charlie chaplin paedophile?

[tali122]

is there any truth in the claim that charlie chaplin was a paedophile?

[KebabMeister]

Well, I think he had an eye for younger girls... I think he went with one was around 15 or 16 if I remember correctly.  If that makes him a paedophile though... well, not in my eyes.

[londondave]

it would in some states of America where age of consent is 18

[jenstar]

An ephebophile, perhaps, but a pedophile.

[jenstar]

But NOT a pedophile, was what I meant to say. If only one could edit these posts. Or report your own.

[brachiopod]

What would that make Jerry Lee Lewis then, who married his cousin aged 13?

[flaming]

I believe there was an enormous age difference between Charlie Chaplin and his last wife, Oona.  It would be remarkable even today, but back then when they married it was frowned upon by society in general.

[jno]

He got Lita Grey, the original leading lady in The Gold Rush, pregnant and had to marry her. She was 16. Her real name was Lillita, and Nabokov used the name for his novel Lolita, about a much younger girl.

Oona O'Neill was only 17 when she married him (he was 56), but they stayed together until his death 34 or so years later.

Most of his women were rather younger than he was, but not so young you'd call him a pedophile, I don't think.

[LeeuhMontano]

Chaplin was attracted to younger women around the ages of 16 (Mildred Harris, Lita Grey) and 18 (Oona O'Neil), but that does not necessarily mean he had pedophilia.
When he was a young teen, he fell in love with a Hetty Kelly, 15. He proposed to her when she was 19 and when she refused, he was devastated and they never spoke again. From then on Chaplin went after young women around that age.
It is my personal theory that he longed for a woman who resembled his first love.
Pedophilia, however is sometimes confused with ephebophilia, attraction to adolescents between the ages of 15-19. (Note: the ages Chaplin knew Kelly to be). Pedophilia is strictly the attraction to children, which can range in age.

[sarah456]

He was romatically involved with at least 3 16 year old girls. Really does not matter if he married them although in the 20's you could excape a jail sentence by doing so. He was living with Oona Oneil when she was 16.

Love his work, his politics, but this does not change the pattern of his very disturbing sexual preferences. ...however you label it.

[tandi]

A pedophile is someone attracted to pre-pubescent girls or boys. Charlie Chaplin had an attraction to young post-pubescent girls, and thus was not a pedophile.

Being attracted to a 16 year old is not disturbing. Get your heads our of your asses if you think it is. The age of consent in first-world countries ranges from 13 to 18. There is nothing universal about the idea that people younger than 18 shouldn't have sex. Not long in the past in many western cultures, being an unmarried girl by the age of 18 was thought of as something that shamed your family.

[tandi]

A pedophile is someone attracted to pre-pubescent girls or boys. Charlie Chaplin had an attraction to young post-pubescent girls, and thus was not a pedophile.

Being attracted to a 16 year old is not disturbing. Get your heads our of your asses if you think it is. The age of consent in first-world countries ranges from 13 to 18. There is nothing universal about the idea that people younger than 18 shouldn't have sex. Not long in the past in many western cultures, being an unmarried girl by the age of 18 was thought of as something that shamed your family.