Lady Oona O'neill Chaplin, 66

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland - Lady Oona Chaplin, the American-born daughter of the playwright Eugene O'Neill and the fourth wife of Charlie Chaplin, died yesterday at the age of 66, Swiss media reported.

No cause of death was given and telephone calls to Lady Oona's home went unanswered. A recluse since her husband's death in 1977, she reportedly had been in poor health for some time.

Lady Oona, who was 18 when she married the 54-year-old Chaplin in 1943, renounced her U.S. citizenship after U.S. authorities refused Chaplin re-entry into the United States in 1952 over charges he associated with Communists.

She adopted his British nationality after the dispute, which came at the height of the phobia of Communist infiltration led by the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Twenty years later, her film-star husband was allowed to return to the United States to accept an honorary Academy Award in Hollywood. Chaplin's beloved comic films include "City Lights," "The Great Dictator," "The Kid" and "The Gold Rush."

Lady Oona acquired her title when Chaplin was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975.

Although Lady Oona's father, O'Neill, strongly objected to their relationship, Chaplin frequently described their marriage as "perfect."

None of his three previous marriages lasted more than a few years, but he and Lady Oona were married for 34 years.

They had five daughters, including the 45-year-old film actress Geraldine Chaplin, and three sons. Businessman Eugene, the middle son, remained in Corsier with his mother and is an active organizer of local festivals.

Chaplin fathered his last child with her at age 73.

The family lived quietly at the Manoir de Ban overlooking this village above Lake Geneva, and the children attended local schools. Chaplin bought the huge 18th-century mansion in 1953, one year after he settled in Switzerland.

The Chaplins did little entertaining, and Chaplin once told an interviewer that "my wife and children are more important to me than all the publicity in the world."

Lady Oona is survived by her eight children and 17 grandchildren.