Hetty Kelly
Kelly c. 1900s
Born
Florence Henrietta Kelly

(1893-08-28)August 28, 1893
DiedNovember 4, 1918(1918-11-04) (aged 25)
Occupationdancer
Spouse
Alan Edgar Horne
​
(m. 1915)​
PartnerCharlie Chaplin (1908–1915)
RelativesEdith Kelly (sister)

Florence Henrietta "Hetty" Kelly (August 28, 1893 – November 4, 1918[1]) was an Irish dancer and music hall performer and the first love of movie comedian Charlie Chaplin.

Life

Kelly's father was a window-frame maker in Camberwell,[1]. Her siblings both found success and made themselves noteworthy to some degree. Her sister, musical comedy actress Edith Kelly, married American millionaire Frank Jay Gould, and later Albert de Courville.[2][3] Her brother, Arthur, became an executive for United Artists, which Chaplin cofounded.[1] At the age of 21, Kelly married Lieutenant (later "Sir") Alan Edgar Horne (1889–1984) in August 1915.[1][4] Horne was a lieutenant in the Surrey Yeomanry.[4] (In 1941 Horne succeeded his father to the Horne baronetcy of Shackleford, in Surrey.[4]) The couple lived at 5 Tilney Street, Mayfair, London.[1]

Death

Kelly died in October 1918[1] in the Spanish flu epidemic that ravaged Europe in the wake of the First World War. Chaplin did not learn of her death until three years later in 1921, when Arthur Kelly informed him on a visit to England.

Relationship with Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin met Kelly in 1908 in London when they were both performing for impresario Fred Karno at the Streatham Empire.[5] She was with a song and dance troupe, Bert Coutts' Yankee-Doodle Girls, and Chaplin was playing a drunk in Mumming Birds. He was 19 and she was 15. He remembered her as "a slim gazelle, with a shapely oval face, a bewitching full mouth, and beautiful teeth". She came to be the female ideal in Chaplin's mind, and he re-created her in some of the female leads in his movies. Chaplin wrote in his autobiography, written in 1964, "Although I had met her but five times, and scarcely any of our meetings had lasted longer than twenty minutes, that brief encounter affected me for a long time."[6]

Chaplin wrote a letter to Hetty Kelly on July 18, 1918.[7]

Portrayed in film

Kelly was played by American actress Moira Kelly in the 1992 film Chaplin, produced and directed by Richard Attenborough. Moira Kelly also played Chaplin's fourth and last wife, Oona O'Neill (who resembled Hetty Kelly), in the film.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Reunions, Romance and Remembrance in Tales of Wartime Lives"[permanent dead link], Bristol Post, News section, April 8, 2014. Accessed 5 April 2016. The biographical material on Hetty is found in an email, reprinted in this article, written by Chaplin's biographer David Robinson.
  2. ^ "De Courville Is Wed To Edith Kelly Gould; Bridegroom Leaves Hospital in London and Returns After Ceremony at Registrar's". The New York Times. 27 May 1927. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  3. ^ "Frank J. Gould Did Wed Edith Kelly. His Marriage to Musical Comedy Actress in Paris Suburb. His First Wife, Mrs. Helen Kelly Gould, Is Expected to Marry Ralph Hill Thomas To-morrow". New York Times. 10 July 1910. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
  4. ^ a b c David Robinson, Chaplin: His Life and Art (Penguin: 2nd revised edition, 2001), index entry on Sir Alan Edgar Horne
  5. ^ "Charlie Chaplin's Early Life in London | Fred Karno's The Fun Factory". knowledgeoflondon.com. Retrieved 23 February 2022. Standing in the wings of the Streatham Empire one summer's day in 1908 and waiting to go onstage, Charlie became infatuated with a young showgirl, who asks him to hold her mirror whilst she checked her makeup. This love affair was to last only eleven days, but the memory would last Charlie for many years to come.
  6. ^ Chaplin, Charlie (1964). "Chapter Six". My Autobiography. Brooklyn; London: Melville House. ISBN 978-1612191928. OCLC 824512504. Retrieved 23 February 2022. Although I had met her but five times, and scarcely any of our meetings had lasted longer than twenty minutes, that brief encounter affected me for a long time.
  7. ^ Chaplin, Charlie. "Quotes". CharlieChaplin.com. Retrieved 23 February 2022. Dear Hetty, It is always the unexpected that happens, both in moving pictures and in real life. You can imagine what an unexpected pleasure it was for me when I discovered your letter on my desk this morning...Do you remember, Hetty, I once told you that money and success were not everything. At the time I had not had the experience of either, but I felt it was so, and now I have experienced both. I find that the pursuit of happiness can only be had from within ourselves and the interest of others.
  8. ^ Giles, Jeff (3 January 1993). "Moira Kelly; Playing Two Roles in 'Chaplin' While Dreaming of Joan of Arc". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 May 2010.

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