard stars along with Hugh Williams, Diana Wynard, Michael Wilding and Glynis Johns in this well-made version of Oscar Wilde’s comic masterpiece set in 1895.

Goddard is at her ravishing best decked out in gorgeous Cecil Beaton designs.as the woman who threatens to bring down a high ranking politician with a secret.