Carol Ann Chaplin
- Category : 1943-births
- Type : MGE
- Profile : 6/2 - Role Model / Hermit
- Definition : Single
- Incarnation Cross : LAX Upheaval 2
Biography
American newsmaker, the daughter of the actress Joan Barry who was having a brief affair with the actor-comedian Charlie Chaplin at the time of Carol's conception. The relationship between Barry and Chaplin ended when Barry displayed signs of severe mental illness. After Carol's birth, she filed a paternity suit against him in 1943. Although blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father of Barry's child, Barry's attorney, Joseph Scott, convinced the court that the tests were inadmissible as evidence, and Chaplin was ordered to support the child. The injustice of the ruling later led to a change in California law to allow blood tests as evidence.
Chaplin's public image in America was gravely damaged by these sensational trials. Barry was institutionalised in 1953. Chaplin's second wife, Lita Grey, later asserted that Chaplin had paid corrupt government officials to tamper with the blood test results. She further stated that "there is no doubt that she [Carol Ann] was his child." Carol has long since disappeared from public view, her whereabouts today unknown.
