Pat Paterson

Born: 1910-04-10

Pat Paterson (10 April 1910 – 24 August 1978) was an English film actress. Although she made more than 20 films, she is best known as the wife of actor Charles Boyer. The couple's only child, Michael, died by self-inflicted gunshot at the age of 21. In 1928, although aged only 18 (the legal age of adulthood in the UK at that time was 21) she persuaded her parents to allow her to leave for Hollywood. She arrived in 1929 and was signed by Fox Studios as a contract player and immediately began to obtain film roles. She was renamed Patricia (almost immediately shortened to Pat) Paterson, as the Pat-Paterson sound had an ear-catching alliterative rhythm. From 1930-34 she appeared in many studio pictures, in roles of increasing prominence. In the 1935 20th Century Fox film Charlie Chan Goes To Egypt, starring Warner Oland as Chan, she played the female lead, Carol Arnold. This was intended by the studio to serve as her break-out role for leading parts. In early 1934, as production on Charlie Chan Goes To Egypt was wrapping, Maurice Chevalier persuaded his lifelong best friend, fellow French actor Charles Boyer, to attend a Fox Studios post-New Year dinner party at which Pat Paterson was a guest. In interviews over the years, Boyer declared their meeting to have been a case of love at first sight. They married within four weeks of the party, on St. Valentine's Day, 14 February 1934, in Yuma, Arizona. Boyer was quoted in the American news media as claiming his wife would be relinquishing her career, as he felt married women should not work but devote their time and attention to bringing up their children. However, Paterson continued to work. Indeed, arguably her greatest commercial successes came in the five years immediately following her marriage to Boyer. She continued to appear in at least one film per year until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when she, her husband and Maurice Chevalier, as Europeans, devoted themselves to supporting the war effort of Britain and France. It was the war which effectively brought an end to her film career. On 9 December 1943, two years after her husband Charles became an American citizen, she gave birth to their only child, Michael Charles Boyer, in Los Angeles, California.


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Idiot's Delight

as Mrs. Cherry
Released: 1939-01-27

A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are...

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The Lottery Lover

as Patty
Released: 1935-02-05

A crew of young military-school cadets are enjoying their first weekend in Paris. Frank...

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52nd Street

as Margaret Rondell
Released: 1937-11-19

The story of how 52nd Street became New York City's "Nightclub Row" in the 1930s.

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Charlie Chan in Egypt

as Carol Arnold
Released: 1935-06-04

While investigating the theft of antiquities from an ancient tomb excavation , Charlie discovers...

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Spendthrift

as Valerie 'Boots' O'Connell
Released: 1936-07-22

A profligate, polo-playing playboy (Henry Fonda) is married to a beautiful but superficial...

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Bottoms Up

as Wanda Gale
Released: 1934-04-12

Promoter "Smoothie" King helps a pair of phonies con their way into a movie company. As Wanda...

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Hollywood Goes to Town

as Self
Released: 1938-07-07

This short shows how Hollywood gets ready for the world premiere of an "important" movie. The...

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Love Time

as Valerie
Released: 1934-11-03

Romaticized biopic about the life of composer Franz Schubert.

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Bitter Sweet

as Dolly
Released: 1933-08-21

A young girl falls in love with a young conductor in Vienna, and they marry. However, their...

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Lord Babs

as Helen Parker
Released: 1932-02-01

A steward inherits the estate of an earl. To repel the advances of an unwanted fiancee, he...

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The Right to Live

as June Kessler
Released: 1933-01-01

A shady financier tries to acquire a new chemical

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The Great Gay Road

as Nancy
Released: 1931-10-21

'Romance of the open road and the circus. A tramp poses as baronet's lost son but relinquishes...

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Murder on the Second Floor

as Sylvia Armitage
Released: 1932-03-04

A novelist imagines the murders of his fellow tenants...

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