Josephine Chaplin, actress and daughter of Charlie Chaplin, dies at 74

Josephine Chaplin, actress and sixth of 11 children fathered by screen legend Charlie Chaplin, died July 13 in Paris, her family announced. She was 74 years old.

Chaplin co-starred with Laurence Harvey in Menahem Golan’s Escape to the sun (1972), about a group of people attempting to leave the Soviet Union to escape anti-Semitism and political repression.

She also appeared with Vittorio De Sica and Maurice Ronet in The smell of wild animals (1972), with Liv Ullmann and Kiefer Sutherland in Daniel Petrie The boy from the bay (1984), and with Klaus Kinski in a German-language version of Jack the Ripper (1976).

In 1988, she played Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, in a miniseries with Stacy Keach.

Josephine Hannah Chaplin was born in Santa Monica on March 28, 1949, the third of eight children of Charlie Chaplin and his fourth wife, Oona O’Neill, the British actress and daughter of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O’Neill. Her parents eloped in 1943 and had Geraldine and Michael before her.

In Flip (1952), written, directed by and starring her father, appeared in opening scene with Geraldine and Michael, and was in her father’s scene A countess from Hong Kong (1967). In 1972 she played the part of May in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s X-rated The Canterbury Tales (1972).

A long-time resident of Paris, Chaplin has done most of her acting in French feature films, including red nights (1974) and In the shade of a summer (1976). According to IMDb, his last credit came in the 1994 film lower citywith Mike Connors.

In 1978, she and her family were involved in a bizarre extortion scheme by two men who stole the body and coffin of her father, who had died in Switzerland the previous Christmas day. The family refused to pay a ransom and her remains were recovered 11 weeks after being taken. Oona died in 1991.

Josephine ran the Chaplin office in Paris for her brothers for years and sponsored a statue of her father in Waterville, Ireland, where her family often vacationed.

She was married to Greek businessman Nikki Sistovaris from 1969 until their divorce in 1977, then lived with French actor Maurice Ronet until his death in 1983. Her second husband was archaeologist Jean-Claude Gardin; they were together from 1989 until her death in 2013.

In addition to Geraldine and Michael, survivors include his sisters, Victoria, Jane and Annette; the brothers Eugenio and Cristoforo; and sons Charly, Julien and Arthur. A funeral will take place in Paris “in the privacy of the family”.