Merna Kennedy

{{Use American English|date=May 2021}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}} {{short description|American actress}} {{Infobox person | name = Merna Kennedy | image = Merna Kennedy publicity still (3x4 cropped).jpg | image_size = | caption = Kennedy in 1933 | birth_name = Maude Kahler | birth_date = {{Birth date|1908|09|07}} | birth_place = Kankakee, Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|12|20|1908|09|07}} | death_place = Los Angeles California, U.S. | resting_place = Inglewood Park Cemetery, California | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1928–1934 | spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Busby Berkeley|1934|1935|end=divorced}}|{{marriage|Forrest Brayton|1944}}}} }}

'''Merna Kennedy''' (born '''Maude Kahler''';<ref>Birth Records from the Kankakee Historical Society.</ref> September 7, 1908 – December 20, 1944) was an American actress of the late silent era and the transitional period into talkies.

==Career== She was born in Kankakee, one of two children to Maud (''née'' Reed) and John Kahler, a German-American butcher turned chiropractor. After her parents separated, her mother moved the family to California, where she married a grocer two years later, and changed their name to Kennedy. At the outbreak of World War I, their mother prepped seven-year-old Merna and brother Melvin (known as Merle) to tour as a dancing and singing sibling act on the Orpheum and Pantages theater circuits of vaudeville, where she became acquainted with Lita Grey.<ref name=":0" /> Merle broke his leg ending the duo, prompting Grey to suggest silent films to Merna.<ref name=":0" />

Kennedy was best known during her brief career for her role opposite Charlie Chaplin in the silent film ''The Circus'' (1928), a role for which she was brought to the attention of Chaplin by her friend Lita Grey, who became Chaplin's second wife in 1924.<ref name="Travalanche">{{cite web |title=The Short Life of Merna Kennedy, Chaplin's Co-Star in "The Circus" |url=https://travsd.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/the-short-life-of-merna-kennedy-chaplins-co-star-in-the-circus/ |website=(Travalanche) |accessdate=28 October 2018 |date=7 September 2017}}</ref> She had red hair<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://ia601600.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/32/items/picturegoerjanap00odha/picturegoerjanap00odha_jp2.zip&file=picturegoerjanap00odha_jp2/picturegoerjanap00odha_0211.jp2&id=picturegoerjanap00odha&scale=2&rotate=0| title=Growing Glory | website=archive.org}}</ref> and muscular legs (due to being a dancer,) the latter of which helped her gain the role of the circus bareback rider.

thumb|right|Kennedy in May 1933 Kennedy continued acting after ''The Circus'', starring in early sound films, but retired in 1934 when she married choreographer/director Busby Berkeley on February 10, 1934<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_VzEl8irxcC&q=merna+kennedy+busby+berkeley&pg=PA150-IA13|title=Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley|last=Spivak|first=Jeffrey|date=2010-09-29|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=9780813140087|language=en}}</ref> at Hollywood United Methodist Church.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.lamag.com/article/heaven-sent/|title=Heaven Sent Los Angeles Magazine|last=Mercado|first=Eric|date=2012-07-01|newspaper=Lamag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-07}}</ref> Their marriage broke up by 1936.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KUtPAQAAQBAJ&q=merna+kennedy&pg=PA10|title=Wife of the Life of the Party: A Memoir|last1=Chaplin|first1=Lita Grey|last2=Vance|first2=Jeffrey|date=1998-03-05|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9781461674320|language=en}}</ref>

==Death== Kennedy died at age 36 of a heart attack on December 20, 1944, four days after her marriage to Master Sergeant Forrest Brayton.<ref>{{cite news |title=Chaplin Protégé Taken by Death |newspaper=The Spokesman-Review |agency=Associated Press |page=4 |date=28 December 1944}}</ref> She is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bOJCgAAQBAJ&q=merna+kennedy&pg=PA179|title=Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory|last=Ellenberger|first=Allan R.|date=2001-05-01|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786409839|language=en}}</ref>

==Filmography== ===Silent films=== [[File:Skinner Steps Out photo 2.jpg|thumb|right|Kennedy and Glenn Tryon in the film ''Skinner Steps Out'' (1929)]] *1928 ''The Circus'' as The Ringmaster's Step-daughter, a Circus Rider *1929 ''Barnum Was Right'' *1929 ''Skinner Steps Out''

===Talkies=== *1929 ''Broadway'' *1930 ''The Rampant Age'' *1930 ''Embarrassing Moments'' *1930 ''The King of Jazz'' *1930 ''Worldly Goods'' *1930 ''The Midnight Special'' *1931 ''Stepping Out'' *1932 ''The Gay Buckaroo'' *1932 ''Lady with a Past'' *1932 ''Ghost Valley'' *1932 ''Come On, Tarzan'' *1932 ''The All American'' *1932 ''The Red-Haired Alibi'' *1932 ''I Like It That Way'' *1933 ''Laughter in Hell'' *1933 ''Emergency Call'' *1933 ''Easy Millions'' *1933 ''Don't Bet on Love'' *1933 ''I Love That Man'' (scenes deleted) *1933 ''Arizona to Broadway'' *1933 ''Police Call'' *1933 ''The Big Chance'' *1933 ''Son of a Sailor'' *1934 ''Wonder Bar'' *1934 ''Jimmy the Gent''

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|Merna Kennedy}} *{{IMDb name|0448224}} *[http://www.virtual-history.com/movie/person/11317/merna-kennedy Merna Kennedy] at Virtual History *{{Find a Grave|8710611}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Merna}} Category:1908 births Category:1944 deaths Category:20th-century American actresses Category:Actors from Kankakee, Illinois Category:Actresses from Illinois Category:American film actresses Category:American silent film actresses Category:Burials at Inglewood Park Cemetery