Paulette Goddard, 84, an unquestionably popular, immensely pretty and moderately talented Hollywood actress of the 1930s and 1940s, died yesterday at her villa in Ronco, Switzerland.
Local authorities said that although the cause of death had not yet been determined, it appeared that her death was a natural one.
Miss Goddard was a wide-eyed, vivacious brunette who appeared opposite many of Hollywood's leading men and eventually made more than 40 films, most of them less than memorable. But she did have important roles in two classics, "Modern Times" in 1936 and "The Great Dictator" in 1940.
In both of these she played opposite the genius comic Charlie Chaplin. They married about the time of the first film and divorced shortly after the second. Chaplin wrote "Modern Times" as a vehicle for them both. Critics hailed Miss Goddard's performance for its seeming freshness and spontaneity.
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By the time they made "The Great Dictator," she seemed less willing to tolerate his demanding standards, and even skirmished with him (through her agent) over billing.
Her other film credits included leading roles in "Dramatic School," "I Love a Soldier," "The Diary of a Chambermaid" and a 1947 British production, "An Ideal Husband." Her last film was a made-for-television production, "The Snoop Sisters," in which she starred with Helen Hayes.
She had starred opposite such leading men as Fred Astaire, James Stewart, Gary Cooper and Edward G. Robinson. Bob Hope appeared with her in "The Cat and the Canary" in 1939, "The Ghost Breakers" in 1940 and "Nothing But the Truth" in 1941. Upon learning of her death, he told the Associated Press that Miss Goddard "was everything. She was beautiful. She was perfect."
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She made four pictures with Ray Milland, and might have made a fifth. But the 1949 film "Bride of Vengeance," in which Miss Goddard portrayed Lucrezia Borgia, was the only film Milland said that he flatly refused to do during his 21 years at Paramount. He later told how Paramount fired everyone connected with the disastrous movie. Miss Goddard, despite an enormous guaranteed salary, never again worked for the studio.
Another unpleasant experience occurred in 1939 during a brief association with the studio of David O. Selznick. Miss Goddard tested for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind." For a time it was thought she was the favorite of producer Selznick for the part. But the part went to Vivien Leigh.
If her career seemed to end abruptly in the early 1950s, she had been a major star for a time. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, she was one of Paramount's most popular performers. During World War II, audiences at home loved her and made some bad pictures financially successful.
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Critics and film historians have complained that she had little dramatic ability and almost no comedic timing. But her stunningly pretty, fresh, and at times almost waiflike looks made up for much. At one time, she was known as "queen of the bathtub scenes."
Miss Goddard was born Marian Levee in Great Neck, N.Y. She left school at age 14 to help support her family. She started performing on the stage and quickly became a Ziegfeld girl. She also had parts in two films before her marriage, while still a teenager, to lumber baron Edward James. They were divorced within a year and she was on her way to Hollywood.
She dyed her hair blond, appeared in several Hal Roach shorts and sang in the chorus of Eddie Cantor's "Kid From Spain." Her career was hardly going places until she met Chaplin, who was casting for "Modern Times" and had said he was looking "not for an actress, but a beautiful girl." He had her do away with her blond hairdo and kept her from squandering her $500,000 divorce settlement in bad investments.
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Her third marriage, to actor Burgess Meredith, also ended in divorce. Then in 1958 she married Erich Maria Remarque, author of the classic novel "All Quiet on the Western Front." He died in 1970.
In her later years, Miss Goddard wrote, skied and walked. Though she lived quietly, she was known for her collection of jewelry and French impressionist paintings. She and Andy Warhol taped about 80 hours of notes for what was to be a book on her life. But she eventually returned the advance to the publisher, admitting, "I didn't tell Warhol anything."
This should not have surprised anyone who read a 1965 newspaper interview in which she declared, "None of my biographies is true. I have never given out the facts of my life."
WYOMING F. SAUNDERS
D.C. Schoolteacher
Wyoming Flipping Saunders, 91, a teacher in D.C. elementary schools for 25 years before retiring in 1960 from Bundy Elementary School, died April 19 at a hospital in Hampton, Va., after a stroke.
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She also had taught at several other schools, including Bowen and Adams elementary schools.
Mrs. Saunders was born in Radford, Va., and came here about 1920. She lived in Washington and Silver Spring before moving to Hampton, where she had been living since 1988.
She was a graduate of Armstrong High School and Miner Teachers College. She received a bachelor's degree from D.C. Teachers College and a master's degree in education from New York University.
Mrs. Saunders had been a member of Florida Avenue Baptist Church, where she sang in the choir, taught Sunday school and was a member of several church clubs. Her hobbies included travel.
Her marriage to Walter Pack ended in divorce. Her second husband, Willie Joe Saunders Sr., whom she married in 1945, died in 1966.
Her survivors include a stepson, Willie Jr., of Hyattsville.
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LIEBA GLICKSMAN
Office Manager
Lieba Glicksman, 78, an area resident since 1958 who was a retired office manager with the Near East Report, a Washington lobbying committee, died April 21 at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington in Rockville. She had Parkinson's disease.
Miss Glicksman, who had lived at the Hebrew Home since moving from Washington in 1987, was a native of London. During World War II, she served as an air raid warden.
After the war, she worked as an immigration officer in Munich and Vienna for the American Joint Distribution Committee. She came to the United States in 1951, and lived in New York. She returned to England in 1953. She came back to the United States in 1958, settled in Washington and joined the Near East Report. She retired for health reasons in 1965.
Survivors include a sister, Marguerite Glicksman of Washington.
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MARIE B. BROGLIE
American Legion Official
Marie B. Broglie, 90, a World War I Navy yeomanette who later served as an American Legion post commander, died April 21 at the Veterans Administration Hospital here after a heart attack.
A Washington native and former Alexandria resident, she had been in the nursing home facility at the VA Medical Center for the past five years.
Mrs. Broglie was a past commander of Truman Post No. 1 of the American Legion in Alexandria, and a member of Legion Post No. 2 in Washington. She was a graduate of Riverdale High School. She was a clerk with the Kiplinger Letters organization here for about 20 years before retiring in the mid-1960s.
Her husband, John Broglie, died in 1978. She leaves no immediate survivors.
