Editing Charlie Chaplin (section)

====Legal troubles and Oona O'Neill====
In the mid-1940s, Chaplin was involved in a series of trials that occupied most of his time and significantly affected his public image.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=197–198}} The troubles stemmed from his affair with an aspiring actress named [[Joan Barry (American actress)|Joan Barry]], with whom he was involved intermittently between June 1941 and the autumn of 1942.{{sfn|Maland|1989|p=200}} Barry, who displayed obsessive behaviour and was twice arrested after they separated,{{efn|In December 1942, Barry broke into Chaplin's home with a handgun and threatened suicide while holding him at gunpoint. This lasted until the next morning, when Chaplin was able to get the gun from her. Barry broke into Chaplin's home a second time later that month, and he had her arrested. She was then prosecuted for [[wikt:vagrant|vagrancy]] in January 1943{{snd}}Barry had been unable to pay her hotel bills, and was found wandering the streets of Beverly Hills after taking an overdose of [[barbiturate]]s.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=198–201}}}} reappeared the following year and announced that she was pregnant with Chaplin's child. As Chaplin denied the claim, Barry filed a [[paternity suit]] against him.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=198–201}}

The director of the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI), [[J. Edgar Hoover]], who had long been suspicious of Chaplin's political leanings, used the opportunity to generate negative publicity about him. As part of a [[smear campaign]] to damage Chaplin's image,{{sfn|Nowell-Smith|p=85}} the FBI named him in four indictments related to the Barry case. Most serious of these was an alleged violation of the [[Mann Act]], which prohibits the transportation of women across state boundaries for sexual purposes.{{efn|According to the prosecutor, Chaplin had violated the act when he paid for Barry's trip to New York in October 1942, when he was also visiting the city. Both Chaplin and Barry agreed that they had met there briefly, and according to Barry, they had sexual intercourse.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=204–205}} Chaplin claimed that the last time he was intimate with Barry was May 1942.{{sfn|Robinson|pp=523–524}}}} Historian [[Otto Friedrich]] called this an "absurd prosecution" of an "ancient statute",{{sfn|Friedrich|pp=190, 393}} yet if Chaplin was found guilty, he faced 23 years in prison.{{sfn|Maland|1989|p=215}} Three charges lacked sufficient evidence to proceed to court, but the Mann Act trial began on 21 March 1944.<ref>Associated Press, "Tentative Jury in Chaplin Case{{snd}}British Nationality Of Actor Made Issue", ''The San Bernardino Daily Sun'', San Bernardino, California, 22 March 1944, Vol. 50, p. 1.</ref> Chaplin was acquitted two weeks later, on{{spaces}}4 April.<ref>Associated Press, "Chaplin Acquitted Amid Cheers, Applause{{snd}}Actor Chokes With Emotion as Court Fight Won", ''The San Bernardino Daily Sun'', San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 5{{spaces}}April 1944, Volume 50, p. 1.</ref>{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=204–205}} The case was frequently headline news, with ''[[Newsweek]]'' calling it the "biggest public relations scandal since the [[Roscoe Arbuckle|Fatty Arbuckle]] murder trial in 1921".{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=214–215}}

[[File:Oona O'Neill - 1943.jpg|upright|thumb|Chaplin's fourth wife and widow, [[Oona O'Neill|Oona]]]]

Barry's child, Carol Ann, was born in October 1943, and the paternity suit went to court in December 1944. After two arduous trials, in which the prosecuting lawyer accused him of "[[moral turpitude]]",{{sfn|Louvish|p=xiii}} Chaplin was declared to be the father. Evidence from blood tests that indicated otherwise were not admissible,{{efn|Carol Ann's [[blood group]] was B, Barry's was A, and Chaplin's was O. In California at this time, blood tests were not accepted as evidence in legal trials.{{sfn|Maland|1989|pp=205–206}}}} and the judge ordered Chaplin to pay child support until Carol Ann turned 21. Media coverage of the suit was influenced by the FBI, which fed information to gossip columnist [[Hedda Hopper]], and Chaplin was portrayed in an overwhelmingly critical light.{{sfnm|1a1=Frost|1pp=74–88|2a1=Maland|2y=1989|2pp=207–213|3a1=Sbardellati and Shaw|3p=508|4a1=Friedrich|4p=393}}

The controversy surrounding Chaplin increased when{{snd}}two weeks after the paternity suit was filed{{snd}}it was announced that he had married his newest [[protégée]], 18-year-old [[Oona O'Neill]], the daughter of American playwright [[Eugene O'Neill]].{{sfn|Louvish|p=135}} Chaplin, then 54, had been introduced to her by a film agent seven months earlier.{{efn|Chaplin and O'Neill met on 30 October 1942 and married on 16 June 1943 in [[Carpinteria, California]].{{sfnm|1a1=Chaplin|1pp=423–444|2a1=Robinson|2p=670}} Eugene O'Neill disowned his daughter as a result.{{sfn|Sheaffer|pp=623, 658}}}} In his autobiography, Chaplin described meeting O'Neill as "the happiest event of my life", and claimed to have found "perfect love".{{sfn|Chaplin|pp=423, 477}} Chaplin's son, Charles III, reported that Oona "worshipped" his father.{{sfn|Robinson|p=519}} The couple remained married until Chaplin's death, and had eight children over 18 years: [[Geraldine Chaplin|Geraldine Leigh]] (b. July 1944), [[Michael Chaplin (actor)|Michael John]] (b. March 1946), [[Josephine Chaplin|Josephine Hannah]] (b. March 1949), [[Victoria Chaplin|Victoria Agnes]] (b. May 1951), [[Eugene Chaplin|Eugene Anthony]] (b. August 1953), Jane Cecil (b. May 1957), Annette Emily (b. December 1959), and [[Christopher Chaplin|Christopher James]] (b. July 1962).{{sfn|Robinson|pp=671–675}}