Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 15:02, 4 January 2024

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Edna Purviance" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Edna Purviance
Purviance in 1923
Born	Olga Edna Purviance (1895-10-21)October 21, 1895 Paradise Valley, Nevada, U.S.
Died	January 13, 1958(1958-01-13) (aged 62) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1915–1927
Spouse	John Squire ​ ​(m. 1938; died 1945)​

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. Her name was pronounced "pur-VIE-unce" as verified by Chaplin in his spoken narration of one of his films.

Life and career

1895–1913: Early life

Edna Purviance was born in 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. 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.

She left Lovelock in 1913 and moved in with her married sister Bessie while attending business college in San Francisco.

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."

"...Tate's Cafe on Hill Street. 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.

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!" 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.

"Between Purviance's last film in 1924 and her death in 1953, Chaplin kept her on the payroll at 1000 a month."

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 small monthly salary from Chaplin's film company until she got married, and the payments resumed after her husband's death. 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."

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.

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).

In the TV series Peaky Blinders (series three, episode four), the character Tatiana Petrovna played by Gaite Jansen is said to resemble her.

Filmography

Short subjects

All short subjects directed by Charlie Chaplin.

Feature films

References

1. "Madison Gates Purviance – Edna Purviance's father". EdnaPurviance.org.
2. https://www.ednapurviance.org/ednahome/lovelockhomeb.html
3. https://www.ednapurviance.org/lovelockhome/minsingerhistory.html
4. https://silent-hall-of-fame.org/stars-l-p/77-edna-purviance
5. Toll, David W. (2002). The Complete Nevada Traveler: The Affectionate and Intimately Detailed Guidebook to the Most Interesting State in America. University of Nevada Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-940936-12-7.
6. Monush, Barry, ed. (2003). Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the silent era to 1965, Volume 1. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 612. ISBN 1-55783-551-9.
7. "Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance Dates and Events". www.ednapurviance.org. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
8. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevadan-edna-purviance-went-from-silver-state-to-silver-screen/
9. https://www.ctinsider.com/movies/article/S-F-s-stories-style-caught-Hollywood-s-eye-3245325.php
10. https://silentfilm.org/chaplin-at-essanay/
11. https://naxosdirect.co.uk/items/whiteman-paul-sweet-and-low-down-143795
12. https://www.outsidelands.org/sw21.php
13. https://www.silentera.com/video/collChaplinEssanay1HV.html
14. 37.7561202, -122.4211713
15. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/150488201/
16. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/466049288/
17. https://books.google.com/books?id=31UyYJnDhJsC&pg=PT229&lpg=PT229&dq=Tate%E2%80%99s+Caf%C3%A9+Hill+Street
18. https://books.google.com/books?id=DpPjHbz3FrUC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=Tate%E2%80%99s+Caf%C3%A9+Hill+Street
19. https://books.google.com/books?id=dfO4AwAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA10&lpg=RA2-PA10&dq=Tate%E2%80%99s+Caf%C3%A9+Hill+Street
20. This is not the way Purviance met Chaplin, according to Gerith von Ulm's Charlie Chaplin – King of Tragedy, pp. 90–91.
21. Julian Johnson, Photoplay, October 1916, p. 80.
22. Robinson, David (1986). Chaplin : his life and art. Collins. p. 141, 219. ISBN 978-0-586-08544-8. Retrieved December 1, 2018.
23. ^ Powrie 2005, p. 95.
24. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/150488201/
25. Toll, David W. (December 1994). "Edna Purviance: Nevada's Forgotten Movie Star". Nevada Magazine – via nevadaweb.com.
26. "Edna Purviance". The Montreal Gazette. January 16, 1958. p. 35. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
27. ^ Ellenberger, Allan R. (2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland & Company Incorporated Pub. p. 104. ISBN 0-7864-0983-5.
28. ^ Neibaur 2012, p. 225.
29. ^ "Edna Purviance Filmography". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
30. ^ Neibaur 2012, p. 226.

Sources

• Neibaur, James L. (2012). Early Charlie Chaplin: The Artist as Apprentice at Keystone Studios. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-810-88242-3.
• Powrie, Phil (2005). Pierre Batcheff and Stardom in 1920s French Cinema. Edinburgh, Schotland: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-748-62960-2.

External links

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

• Edna Purviance at Find a Grave

• 1895 births
• 1958 deaths
• 20th-century American actresses
• Actresses from Nevada
• American film actresses
• American people of English descent
• American silent film actresses
• Burials at Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery
• Deaths from cancer in California
• Deaths from throat cancer
• People from Humboldt County, Nevada
• Silent film comedians
• 20th-century American comedians
• People from Lovelock, Nevada