Infamous Hollywood folk figure Joan Barry was born Mary Louise Gribble on May 24, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan, to James A. and Gertrude E. Gribble. The Gribble family moved to New York City before June 1925. In Detroit, her father worked as a machinist, 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.
A few months after graduating high school, Barry came to California in pursuit of a career in the movies. By 1938, low on funds and down on her luck, she met a shoe salesman by the name of Mark Warner with whom she struck a relationship. In December, 1938, Barry was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for stealing dresses from a local department store. She was put on probation, with one of the terms being that she was to return home to New York. She obliged and worked as a typist for Chubb and Sons insurance agency through most of 1939. She returned to California in late 1939 and lived with Mark Warner. After the dissolution of this relationship, Barry began living in various hotels under the name Mrs. Mark Warner. It was during this period that she met multi-millionaire oilman J. Paul Getty.
By October, 1940, Barry made several trips back and forth from Los Angeles to Mexico City visiting Getty. In May, 1941, she came to Hollywood with a letter of recommendation to Tim Durant from A.C. Blumenthal, an associate of Getty’s. Durant asked her if she would like to meet Charlie Chaplin before she left. She said she would.
In late June, 1941, Chaplin, Barry, Durant and an unidentified young woman went to eat at Perino’s Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. When Durant realized he was not going to make headway with his date, he excused himself and he and the young woman were escorted home by Chaplin’s chauffer. Chaplin and Barry remained at the restaurant chatting until the establishment closed. Subsequently, they rode up and down from Los Angeles to the beach several times in Chaplin’s car continuing their conversation, which touched on J. Paul Getty, communism and, primarily, the motion picture industry.
Right then and there Chaplin mentioned putting Barry under contract with his studio, Chaplin Studios. Not surprisingly, Barry could hardly believe her ears and felt that Chaplin would forget all about it in the morning. However, he gave her his phone number on an envelope and told her to contact him soon. Barry was put under contract to Chaplin Studios on June 23, 1941, for the sum of $75 a week, renewable for an extension within six months at $100 a week. Chaplin and his long-time studio manager, Alf Reeves, both insisted that Barry not make it public that she was under contract to Chaplin Studios.
Barry and Chaplin consummated their relationship sometime after her signing the contract and their relationship, though not a public one, was blossoming. Sadly, by the end of 1941, the two found themselves pregnant, not once, but twice, both ended with abortions per Chaplin's insistence. Chaplin considered her for a starring role in "Shadows and Substance", a proposed film in 1942. Regardless of a seemingly dysfunctional relationship, Chaplin had faith in her acting prospect. Joan Barry's screen test took place on Jan. 26, 1942, and it was deemed that she was photogenic. In his autobiography, Chaplin states that at this time “…all my qualms about her oddities vanished”.
Over the next few months, Barry was in strong preparation for her starring role in Shadow and Substance, for which Chaplin had by now purchased the film rights. In a passage from David Robinson’s definitive biography on Chaplin, Chaplin: His Life and Art, “There is no question about Chaplin’s sincerity in believing that he could make Joan Barry into an actress….he [Chaplin] said she had ‘all the qualities of a new Maude Adams’ and told his sons, ‘She has a quality, an ethereal something that’s truly marvelous…a talent as great as any I’ve seen in my whole life”.
But the relationship finally ended when she began expressing erratic behavior, harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness. During this time, both Barry and Chaplin mention that each was going his or her separate way, but they were not unfriendly with each other. Barry was immersed in preparation for her role and Chaplin was busy writing the script for Shadow and Substance. According to My Autobiography, Chaplin states that, “…strange and eerie things began to happen” around this time, such as Barry driving to his house all hours of the night, drunk, and smashing his windows when he refused to answer the phone or open the door to see her. He mentions that, “Overnight, my existence became a nightmare”.
On May 22, 1942, Barry broke her contract with Chaplin Studios so that she could do a screen test with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The termination of the contract was deemed “amicable” by Barry. Within the next year, according to FBI files Chaplin recorded to autorities that Barry harassed him throughout the rest of 1942, well into 1943.
By June 4, 1943, Barry informed the press that Chaplin was the father of her unborn child. That same day, Barry’s mother, acting as guardian to the child, filed a paternity suit against Chaplin. Chaplin gave his deposition in the Barry case Sept. 14, 1943, and on Saturday evening, October 2, 1943, Joan Barry gave birth to a daughter, Carol Ann, in a Los Angeles Hospital.
Chaplin was indicted by a Federal grand jury Feb. 10, 1944. Just days after Chaplin’s indictment by the grand jury, blood tests were submitted from Barry and Carol Ann by three physicians; one representing Barry, one representing Chaplin and a third physician of neutrality
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. By Spring of 1945, all legal proceedings concluded, and the ruling was that Chaplin was to pay child support to Carol Ann Barry into adulthood age.
By 1946, Joan Barry married Russell Seck, a railroad clerk, Barry gave birth to a son in summer 1947 (Russell, who died in Spokane in 2013) and Stephen Irving Seck born October 18, 1948. The boys moved to Ohio with their father in 1952. Sadly, the following year, Barry 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".
By the mid 1950s, after her mother was committed, Carol Ann, about age 10, went to live with a legally appointed guardian and changed her name. Carol Ann Barry continued to receive monthly payments from Chaplin, until her 21st birthday, in 1964.
A 2013 published online obituary for her son Russell Charles Seck Jr. (July 20, 1947-February 7, 2013}, lists him as being "survived by a brother and sister". Surviving son Stephen Seck reportedly said, he spoke to his mother only once, in a single phone conversation in the mid 60's.
By the 2000s, Joan Barry's last residence was Far Rockaway Queens New York, where it's presumed she was living when she died on October 1, 2007, and age 87.
In the end, Joan Barry was another tragic Hollywood folk lore figure in its storied history, who virtually faded into the shadows for the remainder of her post-Hollywood years.
A few months after graduating high school, Barry came to California in pursuit of a career in the movies. By 1938, low on funds and down on her luck, she met a shoe salesman by the name of Mark Warner with whom she struck a relationship. In December, 1938, Barry was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for stealing dresses from a local department store. She was put on probation, with one of the terms being that she was to return home to New York. She obliged and worked as a typist for Chubb and Sons insurance agency through most of 1939. She returned to California in late 1939 and lived with Mark Warner. After the dissolution of this relationship, Barry began living in various hotels under the name Mrs. Mark Warner. It was during this period that she met multi-millionaire oilman J. Paul Getty.
By October, 1940, Barry made several trips back and forth from Los Angeles to Mexico City visiting Getty. In May, 1941, she came to Hollywood with a letter of recommendation to Tim Durant from A.C. Blumenthal, an associate of Getty’s. Durant asked her if she would like to meet Charlie Chaplin before she left. She said she would.
In late June, 1941, Chaplin, Barry, Durant and an unidentified young woman went to eat at Perino’s Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. When Durant realized he was not going to make headway with his date, he excused himself and he and the young woman were escorted home by Chaplin’s chauffer. Chaplin and Barry remained at the restaurant chatting until the establishment closed. Subsequently, they rode up and down from Los Angeles to the beach several times in Chaplin’s car continuing their conversation, which touched on J. Paul Getty, communism and, primarily, the motion picture industry.
Right then and there Chaplin mentioned putting Barry under contract with his studio, Chaplin Studios. Not surprisingly, Barry could hardly believe her ears and felt that Chaplin would forget all about it in the morning. However, he gave her his phone number on an envelope and told her to contact him soon. Barry was put under contract to Chaplin Studios on June 23, 1941, for the sum of $75 a week, renewable for an extension within six months at $100 a week. Chaplin and his long-time studio manager, Alf Reeves, both insisted that Barry not make it public that she was under contract to Chaplin Studios.
Barry and Chaplin consummated their relationship sometime after her signing the contract and their relationship, though not a public one, was blossoming. Sadly, by the end of 1941, the two found themselves pregnant, not once, but twice, both ended with abortions per Chaplin's insistence. Chaplin considered her for a starring role in "Shadows and Substance", a proposed film in 1942. Regardless of a seemingly dysfunctional relationship, Chaplin had faith in her acting prospect. Joan Barry's screen test took place on Jan. 26, 1942, and it was deemed that she was photogenic. In his autobiography, Chaplin states that at this time “…all my qualms about her oddities vanished”.
Over the next few months, Barry was in strong preparation for her starring role in Shadow and Substance, for which Chaplin had by now purchased the film rights. In a passage from David Robinson’s definitive biography on Chaplin, Chaplin: His Life and Art, “There is no question about Chaplin’s sincerity in believing that he could make Joan Barry into an actress….he [Chaplin] said she had ‘all the qualities of a new Maude Adams’ and told his sons, ‘She has a quality, an ethereal something that’s truly marvelous…a talent as great as any I’ve seen in my whole life”.
But the relationship finally ended when she began expressing erratic behavior, harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness. During this time, both Barry and Chaplin mention that each was going his or her separate way, but they were not unfriendly with each other. Barry was immersed in preparation for her role and Chaplin was busy writing the script for Shadow and Substance. According to My Autobiography, Chaplin states that, “…strange and eerie things began to happen” around this time, such as Barry driving to his house all hours of the night, drunk, and smashing his windows when he refused to answer the phone or open the door to see her. He mentions that, “Overnight, my existence became a nightmare”.
On May 22, 1942, Barry broke her contract with Chaplin Studios so that she could do a screen test with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The termination of the contract was deemed “amicable” by Barry. Within the next year, according to FBI files Chaplin recorded to autorities that Barry harassed him throughout the rest of 1942, well into 1943.
By June 4, 1943, Barry informed the press that Chaplin was the father of her unborn child. That same day, Barry’s mother, acting as guardian to the child, filed a paternity suit against Chaplin. Chaplin gave his deposition in the Barry case Sept. 14, 1943, and on Saturday evening, October 2, 1943, Joan Barry gave birth to a daughter, Carol Ann, in a Los Angeles Hospital.
Chaplin was indicted by a Federal grand jury Feb. 10, 1944. Just days after Chaplin’s indictment by the grand jury, blood tests were submitted from Barry and Carol Ann by three physicians; one representing Barry, one representing Chaplin and a third physician of neutrality
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. By Spring of 1945, all legal proceedings concluded, and the ruling was that Chaplin was to pay child support to Carol Ann Barry into adulthood age.
By 1946, Joan Barry married Russell Seck, a railroad clerk, Barry gave birth to a son in summer 1947 (Russell, who died in Spokane in 2013) and Stephen Irving Seck born October 18, 1948. The boys moved to Ohio with their father in 1952. Sadly, the following year, Barry 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".
By the mid 1950s, after her mother was committed, Carol Ann, about age 10, went to live with a legally appointed guardian and changed her name. Carol Ann Barry continued to receive monthly payments from Chaplin, until her 21st birthday, in 1964.
A 2013 published online obituary for her son Russell Charles Seck Jr. (July 20, 1947-February 7, 2013}, lists him as being "survived by a brother and sister". Surviving son Stephen Seck reportedly said, he spoke to his mother only once, in a single phone conversation in the mid 60's.
By the 2000s, Joan Barry's last residence was Far Rockaway Queens New York, where it's presumed she was living when she died on October 1, 2007, and age 87.
In the end, Joan Barry was another tragic Hollywood folk lore figure in its storied history, who virtually faded into the shadows for the remainder of her post-Hollywood years.
Infamous Hollywood folk figure Joan Barry was born Mary Louise Gribble on May 24, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan, to James A. and Gertrude E. Gribble. The Gribble family moved to New York City before June 1925. In Detroit, her father worked as a machinist, 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.
A few months after graduating high school, Barry came to California in pursuit of a career in the movies. By 1938, low on funds and down on her luck, she met a shoe salesman by the name of Mark Warner with whom she struck a relationship. In December, 1938, Barry was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for stealing dresses from a local department store. She was put on probation, with one of the terms being that she was to return home to New York. She obliged and worked as a typist for Chubb and Sons insurance agency through most of 1939. She returned to California in late 1939 and lived with Mark Warner. After the dissolution of this relationship, Barry began living in various hotels under the name Mrs. Mark Warner. It was during this period that she met multi-millionaire oilman J. Paul Getty.
By October, 1940, Barry made several trips back and forth from Los Angeles to Mexico City visiting Getty. In May, 1941, she came to Hollywood with a letter of recommendation to Tim Durant from A.C. Blumenthal, an associate of Getty’s. Durant asked her if she would like to meet Charlie Chaplin before she left. She said she would.
In late June, 1941, Chaplin, Barry, Durant and an unidentified young woman went to eat at Perino’s Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. When Durant realized he was not going to make headway with his date, he excused himself and he and the young woman were escorted home by Chaplin’s chauffer. Chaplin and Barry remained at the restaurant chatting until the establishment closed. Subsequently, they rode up and down from Los Angeles to the beach several times in Chaplin’s car continuing their conversation, which touched on J. Paul Getty, communism and, primarily, the motion picture industry.
Right then and there Chaplin mentioned putting Barry under contract with his studio, Chaplin Studios. Not surprisingly, Barry could hardly believe her ears and felt that Chaplin would forget all about it in the morning. However, he gave her his phone number on an envelope and told her to contact him soon. Barry was put under contract to Chaplin Studios on June 23, 1941, for the sum of $75 a week, renewable for an extension within six months at $100 a week. Chaplin and his long-time studio manager, Alf Reeves, both insisted that Barry not make it public that she was under contract to Chaplin Studios.
Barry and Chaplin consummated their relationship sometime after her signing the contract and their relationship, though not a public one, was blossoming. Sadly, by the end of 1941, the two found themselves pregnant, not once, but twice, both ended with abortions per Chaplin's insistence. Chaplin considered her for a starring role in "Shadows and Substance", a proposed film in 1942. Regardless of a seemingly dysfunctional relationship, Chaplin had faith in her acting prospect. Joan Barry's screen test took place on Jan. 26, 1942, and it was deemed that she was photogenic. In his autobiography, Chaplin states that at this time “…all my qualms about her oddities vanished”.
Over the next few months, Barry was in strong preparation for her starring role in Shadow and Substance, for which Chaplin had by now purchased the film rights. In a passage from David Robinson’s definitive biography on Chaplin, Chaplin: His Life and Art, “There is no question about Chaplin’s sincerity in believing that he could make Joan Barry into an actress….he [Chaplin] said she had ‘all the qualities of a new Maude Adams’ and told his sons, ‘She has a quality, an ethereal something that’s truly marvelous…a talent as great as any I’ve seen in my whole life”.
But the relationship finally ended when she began expressing erratic behavior, harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness. During this time, both Barry and Chaplin mention that each was going his or her separate way, but they were not unfriendly with each other. Barry was immersed in preparation for her role and Chaplin was busy writing the script for Shadow and Substance. According to My Autobiography, Chaplin states that, “…strange and eerie things began to happen” around this time, such as Barry driving to his house all hours of the night, drunk, and smashing his windows when he refused to answer the phone or open the door to see her. He mentions that, “Overnight, my existence became a nightmare”.
On May 22, 1942, Barry broke her contract with Chaplin Studios so that she could do a screen test with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The termination of the contract was deemed “amicable” by Barry. Within the next year, according to FBI files Chaplin recorded to autorities that Barry harassed him throughout the rest of 1942, well into 1943.
By June 4, 1943, Barry informed the press that Chaplin was the father of her unborn child. That same day, Barry’s mother, acting as guardian to the child, filed a paternity suit against Chaplin. Chaplin gave his deposition in the Barry case Sept. 14, 1943, and on Saturday evening, October 2, 1943, Joan Barry gave birth to a daughter, Carol Ann, in a Los Angeles Hospital.
Chaplin was indicted by a Federal grand jury Feb. 10, 1944. Just days after Chaplin’s indictment by the grand jury, blood tests were submitted from Barry and Carol Ann by three physicians; one representing Barry, one representing Chaplin and a third physician of neutrality
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. By Spring of 1945, all legal proceedings concluded, and the ruling was that Chaplin was to pay child support to Carol Ann Barry into adulthood age.
By 1946, Joan Barry married Russell Seck, a railroad clerk, Barry gave birth to a son in summer 1947 (Russell, who died in Spokane in 2013) and Stephen Irving Seck born October 18, 1948. The boys moved to Ohio with their father in 1952. Sadly, the following year, Barry 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".
By the mid 1950s, after her mother was committed, Carol Ann, about age 10, went to live with a legally appointed guardian and changed her name. Carol Ann Barry continued to receive monthly payments from Chaplin, until her 21st birthday, in 1964.
A 2013 published online obituary for her son Russell Charles Seck Jr. (July 20, 1947-February 7, 2013}, lists him as being "survived by a brother and sister". Surviving son Stephen Seck reportedly said, he spoke to his mother only once, in a single phone conversation in the mid 60's.
By the 2000s, Joan Barry's last residence was Far Rockaway Queens New York, where it's presumed she was living when she died on October 1, 2007, and age 87.
In the end, Joan Barry was another tragic Hollywood folk lore figure in its storied history, who virtually faded into the shadows for the remainder of her post-Hollywood years.
A few months after graduating high school, Barry came to California in pursuit of a career in the movies. By 1938, low on funds and down on her luck, she met a shoe salesman by the name of Mark Warner with whom she struck a relationship. In December, 1938, Barry was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for stealing dresses from a local department store. She was put on probation, with one of the terms being that she was to return home to New York. She obliged and worked as a typist for Chubb and Sons insurance agency through most of 1939. She returned to California in late 1939 and lived with Mark Warner. After the dissolution of this relationship, Barry began living in various hotels under the name Mrs. Mark Warner. It was during this period that she met multi-millionaire oilman J. Paul Getty.
By October, 1940, Barry made several trips back and forth from Los Angeles to Mexico City visiting Getty. In May, 1941, she came to Hollywood with a letter of recommendation to Tim Durant from A.C. Blumenthal, an associate of Getty’s. Durant asked her if she would like to meet Charlie Chaplin before she left. She said she would.
In late June, 1941, Chaplin, Barry, Durant and an unidentified young woman went to eat at Perino’s Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. When Durant realized he was not going to make headway with his date, he excused himself and he and the young woman were escorted home by Chaplin’s chauffer. Chaplin and Barry remained at the restaurant chatting until the establishment closed. Subsequently, they rode up and down from Los Angeles to the beach several times in Chaplin’s car continuing their conversation, which touched on J. Paul Getty, communism and, primarily, the motion picture industry.
Right then and there Chaplin mentioned putting Barry under contract with his studio, Chaplin Studios. Not surprisingly, Barry could hardly believe her ears and felt that Chaplin would forget all about it in the morning. However, he gave her his phone number on an envelope and told her to contact him soon. Barry was put under contract to Chaplin Studios on June 23, 1941, for the sum of $75 a week, renewable for an extension within six months at $100 a week. Chaplin and his long-time studio manager, Alf Reeves, both insisted that Barry not make it public that she was under contract to Chaplin Studios.
Barry and Chaplin consummated their relationship sometime after her signing the contract and their relationship, though not a public one, was blossoming. Sadly, by the end of 1941, the two found themselves pregnant, not once, but twice, both ended with abortions per Chaplin's insistence. Chaplin considered her for a starring role in "Shadows and Substance", a proposed film in 1942. Regardless of a seemingly dysfunctional relationship, Chaplin had faith in her acting prospect. Joan Barry's screen test took place on Jan. 26, 1942, and it was deemed that she was photogenic. In his autobiography, Chaplin states that at this time “…all my qualms about her oddities vanished”.
Over the next few months, Barry was in strong preparation for her starring role in Shadow and Substance, for which Chaplin had by now purchased the film rights. In a passage from David Robinson’s definitive biography on Chaplin, Chaplin: His Life and Art, “There is no question about Chaplin’s sincerity in believing that he could make Joan Barry into an actress….he [Chaplin] said she had ‘all the qualities of a new Maude Adams’ and told his sons, ‘She has a quality, an ethereal something that’s truly marvelous…a talent as great as any I’ve seen in my whole life”.
But the relationship finally ended when she began expressing erratic behavior, harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness. During this time, both Barry and Chaplin mention that each was going his or her separate way, but they were not unfriendly with each other. Barry was immersed in preparation for her role and Chaplin was busy writing the script for Shadow and Substance. According to My Autobiography, Chaplin states that, “…strange and eerie things began to happen” around this time, such as Barry driving to his house all hours of the night, drunk, and smashing his windows when he refused to answer the phone or open the door to see her. He mentions that, “Overnight, my existence became a nightmare”.
On May 22, 1942, Barry broke her contract with Chaplin Studios so that she could do a screen test with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The termination of the contract was deemed “amicable” by Barry. Within the next year, according to FBI files Chaplin recorded to autorities that Barry harassed him throughout the rest of 1942, well into 1943.
By June 4, 1943, Barry informed the press that Chaplin was the father of her unborn child. That same day, Barry’s mother, acting as guardian to the child, filed a paternity suit against Chaplin. Chaplin gave his deposition in the Barry case Sept. 14, 1943, and on Saturday evening, October 2, 1943, Joan Barry gave birth to a daughter, Carol Ann, in a Los Angeles Hospital.
Chaplin was indicted by a Federal grand jury Feb. 10, 1944. Just days after Chaplin’s indictment by the grand jury, blood tests were submitted from Barry and Carol Ann by three physicians; one representing Barry, one representing Chaplin and a third physician of neutrality
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. By Spring of 1945, all legal proceedings concluded, and the ruling was that Chaplin was to pay child support to Carol Ann Barry into adulthood age.
By 1946, Joan Barry married Russell Seck, a railroad clerk, Barry gave birth to a son in summer 1947 (Russell, who died in Spokane in 2013) and Stephen Irving Seck born October 18, 1948. The boys moved to Ohio with their father in 1952. Sadly, the following year, Barry 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".
By the mid 1950s, after her mother was committed, Carol Ann, about age 10, went to live with a legally appointed guardian and changed her name. Carol Ann Barry continued to receive monthly payments from Chaplin, until her 21st birthday, in 1964.
A 2013 published online obituary for her son Russell Charles Seck Jr. (July 20, 1947-February 7, 2013}, lists him as being "survived by a brother and sister". Surviving son Stephen Seck reportedly said, he spoke to his mother only once, in a single phone conversation in the mid 60's.
By the 2000s, Joan Barry's last residence was Far Rockaway Queens New York, where it's presumed she was living when she died on October 1, 2007, and age 87.
In the end, Joan Barry was another tragic Hollywood folk lore figure in its storied history, who virtually faded into the shadows for the remainder of her post-Hollywood years.
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