Virginia Cherrill

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BIRTHDAY

April 12, 1908

Carthage, IL

DIED

November 14, 1996

RECENT CREDITS

Girls Demand Excitement (FILM) Dec. 8, 1931

City Lights (FILM) Jan. 1, 1931

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BIOGRAPHY

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With her extraordinary blue eyes and fragile but strong demeanor, it is small wonder that Charles Chaplin saw in Virginia Cherrill the perfect blind flower girl for his last totally silent film, City Lights (1931). He spotted her at a boxing match and, though she was a socialite with no acting experience, was impressed by her ability to feign sightlessness and so made her his co-star. Though a silent film in the age of talkies, City Lights was one of Chaplin's most popular and poignant movies. Cherrill was absolutely luminous and she seemed to have a bright future in film. Indeed, she subsequently appeared in several more films through the early '30s, including Girls Demand Excitement (1931) and Fast Workers (1933). But she left acting after marrying leading man Cary Grant, whom she met at the premiere of Blonde Venus (1932). The marriage crashed two years later and Cherrill moved to England where she resumed her film career in such films as Troubled Waters (1936). Cherrill left films for good after marrying the ninth Earl of Jersey in 1937. That marriage ended in 1946. Cherrill spent much of WWII working for the Red Cross and performing charity. During the war she married pilot Florian Martini. Cherrill passed away in a Santa Barbara hospital at the age of 88. The cause of death was unreported.

~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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