1895–1913: Early life Edna Purviance was born on October 21, 1895, in
Paradise Valley, Nevada, to English immigrant Louisa Wright Davey and American vintner to the western mining camps Madison (Matt) Gates Purviance. When she was three, the family moved to
Lovelock, Nevada, where they assumed ownership of the Singer Hotel. Her parents divorced in 1902, and her mother later married Robert Nurnberger, a German plumber. Growing up, Purviance was a talented pianist. She left Lovelock in 1913 and moved in with her married sister Bessie while attending business college in San Francisco.
1914–1927: Film career In 1915, Purviance was working as a stenographer in San Francisco when actor and director
Charlie Chaplin was working on his second film with
Essanay Studios, working out of
Niles, California, 28 miles (45 km) southeast of
San Francisco, in Southern
Alameda County. He was looking for a leading lady for
A Night Out. "A Chaplin talent scout recognized potential in a pretty stenographer named Edna Purviance ... spotted sipping coffee at Tate's Café on Hill Street in Noe Valley." "... There she met Carl Strauss, in town scouting for a leading lady for the young Charlie Chaplin." Chaplin arranged a meeting with her, but he was concerned that she might be too serious for comedic roles. Purviance still won the role. Edna Purviance was so closely associated with Chaplin on screen that trade reviewers took exception when she was away. Columnist Julian Johnson, reporting on Chaplin's solo performance in
One A.M., wrote: "Congratulations, Mr. Chaplin, on speaking your piece so nicely, but—come on back, Edna!" The noticeably close relationship extended to the actors' private lives: Chaplin and Purviance were romantically involved during the making of his Essanay,
Mutual, and
First National films of 1915 to 1917. The romance ended suddenly when Purviance read a newspaper report of Chaplin having married 16-year-old
Mildred Harris. Purviance appeared in 33 of Chaplin's productions, including the 1921
The Kid. Her last credited appearance in a Chaplin film,
A Woman of Paris, was also her first leading role. The film was not a success and effectively ended Purviance's career. She appeared in two more films:
Sea Gulls, also known as
A Woman of the Sea (which Chaplin never released) and
Éducation de Prince, a French film released in 1927. Purviance was peripherally involved in a scandal. She and
Mabel Normand were guests of millionaire oil broker Courtland Stark Dines (1889-1945) on New Year’s Day 1924. Mabel’s chauffeur, R. C. Greer, alias Joe Kelly, Chaplin kept her on the payroll at $1000 a month. She later played bit roles in Chaplin's last two American movies,
Monsieur Verdoux and
Limelight. “How could I forget Edna?” Chaplin responded to an interviewer after her death. "She was with me when it all began." In her posthumously published
memoir, actress
Georgia Hale, who played opposite Chaplin in
The Gold Rush (1925), reported that Chaplin always spoke affectionately of Purviance. Hale relates Chaplin’s account of an incident during the silent film era, when Chaplin and Purviance—he in “an old sweatshirt” and she in “a cotton house dress”—stopped at the exclusive
Riverside Inn “looking like hoboes.” The head waiter, alarmed at the couple's appearance, ushered them to the back of the restaurant: ==Death==