for the body. The pair were caught in a large police operation two months later, and Chaplin's unopened coffin was reinterred, having been found buried in a field in the nearby village of Noville. Later life and death (1978–1991) Following Chaplin's death, O'Neill divided her time between Switzerland and New York. She appeared in the supporting role of an alcoholic mother in the film Broken English (1981) as a favor to the film's producer, Bert Schneider, but otherwise avoided publicity. According to unofficial biographer Jane Scovell and ex-daughter-in-law Patrice Chaplin, O'Neill was an alcoholic, and became almost a recluse after returning permanently to Manoir de Ban in the late 1980s. She died on 27 September 1991 at the age of 66 of pancreatic cancer in Corsier-sur-Vevey, and was buried next to her husband in the village cemetery. In her last will, O'Neill, who was a prolific writer of diaries and letters during her life, ordered that all her writings be destroyed, and never published. Characterisations In film, O'Neill has been portrayed by Moira Kelly in Richard Attenborough's biographical film of Charlie Chaplin's life, Chaplin (1992), and by Zoey Deutch in the film Rebel in the Rye (2017), based on the young life of J. D. Salinger. On stage, she has been portrayed by Ashley Brown in Limelight: The Story of Charlie Chaplin at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego in 2010, and by Erin Mackey in the production's Broadway version, Chaplin – The Musical, in 2012. She is also one of the main characters in French author Frédéric Beigbeder's novel Oona & Salinger (2014), which is loosely based on her short romance with Salinger in the 1940s. Oona O'Neill Chaplin is the subject of the popular novel Only Oona (2023) by Tamatha Cain. Notes and references Notes References Sources External links Oona O'Neill at the National Portrait Gallery in London O'Neill's screentest for The Girl From Leningrad in 1942 Obituary in The New York Times, 28 September 1991 1925 births 1991 deaths American emigrants to Switzerland American people of English descent American people of Irish descent Bermudian people of American descent Bermudian people of European descent Bermudian women Brearley School alumni British people of American descent British people of Irish descent Chaplin family Citizens of the United Kingdom through descent Deaths from cancer in Switzerland Deaths from pancreatic cancer Former United States citizens People from Point Pleasant, New Jersey