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Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (16 April, 1889
– 25 December, 1977) was the most famous
actor in early to mid Hollywood cinema, and
later also a notable film director|director. His
principal character was "The Tramp": a
vagrancy|vagrant with the refined manners and
dignity of a gentleman who wears a tight coat,
oversized pants and shoes, a derby or bowler hat,
a bamboo cane, and his signature square mustache. 
Chaplin was one of the most creative personalities
in the silent film era; he acted in, directed,
scripted, produced, and eventually scored his own
films.

==Biography==
He was born in Walworth, London|Walworth, London,
England to Charles, Sr. and Hannah Harriette Hill,
both Music Hall entertainers.  His parents
separated soon after his birth, leaving him in the
care of his increasingly unstable mother. In 1896,
she was unable to find work; Charlie and his older
half-brother Sydney Chaplin|Sydney had to be left
in the workhouse at Lambeth, moving after several
weeks to Hanwell School for Orphans and Destitute
Children.  His father died an alcoholic when
Charlie was 12, and his mother suffered a mental
breakdown, and was eventually admitted to the Cane
Hill Asylum at Coulsdon, near Croydon.  She died
in 1928.

Charlie first took to the stage when, aged 5, he
performed in Music Hall in 1894, standing in for
his mother.  As a child, he was confined to a bed
for weeks due to a serious illness, and, at night,
his mother would sit at the window and act out
what was going on outside.  In 1900, aged 11, his
brother helped get him the role of a comic cat in
the pantomime Cinderella at the London Hippodrome.
 In 1903 he appeared in Jim, A Romance of
Cockayne, followed by his first regular job, as
the newspaper boy Billy in Sherlock Holmes, a part
he played into 1906.  This was followed by Casey's
Court Circus variety show, and, the following
year, he became a clown in Fred Karno's Fun
Factory slapstick comedy company.  According to
immigration records, he arrived in the USA with
the Karno troupe on October 2, 1912.  In the Karno
Company was Arthur Stanley Jefferson, who would
later become known as Stan Laurel.  Chaplin and
Laurel wound up sharing a room in a boarding
house. Stan Laurel returned to England but Chaplin
remained in the USA. His act was seen by film
producer Mack Sennett, who hired him for his
studio, the Keystone Film Company.

While Chaplin initially had difficulty adjusting
to the Keystone style of film acting, he soon
adapted and flourished in the medium.  This was
made possible in part by Chaplin developing his
signature Tramp persona, and by eventually earning
directorship and creative control over his films,
which enabled him to become Keystone's top star
and talent.

His salary history suggests how rapidly he became
world famous, and the skill of his brother, Sydney
Chaplin|Sydney, at being his business manager.
* 1914 in film|1914: Keystone, worked for $150 a
week
* 1914-1915 in film|1915: Essanay Studios, of
Chicago, Illinois, $1250 a week, plus $10,000
signing bonus
* 1916 in film|1916-1917: Mutual, $10,000 a week,
plus $150,000 signing bonus
* 1917 in film|1917: First National, $1 million
deal — the first actor ever to earn that
sum. He also formed his own production company,
the Charles Chaplin Film Corporation, which made
him a very wealthy man.

In 1919 in film|1919 he founded the United Artists
studio with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks
(1883-1939)|Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith.

Although "talkies" became the dominant mode of
moviemaking soon after they were introduced in
1927 in film|1927, Chaplin resisted making a
talkie all through the 1930s.  It is a tribute to
Chaplin's versatility that he also has one film
credit for choreography for the 1952 in film|1952
film Limelight (movie)|Limelight, and one credit
as a singer for the title music of the 1928 in
film|1928 film The Circus.  The best-known of
several songs he composed is "Smile (song)|Smile",
famously covered by Nat King Cole, among others.

His first sound picture, The Great Dictator (1940
in film|1940) was an act of defiance against Adolf
Hitler and fascism, filmed and released in the
United States one year before it abandoned its
policy of isolationism to enter World War II.
Chaplin played a fascist dictator clearly modeled
on Hitler (also with a certain physical likeness),
as well as a Jewish barber cruelly persecuted by
the Nazis. Hitler, who was a great fan of movies,
is known to have seen the film twice (records were
kept of movies ordered for his personal theater).
After the war and the uncovering of the Holocaust,
Chaplin stated that he would not have been able to
make such jokes about the Nazi regime had he known
about the actual extent of the pogrom.

Chaplin's political sympathies always lay with the
left-wing politics|left. Several of his movies,
notably Modern Times (1936 in film|1936), depict
the dismal situation of workers and the poor.

Although Chaplin had his major successes in the
United States, he retained his United
Kingdom|British nationality. During the era of
McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of "un-American
activities" as a suspected communism|communist;
and J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the FBI to
keep extensive files on him, tried to end his
United States residency.



In 1952, Chaplin left the US for a trip to
England; Hoover learned of it and negotiated with
the Immigration and Naturalization Service|INS to
revoke his re-entry permit. Chaplin then decided
to stay in Europe, and made his home in Vevey,
Switzerland. He briefly returned to the United
States in April 1972 in film|1972 to receive an
Academy Honorary Award|Honorary Oscar. 

Chaplin won the honorary Academy Award|Oscar
twice.  When the first Oscars were awarded on May
16, 1929 in film|1929, the voting audit procedures
that now exist had not yet been invented, and the
categories were still very fluid.  When it became
apparent that Chaplin, who had been nominated for
Best Actor and Best Comedy Direction, had failed
to win either award for his movie The Circus, the
Academy decided to give him a special award "for
versatility and genius in acting, writing,
directing and producing The Circus".  The other
film to receive a special award that year was The
Jazz Singer.  

Chaplin's second honorary award came 44 years
later in 1972, and was for "the incalculable
effect he has had in making motion pictures the
art form of this century".  He came out of his
exile and collected his award less than a month
before the death of J. Edgar Hoover.  Chaplin was
also nominated without success for Best Picture,
Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay for The
Great Dictator, and again for Best Original
Screenplay for Monsieur Verdoux (1947 in
film|1947).

In 1973 in film|1973, he received an Oscar for the
Best Music in an Original Dramatic Score for the
1952 film Limelight (movie)|Limelight, which
co-starred Claire Bloom.  The film also features a
cameo with Buster Keaton, which was the first and
last time the two great comedians ever appeared
together.  Because of Chaplin's difficulties with
McCarthyism, the film did not open in Los Angeles
when it was first produced.  This criterion for
nomination was not fulfilled until 1972.  

His final films were A King in New York (1957 in
film|1957) and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967 in
film|1967), starring Sophia Loren and Marlon
Brando.  

His professional successes were repeatedly
overshadowed by his notorious private life. On
October 23, 1918, the 28 year old Chaplin married
the 16-year-old Mildred Harris. They had one child
who died in infancy; they divorced in 1920. At 35,
he fell in love with 16-year-old Lita Grey during
preparations for The Gold Rush. They married on
November 26, 1924 after she became pregnant. They
had two sons, the actors Charles Chaplin Jr and
Sydney Chaplin. Their bitter divorce in 1926 had
Chaplin paying Grey a then-record-breaking
$825,000 settlement. The stress of the divorce,
compounded by a tax dispute, allegedly turned his
hair white. The publication of court records,
which included many intimate details, led to a
campaign against him. He was 47 when he secretly
married the 25 year old Paulette Goddard in June
1936. After some happy years, it ended in divorce
in 1942. During this period, Chaplin briefly dated
actress Joan Barry, but ended it when she started
harrassing him. In May 1943, she filed a paternity
suit against him. Blood tests proved Chaplin was
not the father, but as blood tests were
inadmissible evidence in court, he was ordered to
pay $75 a week until the child turned 21. Shortly
thereafter, he met Oona O'Neill, daughter of
Eugene O'Neill, and married her on June 16, 1943.
He was 54; she was 17. This marriage was a long
and happy one, with eight children.

On March 4, 1975, after many years of self-imposed
exile from his native country, he was British
honours system|knighted as a Order of the British
Empire|Knight of the British Empire by Elizabeth
II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II.  The
honour was first proposed in 1956, but vetoed by
the British Foreign Office on the grounds that he
sympathized with the left and that it would damage
British relations with the United States, at the
height of the Cold War and with planning for the
ill-fated Suez Crisis|invasion of Suez underway.

Chaplin died on Christmas Day, 1977 in Vevey,
Switzerland, following a stroke,aged 88, and was
interred in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery in
Corsier-Sur-Vevey, Vaud. On 1 March, 1978, his
body was stolen in an attempt to extort money from
his family. The plot failed. The robbers were
captured, and the body was recovered 11 weeks
later near Lake Geneva. There is a statue of
Chaplin in front of the alimentarium in Vevey to
commemorate the last part of his life.

Amongst his many honours, Chaplin has a star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1985 he was
honoured with his image on a List of people on
stamps of the United Kingdom|postage stamp of the
United Kingdom and in 1994 he appeared on a List
of people on stamps of the United States|United
States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al
Hirschfeld.

In 1992 in film|1992 a film was made about his
life entitled Chaplin (movie)|Chaplin, directed by
Oscar-winner Sir Richard Attenborough, and
starring Robert Downey Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine
Chaplin (Charlie's daughter, portraying Charlie's
mother, her own grandmother), Sir Anthony Hopkins,
Milla Jovovich, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Diane
Lane, Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Rhys, Marisa
Tomei, Nancy Travis, and James Woods.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he
was voted among the top 20 greatest comedy acts
ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

==Media==
multi-video start
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, bond of
friendship, 1918.ogg|title="The bond of
friendship" |description= A video clip from the
silent film, "The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, the
Marriage Bond.ogg|title="The marriage bond"
|description= A video clip from the silent film,
"The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, The
Bond, 1918.ogg|title="U.S. Liberty Bonds"
|description= A video clip from the silent film,
"The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin gets hit
by Cupid.ogg|title=Charlie Chaplin gets hit by
Cupid |description= This clip has Chaplin falling
in love with a beautiful woman, with some help
from Cupid.|format=Theora
multi-video end

==Filmography==
===Short films as actor===
*1914
**Between Showers
**A Busy Day
**Caught in a Cabaret
**Caught in the Rain
**Cruel, Cruel Love
**Dough and Dynamite
**The Face on the Bar Room Floor
**The Fatal Mallet
**A Film Johnnie
**Gentlemen of Nerve
**Getting Acquainted
**Her Friend the Bandit
**His Favorite Pastime
**His Musical Career
**His New Profession
**His Prehistoric Past
**His Trysting Place
**Kid Auto Races at Venice
**The Knockout
**Laughing Gas (film)|Laughing Gas
**Mabel at the Wheel
**Mabel's Busy Day
**Mabel's Married Life
**Mabel's Strange Predicament
**Making a Living
**The Masquerader
**The New Janitor
**The Property Man
**Recreation (movie)|Recreation
**The Rounders
**The Star Boarder
**Tango Tangles
**Those Love Pangs
**Twenty Minutes of Love
*1915
**The Bank
**Charlie Chaplin's Burlesque on Carmen
**By the Sea
**The Champion (movie)|The Champion
**His New Job
**His Regeneration
**In the Park
**A Jitney Elopement
**A Night Out
**A Night in the Show
**Shanghaied
**The Tramp (film)|The Tramp
**A Woman
**Work (movie)|Work
*1916
**Behind the Screen
**The Count (movie)|The Count
**The Fireman
**The Floorwalker
**One A.M.
**The Pawnshop
**Police!
**The Rink
**The Vagabond
*1917
**The Adventurer (film)|The Adventurer
**The Cure (movie)|The Cure
**Easy Street
**The Immigrant
*1918
**The Bond
**Shoulder Arms
**A Dog's Life
**Triple Trouble
*1919
**A Day's Pleasure
**Sunnyside (film)|Sunnyside
*1921
**The Idle Class
*1922
**Pay Day (1922 movie)|Pay Day
*1923
**The Pilgrim

===Feature films===
(as actor and director except as noted)
*Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914 film)|Tillie's
Punctured Romance (1914) (actor only) - first
feature-length comedy film ever produced.
*The Kid (1921 movie)|The Kid (1921)
*The Nut (1921) (cameo only)
*Souls For Sale (1923) (cameo only)
*A Woman of Paris (1923) (cameo, dir)
*The Gold Rush (1925)
*A Woman of the Sea (1926) (produced only)
*The Circus (1928)
*Show People (1928) (cameo only)
*City Lights (1931)
*Modern Times (1936)
*The Great Dictator (1940)
*Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
*Limelight (movie)|Limelight (1952)
*A King in New York (1957)
*A Countess From Hong Kong (1967) (directed and
makes a cameo appearance)

==See also==
*Albert Austin
*Edna Purviance

==External link==

*http://www.thelittlefellow.org The Little Fellow:
A Charlie Chaplin Fan Page
*http://chaplin.comedyclassics.org Charlie Chaplin
Forum - A place for fans to chat
*http://www.classicmovies.org/articles/aa042201b.h
tm A collection of tribute webpages to Charlie
Chaplin at Classicmovies.org
*imdb name|id=0000122|name=Charlie Chaplin
*http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~pringle/silent/cha
plin/aaronhale.html Chaplin - An essay by Aaron
Hale
*http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/chaplin/intro.h
tml Charlie Chaplin: A WWW Celebration
*http://www.fadetoblack.com/foi/charliechaplin/ind
ex.html Charlie Chaplin FBI File
*http://www.clown-ministry.com/History/Charlie-Cha
plin.html Clown Ministry's biography of Charlie
Chaplin
*http://www.discoverchaplin.com/ Discover Charlie
Chaplin
*http://www.charliechaplin.com/ Official Charlie
Chaplin Website
*http://www.chaplinmuseum.com/ The Chaplin Museum
*http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/
chaplin.html The TIME 100: Charlie Chaplin
*http://www.geocities.com/qubestrader/chaplin.html
Charlie Chaplin - Biographical Chronology
*http://www.thegoldenyears.org/chaplin.html
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Directors: Charles
Chaplin










 

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

:For the Jamaica|Jamaican musician named Charlie
Chaplin, see Charlie Chaplin (singer).



Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (16 April, 1889
– 25 December, 1977) was the most famous
actor in early to mid Hollywood film|cinema, and
later also a notable film director|director. His
principal character was "The Tramp": a
vagrancy|vagrant with the refined manners and
dignity of a gentleman who wears a tight coat,
oversized pants and shoes, a derby or bowler hat,
a bamboo cane, and his signature square mustache. 
Chaplin was one of the most creative personalities
in the silent film era; he acted in, directed,
scripted, produced, and eventually scored his own
films.

==Biography==
He was born in Walworth, London|Walworth, London,
England to Charles Chaplin, Sr. and Hannah
Harriette Hill, both Music Hall entertainers. His
parents separated soon after his birth, leaving
him in the care of his increasingly unstable
mother. In 1896, she was unable to find work;
Charlie and his older half-brother Sydney
Chaplin|Sydney had to be left in the workhouse at
Lambeth, moving after several weeks to Hanwell
School for Orphans and Destitute Children. His
father died an alcoholic when Charlie was 12, and
his mother suffered a mental breakdown, and was
eventually admitted to the Cane Hill Asylum at
Coulsdon, near Croydon.  She died in 1928.

Charlie first took to the stage when, aged 5, he
performed in Music Hall in 1894, standing in for
his mother. As a child, he was confined to a bed
for weeks due to a serious illness, and, at night,
his mother would sit at the window and act out
what was going on outside.  In 1900, aged 11, his
brother helped get him the role of a comic cat in
the pantomime Cinderella at the London Hippodrome.
In 1903 he appeared in Jim, A Romance of Cockayne,
followed by his first regular job, as the
newspaper boy Billy in Sherlock Holmes, a part he
played into 1906.  This was followed by Casey's
Court Circus variety show, and, the following
year, he became a clown in Fred Karno's Fun
Factory slapstick comedy company.  According to
immigration records, he arrived in the USA with
the Karno troupe on October 2, 1912.  In the Karno
Company was Arthur Stanley Jefferson, who would
later become known as Stan Laurel.  Chaplin and
Laurel wound up sharing a room in a boarding
house. Stan Laurel returned to England but Chaplin
remained in the USA. His act was seen by film
producer Mack Sennett, who hired him for his
studio, the Keystone Film Company.

While Chaplin initially had difficulty adjusting
to the Keystone style of film acting, he soon
adapted and flourished in the medium. This was
made possible in part by Chaplin developing his
signature Tramp persona, and by eventually earning
directorship and creative control over his films,
which enabled him to become Keystone's top star
and talent.

His salary history suggests how rapidly he became
world famous, and the skill of his brother, Sydney
Chaplin|Sydney, at being his business manager.
* 1914 in film|1914: Keystone, worked for $150 a
week
* 1914-1915 in film|1915: Essanay Studios, of
Chicago, Illinois, $1250 a week, plus $10,000
signing bonus
* 1916 in film|1916-1917: Mutual, $10,000 a week,
plus $150,000 signing bonus
* 1917 in film|1917: First National, $1 million
deal — the first actor ever to earn that
sum. He also formed his own production company,
the Charles Chaplin Film Corporation, which made
him a very wealthy man.

In 1919 in film|1919 he founded the United Artists
studio with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks
(1883-1939)|Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith.

Although "talkies" became the dominant mode of
moviemaking soon after they were introduced in
1927 in film|1927, Chaplin resisted making a
talkie all through the 1930s.  It is a tribute to
Chaplin's versatility that he also has one film
credit for choreography for the 1952 in film|1952
film Limelight (movie)|Limelight, and one credit
as a singer for the title music of the 1928 in
film|1928 film The Circus. The best-known of
several songs he composed is "Smile (song)|Smile",
famously covered by Nat King Cole, among others.

His first sound picture, The Great Dictator (1940
in film|1940) was an act of defiance against Adolf
Hitler and fascism, filmed and released in the
United States one year before it abandoned its
policy of isolationism to enter World War II.
Chaplin played a fascist dictator clearly modeled
on Hitler (also with a certain physical likeness),
as well as a Jewish barber cruelly persecuted by
the Nazis. Hitler, who was a great fan of movies,
is known to have seen the film twice (records were
kept of movies ordered for his personal theater).
After the war and the uncovering of the Holocaust,
Chaplin stated that he would not have been able to
make such jokes about the Nazi regime had he known
about the actual extent of the pogrom.

Chaplin's political sympathies always lay with the
left-wing politics|left. Several of his movies,
notably Modern Times (1936 in film|1936), depict
the dismal situation of workers and the poor.

Although Chaplin had his major successes in the
United States, he retained his United
Kingdom|British nationality. During the era of
McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of "un-American
activities" as a suspected communism|communist;
and J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the FBI to
keep extensive files on him, tried to end his
United States residency.



In 1952, Chaplin left the US for a trip to
England; Hoover learned of it and negotiated with
the Immigration and Naturalization Service|INS to
revoke his re-entry permit. Chaplin then decided
to stay in Europe, and made his home in Vevey,
Switzerland. He briefly returned to the United
States in April 1972 in film|1972, with his wife
to receive an Academy Honorary Award|Honorary
Oscar.

Chaplin won the honorary Academy Award|Oscar
twice. When the first Oscars were awarded on May
16, 1929 in film|1929, the voting audit procedures
that now exist had not yet been invented, and the
categories were still very fluid. When it became
apparent that Chaplin, who had been nominated for
Best Actor and Best Comedy Direction, had failed
to win either award for his movie The Circus, the
Academy decided to give him a special award "for
versatility and genius in acting, writing,
directing and producing The Circus". The other
film to receive a special award that year was The
Jazz Singer.  

Chaplin's second honorary award came 44 years
later in 1972, and was for "the incalculable
effect he has had in making motion pictures the
art form of this century". He came out of his
exile and collected his award less than a month
before the death of J. Edgar Hoover. Upon
receiving the award, Chaplin received the longest
standing ovation in Academy Award history, lasting
a full five minutes from the delighted, enthralled
star-studded studio audience.

Chaplin was also nominated without success for
Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Original
Screenplay for The Great Dictator, and again for
Best Original Screenplay for Monsieur Verdoux
(1947 in film|1947).

In 1973 in film|1973, he received an Oscar for the
Best Music in an Original Dramatic Score for the
1952 film Limelight (movie)|Limelight, which
co-starred Claire Bloom.  The film also features a
cameo with Buster Keaton, which was the first and
last time the two great comedians ever appeared
together.  Because of Chaplin's difficulties with
McCarthyism, the film did not open in Los Angeles
when it was first produced. This criterion for
nomination was not fulfilled until 1972.  

His final films were A King in New York (1957 in
film|1957) and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967 in
film|1967), starring Sophia Loren and Marlon
Brando.  

His professional successes were repeatedly
overshadowed by his notorious private life. On
October 23, 1918, the 28 year old Chaplin married
the 16-year-old Mildred Harris. They had one child
Norman Spencer Chaplin who died in infancy; they
divorced in 1920. At 35, he fell in love with
16-year-old Lita Grey during preparations for The
Gold Rush. They married on November 26, 1924 after
she became pregnant. They had two sons, the actors
Charles Chaplin Jr and Sydney Earle Chaplin, aka
Sydney Chaplin (1926- ). Their bitter divorce in
1926 had Chaplin paying Grey a
then-record-breaking $825,000 settlement. The
stress of the divorce, compounded by a tax
dispute, allegedly turned his hair white. The
publication of court records, which included many
intimate details, led to a campaign against him.
He was 47 when he secretly married the 25 year old
Paulette Goddard in June 1936. After some happy
years, it ended in divorce in 1942. During this
period, Chaplin briefly dated actress Joan Barry,
but ended it when she started harrassing him. In
May 1943, she filed a paternity suit against him.
Blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father, but
as blood tests were inadmissible evidence in
court, he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the
child turned 21. Shortly thereafter, he met Oona
O'Neill, daughter of Eugene O'Neill, and married
her on June 16, 1943. He was 54; she was 17. This
marriage was a long and happy one, with eight
children. They had three sons Christopher Chaplin,
Eugene Chaplin and Michael Chaplin and five
daughters Geraldine Chaplin, Josephine Chaplin,
Jane Chaplin, Victoria Chaplin and Annette-Emilie
Chaplin, 

On March 4, 1975, after many years of self-imposed
exile from his native country, he was British
honours system|knighted as a Order of the British
Empire|Knight of the British Empire by Elizabeth
II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II.  The
honour was first proposed in 1956, but vetoed by
the British Foreign Office on the grounds that he
sympathized with the left and that it would damage
British relations with the United States, at the
height of the Cold War and with planning for the
ill-fated Suez Crisis|invasion of Suez underway.

Chaplin died on Christmas Day, 1977 in Vevey,
Switzerland, following a stroke,aged 88, and was
interred in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery in
Corsier-Sur-Vevey, Vaud. On 1 March, 1978, his
body was stolen in an attempt to extort money from
his family. The plot failed. The robbers were
captured, and the body was recovered 11 weeks
later near Lake Geneva. There is a statue of
Chaplin in front of the alimentarium in Vevey to
commemorate the last part of his life.

Amongst his many honours, Chaplin has a star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1985 he was
honoured with his image on a List of people on
stamps of the United Kingdom|postage stamp of the
United Kingdom and in 1994 he appeared on a List
of people on stamps of the United States|United
States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al
Hirschfeld.

In 1992 in film|1992 a film was made about his
life entitled Chaplin (movie)|Chaplin, directed by
Oscar-winner Sir Richard Attenborough, and
starring Robert Downey Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine
Chaplin (Charlie's daughter, portraying Charlie's
mother, her own grandmother), Sir Anthony Hopkins,
Milla Jovovich, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Diane
Lane, Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Rhys, Marisa
Tomei, Nancy Travis, and James Woods.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he
was voted among the top 20 greatest comedy acts
ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

==Media==
multi-video start
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, bond of
friendship, 1918.ogg|title="The bond of
friendship" |description= A video clip from the
silent film, "The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, the
Marriage Bond.ogg|title="The marriage bond"
|description= A video clip from the silent film,
"The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, The
Bond, 1918.ogg|title="U.S. Liberty Bonds"
|description= A video clip from the silent film,
"The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin gets hit
by Cupid.ogg|title=Charlie Chaplin gets hit by
Cupid |description= This clip has Chaplin falling
in love with a beautiful woman, with some help
from Cupid.|format=Theora
multi-video end

==Filmography==
===Short films as actor===
*1914
**Between Showers
**A Busy Day
**Caught in a Cabaret
**Caught in the Rain
**Cruel, Cruel Love
**Dough and Dynamite
**The Face on the Bar Room Floor
**The Fatal Mallet
**A Film Johnnie
**Gentlemen of Nerve
**Getting Acquainted
**Her Friend the Bandit
**His Favorite Pastime
**His Musical Career
**His New Profession
**His Prehistoric Past
**His Trysting Place
**Kid Auto Races at Venice
**The Knockout
**Laughing Gas (film)|Laughing Gas
**Mabel at the Wheel
**Mabel's Busy Day
**Mabel's Married Life
**Mabel's Strange Predicament
**Making a Living
**The Masquerader
**The New Janitor
**The Property Man
**Recreation (movie)|Recreation
**The Rounders
**The Star Boarder
**Tango Tangles
**Those Love Pangs
**Twenty Minutes of Love
*1915
**The Bank
**Charlie Chaplin's Burlesque on Carmen
**By the Sea
**The Champion (movie)|The Champion
**His New Job
**His Regeneration
**In the Park
**A Jitney Elopement
**A Night Out
**A Night in the Show
**Shanghaied
**The Tramp (film)|The Tramp
**A Woman
**Work (movie)|Work
*1916
**Behind the Screen
**The Count (movie)|The Count
**The Fireman
**The Floorwalker
**One A.M.
**The Pawnshop
**Police!
**The Rink
**The Vagabond
*1917
**The Adventurer (film)|The Adventurer
**The Cure (movie)|The Cure
**Easy Street
**The Immigrant
*1918
**The Bond
**Shoulder Arms
**A Dog's Life
**Triple Trouble
*1919
**A Day's Pleasure
**Sunnyside (film)|Sunnyside
*1921
**The Idle Class
*1922
**Pay Day (1922 movie)|Pay Day
*1923
**The Pilgrim

===Feature films===
(as actor and director except as noted)
*Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914 film)|Tillie's
Punctured Romance (1914) (actor only) - first
feature-length comedy film ever produced.
*The Kid (1921 movie)|The Kid (1921)
*The Nut (1921) (cameo only)
*Souls For Sale (1923) (cameo only)
*A Woman of Paris (1923) (cameo, dir)
*The Gold Rush (1925)
*A Woman of the Sea (1926) (produced only)
*The Circus (1928)
*Show People (1928) (cameo only)
*City Lights (1931)
*Modern Times (1936)
*The Great Dictator (1940)
*Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
*Limelight (movie)|Limelight (1952)
*A King in New York (1957)
*A Countess From Hong Kong (1967) (directed and
makes a cameo appearance)

==See also==
*Albert Austin
*Edna Purviance

==External link==

*http://www.thelittlefellow.org The Little Fellow:
A Charlie Chaplin Fan Page
*http://chaplin.comedyclassics.org Charlie Chaplin
Forum - A place for fans to chat
*http://www.classicmovies.org/articles/aa042201b.h
tm A collection of tribute webpages to Charlie
Chaplin at Classicmovies.org
*imdb name|id=0000122|name=Charlie Chaplin
*http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~pringle/silent/cha
plin/aaronhale.html Chaplin - An essay by Aaron
Hale
*http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/chaplin/intro.h
tml Charlie Chaplin: A WWW Celebration
*http://www.fadetoblack.com/foi/charliechaplin/ind
ex.html Charlie Chaplin FBI File
*http://www.clown-ministry.com/History/Charlie-Cha
plin.html Clown Ministry's biography of Charlie
Chaplin
*http://www.discoverchaplin.com/ Discover Charlie
Chaplin
*http://www.charliechaplin.com/ Official Charlie
Chaplin Website
*http://www.chaplinmuseum.com/ The Chaplin Museum
*http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/
chaplin.html The TIME 100: Charlie Chaplin
*http://www.geocities.com/qubestrader/chaplin.html
Charlie Chaplin - Biographical Chronology
*http://www.thegoldenyears.org/chaplin.html
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Directors: Charles
Chaplin










 

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (16 April, 1889
– 25 December, 1977) was the most famous
actor in early to mid Hollywood film|cinema, and
later also a notable film director|director. His
principal character was "The Tramp": a
vagrancy|vagrant with the refined manners and
dignity of a gentleman who wears a tight coat,
oversized pants and shoes, a derby or bowler hat,
a bamboo cane, and his signature square mustache. 
Chaplin was one of the most creative personalities
in the silent film era; he acted in, directed,
scripted, produced, and eventually scored his own
films.

==Biography==
He was born in Walworth, London|Walworth, London,
England to Charles Chaplin, Sr. and Hannah
Harriette Hill, both Music Hall entertainers. His
parents separated soon after his birth, leaving
him in the care of his increasingly unstable
mother. In 1896, she was unable to find work;
Charlie and his older half-brother Sydney
Chaplin|Sydney had to be left in the workhouse at
Lambeth, moving after several weeks to Hanwell
School for Orphans and Destitute Children. His
father died an alcoholic when Charlie was 12, and
his mother suffered a mental breakdown, and was
eventually admitted to the Cane Hill Asylum at
Coulsdon, near Croydon.  She died in 1928.

Charlie first took to the stage when, aged 5, he
performed in Music Hall in 1894, standing in for
his mother. As a child, he was confined to a bed
for weeks due to a serious illness, and, at night,
his mother would sit at the window and act out
what was going on outside.  In 1900, aged 11, his
brother helped get him the role of a comic cat in
the pantomime Cinderella at the London Hippodrome.
In 1903 he appeared in Jim, A Romance of Cockayne,
followed by his first regular job, as the
newspaper boy Billy in Sherlock Holmes, a part he
played into 1906.  This was followed by Casey's
Court Circus variety show, and, the following
year, he became a clown in Fred Karno's Fun
Factory slapstick comedy company.  According to
immigration records, he arrived in the USA with
the Karno troupe on October 2, 1912.  In the Karno
Company was Arthur Stanley Jefferson, who would
later become known as Stan Laurel.  Chaplin and
Laurel wound up sharing a room in a boarding
house. Stan Laurel returned to England but Chaplin
remained in the USA. His act was seen by film
producer Mack Sennett, who hired him for his
studio, the Keystone Film Company.

While Chaplin initially had difficulty adjusting
to the Keystone style of film acting, he soon
adapted and flourished in the medium. This was
made possible in part by Chaplin developing his
signature Tramp persona, and by eventually earning
directorship and creative control over his films,
which enabled him to become Keystone's top star
and talent.

His salary history suggests how rapidly he became
world famous, and the skill of his brother, Sydney
Chaplin|Sydney, at being his business manager.
* 1914 in film|1914: Keystone, worked for $150 a
week
* 1914-1915 in film|1915: Essanay Studios, of
Chicago, Illinois, $1250 a week, plus $10,000
signing bonus
* 1916 in film|1916-1917: Mutual, $10,000 a week,
plus $150,000 signing bonus
* 1917 in film|1917: First National, $1 million
deal — the first actor ever to earn that
sum. He also formed his own production company,
the Charles Chaplin Film Corporation, which made
him a very wealthy man.

In 1919 in film|1919 he founded the United Artists
studio with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks
(1883-1939)|Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith.

Although "talkies" became the dominant mode of
moviemaking soon after they were introduced in
1927 in film|1927, Chaplin resisted making a
talkie all through the 1930s.  It is a tribute to
Chaplin's versatility that he also has one film
credit for choreography for the 1952 in film|1952
film Limelight (film)|Limelight, and one credit as
a singer for the title music of the 1928 in
film|1928 film The Circus. The best-known of
several songs he composed is "Smile (song)|Smile",
famously covered by Nat King Cole, among others.

His first sound picture, The Great Dictator (1940
in film|1940) was an act of defiance against Adolf
Hitler and fascism, filmed and released in the
United States one year before it abandoned its
policy of isolationism to enter World War II.
Chaplin played a fascist dictator clearly modeled
on Hitler (also with a certain physical likeness),
as well as a Jewish barber cruelly persecuted by
the Nazis. Hitler, who was a great fan of movies,
is known to have seen the film twice (records were
kept of movies ordered for his personal theater).
After the war and the uncovering of the Holocaust,
Chaplin stated that he would not have been able to
make such jokes about the Nazi regime had he known
about the actual extent of the pogrom.

Chaplin's political sympathies always lay with the
left-wing politics|left. Several of his movies,
notably Modern Times (1936 in film|1936), depict
the dismal situation of workers and the poor.

Although Chaplin had his major successes in the
United States, he retained his United
Kingdom|British nationality. During the era of
McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of "un-American
activities" as a suspected communism|communist;
and J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the FBI to
keep extensive files on him, tried to end his
United States residency.



In 1952, Chaplin left the US for a trip to
England; Hoover learned of it and negotiated with
the Immigration and Naturalization Service|INS to
revoke his re-entry permit. Chaplin then decided
to stay in Europe, and made his home in Vevey,
Switzerland. He briefly returned to the United
States in April 1972 in film|1972, with his wife
to receive an Academy Honorary Award|Honorary
Oscar.

Chaplin won the honorary Academy Award|Oscar
twice. When the first Oscars were awarded on May
16, 1929 in film|1929, the voting audit procedures
that now exist had not yet been invented, and the
categories were still very fluid. When it became
apparent that Chaplin, who had been nominated for
Best Actor and Best Comedy Direction, had failed
to win either award for his movie The Circus, the
Academy decided to give him a special award "for
versatility and genius in acting, writing,
directing and producing The Circus". The other
film to receive a special award that year was The
Jazz Singer.  

Chaplin's second honorary award came 44 years
later in 1972, and was for "the incalculable
effect he has had in making motion pictures the
art form of this century". He came out of his
exile and collected his award less than a month
before the death of J. Edgar Hoover. Upon
receiving the award, Chaplin received the longest
standing ovation in Academy Award history, lasting
a full five minutes from the delighted, enthralled
star-studded studio audience.

Chaplin was also nominated without success for
Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Original
Screenplay for The Great Dictator, and again for
Best Original Screenplay for Monsieur Verdoux
(1947 in film|1947).

In 1973 in film|1973, he received an Oscar for the
Best Music in an Original Dramatic Score for the
1952 film Limelight (film)|Limelight, which
co-starred Claire Bloom.  The film also features a
cameo with Buster Keaton, which was the first and
last time the two great comedians ever appeared
together.  Because of Chaplin's difficulties with
McCarthyism, the film did not open in Los Angeles
when it was first produced. This criterion for
nomination was not fulfilled until 1972.  

His final films were A King in New York (1957 in
film|1957) and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967 in
film|1967), starring Sophia Loren and Marlon
Brando...

==Private life==
His professional successes were repeatedly
overshadowed by his notorious private life. On
October 23, 1918, the 28 year old Chaplin married
the 16-year-old Mildred Harris. They had one child
Norman Spencer Chaplin who died in infancy; they
divorced in 1920. At 35, he fell in love with
16-year-old Lita Grey during preparations for The
Gold Rush. They married on November 26, 1924 after
she became pregnant. They had two sons, the actors
Charles Chaplin Jr and Sydney Earle Chaplin, aka
Sydney Chaplin (1926- ). Their bitter divorce in
1926 had Chaplin paying Grey a
then-record-breaking $825,000 settlement. The
stress of the divorce, compounded by a tax
dispute, allegedly turned his hair white. The
publication of court records, which included many
intimate details, led to a campaign against him.
He was 47 when he secretly married the 25 year old
Paulette Goddard in June 1936. After some happy
years, it ended in divorce in 1942. During this
period, Chaplin briefly dated actress Joan Barry,
but ended it when she started harrassing him. In
May 1943, she filed a paternity suit against him.
Blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father, but
as blood tests were inadmissible evidence in
court, he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the
child turned 21. Shortly thereafter, he met Oona
O'Neill, daughter of Eugene O'Neill, and married
her on June 16, 1943. He was 54; she was 17. This
marriage was a long and happy one, with eight
children. They had three sons Christopher Chaplin,
Eugene Chaplin and Michael Chaplin and five
daughters Geraldine Chaplin, Josephine Chaplin,
Jane Chaplin, Victoria Chaplin and Annette-Emilie
Chaplin, 

On March 4, 1975, after many years of self-imposed
exile from his native country, he was British
honours system|knighted as a Order of the British
Empire|Knight of the British Empire by Elizabeth
II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II.  The
honour was first proposed in 1956, but vetoed by
the British Foreign Office on the grounds that he
sympathized with the left and that it would damage
British relations with the United States, at the
height of the Cold War and with planning for the
ill-fated Suez Crisis|invasion of Suez underway.

Chaplin died on Christmas Day, 1977 in Vevey,
Switzerland, following a stroke,aged 88, and was
interred in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery in
Corsier-Sur-Vevey, Vaud. On 1 March, 1978, his
body was stolen in an attempt to extort money from
his family. The plot failed. The robbers were
captured, and the body was recovered 11 weeks
later near Lake Geneva. There is a statue of
Chaplin in front of the alimentarium in Vevey to
commemorate the last part of his life.

Amongst his many honours, Chaplin has a star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1985 he was
honoured with his image on a List of people on
stamps of the United Kingdom|postage stamp of the
United Kingdom and in 1994 he appeared on a List
of people on stamps of the United States|United
States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al
Hirschfeld.

In 1992 in film|1992 a film was made about his
life entitled Chaplin (film)|Chaplin, directed by
Oscar-winner Sir Richard Attenborough, and
starring Robert Downey Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine
Chaplin (Charlie's daughter, portraying Charlie's
mother, her own grandmother), Sir Anthony Hopkins,
Milla Jovovich, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Diane
Lane, Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Rhys, Marisa
Tomei, Nancy Travis, and James Woods.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he
was voted among the top 20 greatest comedy acts
ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

All his life, Chaplin was known to be an avowed
athiest. He had nothing but contempt for any form
of religion. He once "joked" "I would love to play
the part of Jesus! I fit it perfectly because I am
a comedian".

==Media==
multi-video start
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, bond of
friendship, 1918.ogg|title="The bond of
friendship" |description= A video clip from the
silent film, "The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, the
Marriage Bond.ogg|title="The marriage bond"
|description= A video clip from the silent film,
"The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin, The
Bond, 1918.ogg|title="U.S. Liberty Bonds"
|description= A video clip from the silent film,
"The Bond" (1918).|format=Theora
multi-video item|filename=Charlie Chaplin gets hit
by Cupid.ogg|title=Charlie Chaplin gets hit by
Cupid |description= This clip has Chaplin falling
in love with a beautiful woman, with some help
from Cupid.|format=Theora
multi-video end
==Trivia==
Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie
Chaplin look-alike contest.
==Filmography==
===Short films as actor===
*1914
**Between Showers
**A Busy Day
**Caught in a Cabaret
**Caught in the Rain
**Cruel, Cruel Love
**Dough and Dynamite
**The Face on the Bar Room Floor
**The Fatal Mallet
**A Film Johnnie
**Gentlemen of Nerve
**Getting Acquainted
**Her Friend the Bandit
**His Favorite Pastime
**His Musical Career
**His New Profession
**His Prehistoric Past
**His Trysting Place
**Kid Auto Races at Venice
**The Knockout
**Laughing Gas (film)|Laughing Gas
**Mabel at the Wheel
**Mabel's Busy Day
**Mabel's Married Life
**Mabel's Strange Predicament
**Making a Living
**The Masquerader
**The New Janitor
**The Property Man
**Recreation (film)|Recreation
**The Rounders
**The Star Boarder
**Tango Tangles
**Those Love Pangs
**Twenty Minutes of Love
*1915
**The Bank
**Charlie Chaplin's Burlesque on Carmen
**By the Sea
**The Champion (film)|The Champion
**His New Job
**His Regeneration
**In the Park
**A Jitney Elopement
**A Night Out
**A Night in the Show
**Shanghaied
**The Tramp (film)|The Tramp
**A Woman
**Work (film)|Work
*1916
**Behind the Screen
**The Count (film)|The Count
**The Fireman
**The Floorwalker
**One A.M.
**The Pawnshop
**Police!
**The Rink
**The Vagabond
*1917
**The Adventurer (film)|The Adventurer
**The Cure (film)|The Cure
**Easy Street
**The Immigrant
*1918
**The Bond
**Shoulder Arms
**A Dog's Life
**Triple Trouble
*1919
**A Day's Pleasure
**Sunnyside (film)|Sunnyside
*1921
**The Idle Class
*1922
**Pay Day (1922 film)|Pay Day
*1923
**The Pilgrim

===Feature films===
(as actor and director except as noted)
*Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914 film)|Tillie's
Punctured Romance (1914) (actor only) - first
feature-length comedy film ever produced.
*The Kid (1921 film)|The Kid (1921)
*The Nut (1921) (cameo only)
*Souls For Sale (1923) (cameo only)
*A Woman of Paris (1923) (cameo, dir)
*The Gold Rush (1925)
*A Woman of the Sea (1926) (produced only)
*The Circus (1928)
*Show People (1928) (cameo only)
*City Lights (1931)
*Modern Times (1936)
*The Great Dictator (1940)
*Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
*Limelight (film)|Limelight (1952)
*A King in New York (1957)
*A Countess From Hong Kong (1967) (directed and
makes a cameo appearance)

==See also==
*Albert Austin
*Edna Purviance
*Henry Bergman
*Eric Campbell

==External links ==

*http://www.thelittlefellow.org The Little Fellow:
A Charlie Chaplin Fan Page
*http://chaplin.comedyclassics.org Charlie Chaplin
Forum - A place for fans to chat
*http://silentgents.com/PChaplin.html Charlie
Chaplin Photo Galleries
*http://www.classicmovies.org/articles/aa042201b.h
tm A collection of tribute webpages to Charlie
Chaplin at Classicmovies.org
*imdb name|id=0000122|name=Charlie Chaplin
*http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~pringle/silent/cha
plin/aaronhale.html Chaplin - An essay by Aaron
Hale
*http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/chaplin/intro.h
tml Charlie Chaplin: A WWW Celebration
*http://www.fadetoblack.com/foi/charliechaplin/ind
ex.html Charlie Chaplin FBI File
*http://www.clown-ministry.com/History/Charlie-Cha
plin.html Clown Ministry's biography of Charlie
Chaplin
*http://www.discoverchaplin.com/ Discover Charlie
Chaplin
*http://www.charliechaplin.com/ Official Charlie
Chaplin Website
*http://www.chaplinmuseum.com/ The Chaplin Museum
*http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/
chaplin.html The TIME 100: Charlie Chaplin
*http://www.geocities.com/qubestrader/chaplin.html
Charlie Chaplin - Biographical Chronology
*http://www.thegoldenyears.org/chaplin.html
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Directors: Charles
Chaplin