Pat Paterson

For other people with a similar name, see Pat Patterson (disambiguation).

Patricia Paterson
Born	Eliza Paterson April 7, 1910(1910-04-07) Bradford
Died	August 24, 1978(1978-08-24) (aged 68) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Years active	1931–1939
Spouse	Charles Boyer (1934–1978)

Pat Paterson (7 April, 1910 – 24 August, 1978) was an Anglo-Scottish film actress, born in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Though she made over 20 films, she is most famous for being the wife of French-born actor Charles Boyer and for the death of their only child, Michael, at his own 21st birthday party.

Childhood and early life

She was born Eliza Paterson on 7 April 1910 at No.74 Fitzgerald Street, Horton, a suburb of Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire. Her mother, Hannah Holroyd, was English, her father, John Robb Paterson, (b.1888, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland) was a Scot. The Patersons had been Merchant Navy sailors for several generations, but his own father, John Robb Paterson (1864–1918) had broken the mould by becoming a Master Baker in Fifeshire, so John moved down to the Bradford area in his mid-teens for work, and met Hannah Holroyd. They married in 1908, and their eldest child, Eliza's older brother John, was born 9 January 1909. This birth occasioned a minor claim to fame in that John's birth remained unregistered for several years; the birth entry for John Paterson is listed in inkpen at the bottom of the page in the 1929 GRO Birth Index, but gives no indication the young man was 20 years old at the time his birth was finally registered. After Eliza, John Robb and Hannah Holroyd Paterson had a third and final child, Andrew Paterson, born 27th July 1920 at 15 Wood Road, Frizinghall, Bradford.

From infancy, Eliza was called Cis (to rhyme with kiss) or Cissie Paterson, a traditional English nickname given to girls named Elizabeth or some variant thereof (Eliza, Elspeth, etc.). By the time she was twelve years old she had built up a portfolio of child-acting and modelling work in the local area, including photographs of her in assorted costumes and poses that were sent to agents, talent scouts, etc.

Early Hollywood career

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 bit-part actress.

However, Cis was unknown to Americans as a name or nickname, so she was renamed Patricia (almost immediately shortened to Pat) Paterson, as the Pat-Paterson sound had an alliterative rhythm. From 1930 to 1934 she appeared in many studio pictures, usually as the third lead actress, then second lead, then co-lead, etc. In the 1935-released 20th Century Fox studio film Charlie Chan Goes To Egypt starring Warner Oland as Chan, she plays the female lead, Carol Arnold, with Rita Hayworth as the second female lead (billed as Rita Cansino in the credits). This seemed to have been intended to serve as her break-out role for regular female lead parts by 20th Century Fox; however, in early 1934, coincidentally as production on Charlie Chan Goes To Egypt was wrapping, elsewhere in Hollywood French-born actor Maurice Chevalier persuaded his lifelong best friend, fellow French actor Charles Boyer to attend a Fox Studios' post-New Year dinner party, at which several of their less famous contracted stable of actors also gathered. Amongst these was Pat Paterson. In newspaper interviews for several publications over later years, Charles Boyer declared it to be a classic case of eyes meeting across a crowded room and that they instantly fell in love with each other. They married within four weeks of that party, on St. Valentine's Day 1934, in Yuma, Arizona.

Later Hollywood career

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, her arguably most prominent role coming the year after her marriage, when Charlie Chan in Egypt was commercially released, starring as the archetype imperiled heroine that Charlie Chan has to save from being murdered.

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. Her father, John Robb Paterson, had lost two brothers fighting in World War I, and another, Frederick Whyte Paterson, who had emigrated to Australia, would be killed in action in World War II in 1943. It was effectively the end of her film career; on 10 December 1944, two years after her husband Charles became an American citizen, she gave birth to their only child, Michael Charles Boyer, in Los Angeles, California.

Marriage, death of son and her death

Boyer continued to make films, but perceptively refocused himself to target the suave, elder-statesman type of supporting role, recognising that his days as a hearthrob were done. Paterson remained in the background, though she visited him on set with Michael, whose name was pronounced Michelle in the French fashion, rather than My-Kal in the British fashion.

On the night of 10 December 1964, at his own 21st birthday party in his Los Angeles home, their son Michael shot himself dead whilst playing Russian Roulette near the mansion's summerhouse with a group of male friends. The media reported his death as a deliberate suicide, claiming distress over his breakup with his girlfriend as the motivation. However, this is far from certain; family and friends noted that they had previously separated but reconciled and moreover there was no indication that their relationship was in an off phase at that time in the first place Police officers who attended the aftermath of the scene also reported/leaked to the press that the fact it was night, a party, and there were a large number of somewhat inebriated youths scattered about the spacious property meant that there were no reliable witnesses to either the actual incident or Michael Boyer's alleged state of mind immediately prior to his death or earlier in the evening. It is equally possible his death may have been simply a drunken accident. Charles Boyer was filming in Europe at the time and neither he nor Pat Paterson ever recovered from the tragedy of losing their only child in such a senseless way.

Diagnosed with a brain tumour, Paterson died in Hollywood on 24 August 1978. Boyer committed suicide two days after she died, by overdose. They are buried together alongside their son in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Filmography

• The Other Woman (1931)
• The Great Gay Road (1931)
• The Right to Live (1932)
• Partners Please (1932)
• Lord Babs (1932)
• Here's George (1932)
• The Medicine Man (1933)
• The Love Wager (1933)
• The Laughter of Fools (1933)
• Head of the Family (1933)
• Beware of Women (1933)
• Bitter Sweet (1933)
• Bottoms Up (1934)
• Call It Luck (1934)
• Love Time (1934)
• The Lottery Lover (1935)
• Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)
• Spendthrift (1936)
• 52nd Street (1937)
• Idiot's Delight (1939)

Short subject

• Hollywood Goes to Town (1938) (uncredited)

References

• Frank Arnau (1932). Universal Filmlexikon 1932. Berlin/London: Universal Filmlexikon GmbH/London General Press. 

External links

• Pat Paterson at the Internet Movie Database
• Pat Paterson at AllRovi
• Pat Paterson at Find a Grave
• Photographs of Pat Paterson