Age gaps are nothing new in Hollywood, but some stars’ age gaps have definitely been more yikes-worthy than others. Case in point: Charlie Chaplin who married Oona O’Neill in 1943. She was just a teenager and he was in his 50s.
Some may know Charlie married several times, each time with one woman young enough to be his daughter. Only his third was in his early 20s when they married. Oona was his fourth (and last) wife. She was 17 when she met Charlie, who was in his early 50s. Granted, when they first met, it had been strictly professional. Oona’s agent called Charlie to arrange a dinner in the hope that she would score a role in the Hollywood legend’s film, “Shadow and Substance.” After initial hesitation, Charlie gave Oona the role, and although the film was never made, they got to know each other and fell in love.
The fact that Charlie and Oona had such a big age difference was of course a problem, and the movie star wrote in “My Autobiography,” “At first I was afraid of the discrepancy in our ages” (via Internet Archive). Ultimately, the couple decided it wasn’t enough of a problem for them to end things (and more specifically, Oona was said to be “resolute”), but not everyone was so nonchalant when the actor announced his plans to marry 18-year-old Oona. Her playwright father, Eugene O’Neill, wrote a letter to a friend saying he thought the whole thing was nothing more than a stunt. Sore “Oona: Living in the Shadows,” he referred to Oona as a “cheap publicity grabber” and bemoaned the fact that he was the same age as Charlie, but believed the star was “probably older for which actor tells his real age(?)” (via Internet Archive). Yikes.
Charlie’s sons had a crush on Oona
There are age gap marriages and there is marriages where one party is younger than the other’s children and we guess we have to give Oona O’Neill and Charlie Chaplin some credit here. After all, Oona wasn’t younger than his eldest son, Charlie Chaplin Jr. She was the same age. To make matters worse, both Charlie Jr. and his brother Sydney friendly with Oona when she started taking acting lessons with their father… and both fell in love with her.
Per “Oona: Living in the Shadows,” Charlie Jr. wrote. of her future stepmother, “Her name sounds like a spring breeze—as ethereal, as lovely as the girl herself” (via Internet Archive). Charlie Jr. also wrote: “There was a calmness about her, a native sweetness that drew Syd and me to her.” But Sydney knew better than to get her hopes up, pointing out in a note to Charlie Jr., “We might as well hang out. Oona’s got eyes for daddy.”
Despite their huge age difference, it certainly seems that Charlie and Oona were ideal for each other. After all, they had a whopping eight children together, including a son when Charlie was in his 70s. Perhaps not surprisingly given the size of their brood, Charlie and Oona also welcomed several grandchildren, including a great-grandson Oona Chaplin (of “Game of Thrones” fame). Charlie also dedicated his 1964 autobiography to his wife, writing in one passage: “I have the good fortune to be married to a wonderful wife. I wish I could write more about this, but it involves love, and perfect love is the most beautiful of frustrations, because it is more than can be expressed.” Maybe age really is just a number.
