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Minta Durfee (October 1, 1889 - September 9, 1975) was a silent film actress from Los Angeles, California.
She met Roscoe Arbuckle when he was attempting to get started in theater and the two married in August 1908. Durfee entered show business in local companies as a chorus girl at the age of seventeen. She was the first leading lady of Charlie Chaplin.
Durfee and Arbuckle separated in 1921. This was just prior to a scandal involving the death of starlet Virginia Rappe. There were three trials and finally Arbuckle was acquitted. His career was destroyed and he received few job offers. Durfee and Arbuckle were divorced in 1925. Durfee was quoted in her later years, saying Arbuckle was the most generous human being I've ever met, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd still marry the same man.
Durfee was a regular performer on television, appearing on such shows as Noah's Ark (1956). She had minor roles in motion pictures like How Green Was My Valley (1941), Naughty Marietta (1935), Rose- Marie (1936), The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
Minta Durfee died in Woodland Hills, California at the Motion Picture Country Home in 1975. She suffered from a heart ailment.
Grew up in a neighborhood adjacent to a railroad yard and a red light district. Her father was a railroad engineer, her mother made clothes for the local ladies of the evening.
Together with Roscoe, they formed the "Keystone Film" company.
When her husband Roscoe Arbuckle was on trial for the murder of Virginia Rappe, Minta appeared on his behalf, and was pelted with rocks outside the courthouse.
Though she appeared mostly in uncredited bit roles, her career spanned a remarkable seven decades.






