Joan Barry (May 24, 1920 - October 1, 2007) was an American actress who was at the center of a paternity suit with Charlie Chaplin in 1943.

Biography

Barry was born May 24, 1920, as Mary Louise Gribble in Detroit, Michigan, to James A. and Gertrude E. Gribble. The Gribble family moved to New York City before June 1925. Her father worked as a machinist in Detroit, and as car salesman in New York. Barry's parents had another child, a girl named Agnes who was born in 1923. Her father committed suicide on December 10, 1927. Her mother married a man named John Berry. Barry went to California in 1938 to pursue an acting career.

Charlie Chaplin had a brief affair with Barry, whom he was considering for a starring role in Shadows and Substance, a proposed film in 1942, but the relationship ended when she began harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness. After having a child, Carol Ann, on October 2, 1943, she filed a paternity suit against Chaplin in 1943. Although blood tests seemed to indicate that Chaplin was not the father of Barry's child, Barry's attorney, Joseph Scott, convinced the court that the tests were inadmissible as evidence, and Chaplin was ordered to support the child. The perceived injustice of the ruling later led to a 1965 change in California of civil procedure to allow blood tests as evidence. Chaplin's second wife, Lita Grey, later asserted that Chaplin had paid corrupt government officials to tamper with the blood test results. She further stated that "there is no doubt that she [Carol Ann] was his child." Federal prosecutors also brought Mann Act charges against Chaplin related to Barry in 1944, of which he was acquitted.

Married to Russell Seck, a railroad clerk, in 1946, Barry gave birth to sons in 1947 (Russell, who died in Spokane in 2013 ) and Stephen Seck, born 1948

The boys moved to Ohio with their father in 1952. The following year, she was institutionalized at Patton State Hospital after being found walking the streets barefoot, carrying a pair of baby sandals and a child's ring, and murmuring: "This is magic". After her mother was committed, Carol Ann went to live with a legally appointed guardian and changed her name. She continued to receive monthly payments from Chaplin until her 21st birthday.

The Social Security Applications and Claims Index, on Ancestry.com lists a Mary Louise Gribble, born 24 May 1920 in Detroit to James A Gribble and Gertrude McLaren, as having died as Mary Louise Baker on 1 Oct 2007. The Social Security Death Index lists her last residence as "Far Rockaway, Queens".