Charles Farrell

Charles David Farrell (August 9, 1900 – May 6, 1990) was an American film actor whose height was in the 1920s and 1930s and the Mayor of Palm Springs from 1947 to 1955. Farrell was known for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor in more than a dozen films, including 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Lucky Star. Later in life, he starred on TV in the 1950s sitcoms My Little Margie and played himself in The Charles Farrell Show. He was also among the early developers of Palm Springs.

Early life
Farell was born on August 9, 1900, in South Walpole, Massachusetts, the youngest 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 acting.

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.

Career

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 Studios, 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 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 Charles 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.

Personal life

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.

Honors and legacy
Farrell was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard for motion pictures and 1617 Vine Street for television. In 1992, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. Farrell Drive in Palm Springs was named in his honor as one of the developers of the city, and a statue of Farrell was dedicated in front of Palm Springs International Airport in 1999.

Filmography
Features:

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

External links

 
 Charles Farrell at Golden Silents
 Photographs of Charles Farrell

References

1900 births
1990 deaths
American actor-politicians
American male film actors
American male silent film actors
American male television actors
Burials at Welwood Murray Cemetery
California city council members
Male actors from Massachusetts
Male actors from Palm Springs, California
Mayors of Palm Springs, California
People from Walpole, Massachusetts
20th-century American male actors
20th Century Studios contract players
20th-century American politicians
Walpole High School alumni