Charles Farrell

He was also among the early developers of Palm Springs.

• Name — Charles Farrell • Birth Name — Charles David Farrell • Born — 9 August 1900 • Birthplace — Walpole, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — 6 May 1990 • Place of death — Palm Springs, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Welwood Murray Cemetery, Palm Springs, California • Education — Boston University • Known for — * 7th Heaven • Street Angel • Lucky Star • Liliom • Occupation — * Actor • politician • Years Active — 1923–1956

Farrell was born on August 9, 1900, in South Walpole, Massachusetts, the younger of two. The family moved to East Walpole when Farrell was 4 and he later attended Walpole High School, where he played football and graduated in 1918. He attended Boston University's business administration program but dropped out. Following this, he traveled to California to pursue a career in the business end of the motion-picture industry. Farrell's father variously owned restaurants, a drug store, and several movie theaters, including one in Onset and at Revere Beach. The family moved to Onset around 1920 and, by 1927, the Farrells owned three theaters.

• Illustration — The Man Who Came Back (1931) Farrell began his career as an extra and bit player for Paramount Pictures in films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Ten Commandments, and The Cheat. After signing on with Fox Film, he was paired with fellow newcomer Janet Gaynor in the romantic drama 7th Heaven. The film's success meant they went on to star opposite one another in more than a dozen films in the late 1920s and into the talkie era of the early 1930s. While his initial years in the talkies were not much of an issue, Farrell's "Boston Brahmin" eventually fell out of favor with Fox and he was offered a number of roles he refused, as he felt they were beneath him. In 1934, as his acting career started winding down, he and Ralph Bellamy opened the Palm Springs Racquet Club in Palm Springs, California. He came out to Australia to star in The Flying Doctor (1936). He joined the U.S. Navy in 1942, where he worked as an administrative officer with the Fighting Squadron 17 and later spent time on the USS Hornet. A major player in the developing prosperity of Palm Springs in the 1930s through the 1960s, Farrell was elected to the city council in 1946 and served as mayor from 1947 to 1955. He appeared several times on the radio show The Jack Benny Program, including the 1941 episode "Murder at the Racquet Club." He returned to the screen to play Gale Storm's father Vern Albright on My Little Margie between 1952 and 1955. In 1956, he starred in The Charlie Farrell Show, where he played a fictionalized version of himself as the owner of a Racquet Club. Farrell sold his real-life Racquet club in 1959 for $1.2 million but returned as club operator in 1965 when it was sold again.

In 1927, Farrell named Carmelita Geraghty, Greta Nissen, Virginia Valli, and Janet Gaynor as his "best girl friends" and "pals" and said that any romance between him and Nissen was fabricated by the tabloids. Farrell was romantically involved with Janet Gaynor between 1926 and 1929, when she married San Francisco businessman Lydell Peck. He referred to their relationship as akin to the love between a brother and sister; Gaynor similarly said, "I think we loved each other more than we were 'in love.'" She mentioned, however, that she married Peck in part "to get away from Charlie." Farrell married Virginia Valli, a former silent film star, on February 1, 1931, in Yonkers, New York and the couple settled in Palm Springs. She died from a stroke on September 24, 1968, after which, according to historian Stephen O'Brien, he became increasingly reclusive until his death from heart failure on May 6, 1990, in Palm Springs. He was buried next to his wife at the Welwood Murray Cemetery.

Features: Short Subjects: • The Gosh-Darn Mortgage (1926) – Joe Hoskins • Hollywood Hobbies (1935) – Himself • Screen Snapshots Series 15, No. 7 (1936) – Himself