I'm sorry this is a day late.
Merna was the childhood friend of Chaplin’s second wife Lita Grey. It was Lita who suggested her for the role of the equestrienne in The Circus, not only because she was pretty, but because she had the developed legs of a dancer. Merna made several more films after The Circus, but retired in 1934 when she married choreographer/director Busby Berkeley (the marriage only lasted a year). She died of a heart attack in 1944, shortly after her second marriage to Forrest Brayton, she was only 35.
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| Merna on the set of The Circus. |
Merna was the childhood friend of Chaplin’s second wife Lita Grey. It was Lita who suggested her for the role of the equestrienne in The Circus, not only because she was pretty, but because she had the developed legs of a dancer. Merna made several more films after The Circus, but retired in 1934 when she married choreographer/director Busby Berkeley (the marriage only lasted a year). She died of a heart attack in 1944, shortly after her second marriage to Forrest Brayton, she was only 35.
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| Eating an egg on the lawn of the Chaplin Studios. |