Mildred Harris (April 18, 1901 – July 20, 1944) was an American stage, film, and vaudeville actress during the early part of the 20th century. Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was 10 years old. She was also the first wife of Charlie Chaplin. Early life Harris was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on April 18, 1901. Her parents were telegraph operator Harry Harris and Anna Parsons Foote. Harris made her first screen appearance at the age of 10 in the 1912 Francis Ford and Thomas H. Ince-directed Western short The Post Telegrapher. She followed the film with various juvenile roles, often appearing opposite child actor Paul Willis. In 1914, she was hired by The Oz Film Manufacturing Company to portray Fluff in The Magic Cloak of Oz and Button-Bright in His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. In 1916, at the age of 15, she appeared as a harem girl in Griffith's film Intolerance. Career In the 1920s, Harris transitioned from child actress to leading lady roles opposite leading men such as Conrad Nagel, Charley Chase, Milton Sills, Lionel Barrymore, Rod La Rocque and the Moore brothers, Owen and Tom. She appeared in Frank Capra's 1928 silent drama The Power of the Press with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Jobyna Ralston and the same year, starred in Universal Pictures first sound film Melody of Love opposite Walter Pidgeon. She found the transition to the "talkies" difficult and her career slowed dramatically. She performed in vaudeville and burlesque, and at one point, toured with comedian Phil Silvers. She was critically praised for her performance in the 1930 film adaptation of the Broadway musical No, No Nanette. In the 1936 Three Stooges comedy Movie Maniacs, she portrayed a temperamental and demanding film starlet, who while receiving a pedicure, is startled by stooge Curly Howard striking a match on the sole of her foot. Harris continued to work in film in the early 1940s, largely through the kindness of her former director, Cecil B. DeMille, who cast her in bit parts in 1942's Reap the Wild Wind (starring Paulette Goddard, who like Harris, was once married to Charlie Chaplin), and 1944's The Story of Dr. Wassell. Her last film appearance was in the posthumously released 1945 film Having A Wonderful Crime. Personal life The 16-year-old Harris met actor Charlie Chaplin in mid-1918, dated, and came to believe