Olga Edna Purviance (; October 21, 1895 – January 13, 1958) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with him.

Life and career 1895–1913: Early life Edna Purviance was born on October 21, 1895, in Paradise Valley, Nevada, to English immigrant Louisa Wright Davey and American vintner to the western mining camps Madison (Matt) Gates Purviance.Madison Gates Purviance When she was three, the family moved to Lovelock, Nevada, where they assumed ownership of the Singer Hotel. Her parents divorced in 1902, and her mother later married Robert Nurnberger, a German plumber. Growing up, Purviance was a talented pianist.Motion Picture Magazine - April 1918

She left Lovelock in 1913 and moved in with her married sister Bessie while attending business college in San Francisco.Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance Dates and Events

1914–1927: Film career

In 1915, Purviance was working as a stenographer in San Francisco when actor and director Charlie Chaplin was working on his second film with Essanay Studios, working out of Niles, California, 28 miles (45 km) southeast of San Francisco, in Southern Alameda County. He was looking for a leading lady for A Night Out.

"A Chaplin talent scout recognized potential in a pretty stenographer named Edna Purviance ... spotted sipping coffee at Tate's Café on Hill Street in Noe Valley."

"... There she met Carl Strauss, in town scouting for a leading lady for the young Charlie Chaplin."

Chaplin arranged a meeting with her, but he was concerned that she might be too serious for comedic roles. Purviance still won the role.This is not the way Purviance met Chaplin, according to Gerith von Ulm's Charlie Chaplin – King of Tragedy, pp. 90–91.

Edna Purviance was so closely associated with Chaplin on screen that trade reviewers took exception when she was away. Columnist Julian Johnson, reporting on Chaplin's solo performance in One A.M., wrote: "Congratulations, Mr. Chaplin, on speaking your piece so nicely, but—come on back, Edna!"Julian Johnson, Photoplay, October 1916, p. 80. The noticeably close relationship extended to the actors' private lives: Chaplin and Purviance were romantically involved during the making of his Essanay, Mutual, and First National films of 1915 to 1917. The romance ended suddenly when Purviance read a newspaper report of Chaplin having married 16-year-old Mildred Harris.

Purviance appeared in 33 of Chaplin's productions, including the 1921 The Kid. Her last credited appearance in a Chaplin film, A Woman of Paris, was also her first leading role. The film was not a success and effectively ended Purviance's career. She appeared in two more films: Sea Gulls, also known as A Woman of the Sea (which Chaplin never released) and Éducation de Prince, a French film released in 1927.

Purviance was peripherally involved in a scandal. She and Mabel Normand were guests of millionaire oil broker Courtland Stark Dines (1889-1945) on New Year’s Day 1924. Mabel’s chauffeur, R. C. Greer, alias Joe Kelly, got into an argument with Dines, produced a revolver and shot him, not fatally. As a result some cities banned A Woman of Paris.

1927–1958: Retirement and later years For more than 30 years afterward, Edna Purviance lived quietly outside Hollywood. Purviance married John Squire, a Pan-American Airlines pilot, in 1938. They remained married until his death in 1945.

Chaplin kept Purviance on his payroll. She received a monthly salary from Chaplin's film company until she got married, and the payments resumed after her husband's death.Eyman, 2023 p. 274: “…he paid Edna Purviance $100 a week ...”. She later played bit roles in Chaplin's last two American movies, Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight.

“How could I forget Edna?” Chaplin responded to an interviewer after her death. "She was with me when it all began."Kiernan, 1999 p. 79: See footnote no. 1

In her posthumously published memoir, actress Georgia Hale, who played opposite Chaplin in The Gold Rush (1925), reported that Chaplin always spoke affectionately of Purviance. Hale relates Chaplin’s account of an incident during the silent film era, when Chaplin and Purviance—he in “an old sweatshirt” and she in “a cotton house dress”—stopped at the exclusive Riverside Inn “looking like hoboes.” The head waiter, alarmed at the couple's appearance, ushered them to the back of the restaurant:

Death On January 13, 1958, Purviance died from throat cancer at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, aged 62. Her remains are interred at Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.Eyman, 2023 p. 47: “...Edna gradually became, in the words of actress Virginia Cherrill ‘a terrible alcoholic’”

In popular culture She was portrayed by Penelope Ann Miller in the film Chaplin (1992) and by Katie Maguire in the film Madcap Mabel (2010).

Filmography

Short subjects

Year Title Role Notes 1915 A Night Out The Headwaiter's Wife The Champion Trainer's Daughter In the Park Nursemaid A Jitney Elopement Edna The Tramp Farmer's Daughter By the Sea Man in Top Hat's Sweetheart Work Maid A Woman Daughter of the House The Bank Edna, a Secretary Shanghaied Daughter of the Shipowner A Night in the Show Lady in the Stalls with Beads Burlesque on Carmen Carmen 1916 Police Daughter of the House The Floorwalker Manager's secretary The Fireman The Chief's Sweetheart The Vagabond Girl Stolen by Gypsies The Count Miss Moneybags The Pawnshop Daughter Behind the Screen The Girl The Rink The Girl 1917 Easy Street The Mission Worker The Cure The Girl The Immigrant Immigrant The Adventurer The Girl 1918 A Dog's Life Bar Singer Triple Trouble Maid The Bond Charlie's Wife Shoulder Arms French Girl 1919 Sunnyside Village Belle A Day's Pleasure Mother 1921 The Idle Class Neglected Wife 1922 Pay Day Foreman's Daughter 1923 The Pilgrim Miss Brown

Feature films Year Title Role Director(s) Notes 1921 The Kid Mother 1923 A Woman of Paris Marie St. Clair 1926 A Woman of the Sea Joan not released; destroyed lost film 1927 Éducation de Prince The Queen 1947 Monsieur Verdoux Garden Party Guest uncredited 1952 Limelight Mrs. Parker

Footnotes

Sources Eyman, Scott 2023. Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex and Politics Collided. Simon & Schuster, New York. Hale, Georgia 1995. Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-ups. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland. Heather Kiernan, editor. Jacobs, Lewis. 1967. The Rise of the American Film: Experimental Cinema in America, 1921-1947. Teachers College Press, Teacher’s College, Columbia University, New York. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 68-25845 Kiernan, Heather. 1999. Introduction to Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-ups. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland. Heather Kiernan, editor.

External links

Edna Purviance—tribute and research site Edna Purviance at Then & Now