Georgia Hale

MINI BIO:

"Miss Chicago of 1922," Georgia Hale, began acting in the early 1920s. Her first big break came when she starred as The Girl in Josef von Sternberg's The Salvation Hunters (1925). Based on that performance, Charlie Chaplin cast her as Georgia the Dance-Hall Girl (Charlie's 'crush') in The Gold Rush (1925) which instantly propelled her to celebrity status. In 1926 she played the role of Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby, but soon after, her career stalled. Her last film was her one and only talkie, The Lightning Warrior, a Rin-Tin-Tin serial, in 1931.

Also of note is that Chaplin hired Hale to replace Virginia Cherrill as the Blind Girl in City Lights after firing Cherrill for leaving the set for a hair appointment. Chaplin filmed some scenes with Hale, but ultimately decided to rehire Cherrill (at twice the salary) rather than scrap all of his work and re-shoot over 500 days of film.

Hale spoke warmly of her time with Chaplin in the documentary Unknown Chaplin: The Master at Work, and also wrote a book about her experiences with him called Charlie Chaplin: Intimate Close-Ups (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series).