Claire Trevor once reminisced on her friendship with Goddard. She said that Goddard was a year older and that they had attended high school and sorority together, and that the guys were "gaga" over the lovely young Paulette.
According to "Paulette" by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, the actress had the inside track on marrying Clark Gable. When he was seeing her off to Mexico to film a movie, she asked him to kiss her goodbye, but Gable refused because of the many newsmen and photographers there. Goddard reportedly replied, "Well, that's that. So long, Sugar!" and with that the romance was over.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives," Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 331-333. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
Goddard never had any children, but she became a stepmother to Charles Chaplin's two sons, Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin, while she and Charlie were married. In his memoirs, "My Father Charlie Chaplin," from 1960, Charles Jr. describes her as a lovely, caring and intelligent woman throughout the book.
Had no siblings and no children.
In Italy, most of her films were dubbed by either Giovanna Scotto; Dhia Cristiani, most notably in The Women (1939); or Rosetta Calavetta.
Is portrayed by Diane Lane in Chaplin (1992) and by Gwen Humble in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (TV).
Left more than $20 million to New York University on her death.
Married Charles Chaplin the first week in June, 1936, in Canton, China, while on a world cruise.
Measurements: 34-24 1/2-34 (measured in January 1941) (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).
Owing to her donation of an estimated $20 million, New York University named a residence hall after her. Paulette Goddard Hall is located at 79 Washington Square East in New York City. NYU's Tisch School of the Arts also named its main staircase after her and awards several scholarships to students in her honor.
She suffered a miscarriage in October 1944 while married to 'Burgess Meredith'.
She was one of the 20 original The Goldwyn Girls along with Lucille Ball, Virginia Bruce, Ann Dvorak and Betty Grable.
She was paired romantically with actor Ray Milland in four films, including the blockbusters Reap the Wild Wind (1942) and Kitty (1945). In his autobiography, Milland wrote that Goddard was "wise, humorous, and with absolutely no illusions." He further claimed that she was the hardest working actress that he had ever worked with.
Sources variously cite her year of birth as 1911 and 1914, and the place as Whitestone Landing, New York, USA. However, municipal employees in Ronco, Switzerland, where she died, gave her birth year of record as 1905.
Was the leading contender for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). Her inability to produce a marriage certificate to prove she and Charles Chaplin were married, and the appearance of Vivien Leigh on the scene, lost her the part.