Charlie Chaplin : Biography
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| Charlie Chaplin
Born on April 16, 1889, in London,
England, Charlie Chaplin worked with a children's dance troupe before making a
huge mark on the big screen. His character "The Tramp" relied on
pantomime and quirky movements to become an iconic figure of the silent-film era.
Chaplin went on to become a director, making films like City Lights and Modern
Times, and co-founded the United Artists Corporation. He died in
Corsier-sur-Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland, on December 25, 1977.
Famous for his character "The
Tramp," the sweet little man with a bowler hat, mustache and cane, Charlie
Chaplin was an iconic figure of the silent-film era and one of film's first
superstars, elevating the industry in a way few could have ever imagined.
Born Charles Spencer Chaplin in
London, England, on April 16, 1889, Charlie Chaplin's rise to fame is a true
rags-to-riches story. His father, a notorious drinker, abandoned Chaplin, his
mother and his older half-brother, Sydney, not long after Chaplin's birth. That
left Chaplin and his brother in the hands of their mother, a vaudevillian and
music hall singer who went by the stage name Lily Harley.
Chaplin's mother, who would later
suffer severe mental issues and have to be committed to an asylum, was able to
support her family for a few years. But in a performance that would introduce
her youngest boy to the world of performance, Hannah inexplicably lost her
voice in the middle of a show, prompting the stage manager to push the
five-year-old Chaplin, whom he'd heard sing, onto the stage to replace her.
Chaplin lit up the audience, wowing
them with his natural presence and comedic angle (at one point he imitated his
mother's cracking voice). But the episode meant the end for Hannah. Her singing
voice never returned and she eventually ran out of money. For a time, Charlie
and Sydney had to make a new, temporary home for themselves in London's tough
workhouses.
Early Career
Armed with his mother's love of the
stage, Chaplin was determined to make it in show business himself and in 1897
using his mother's contacts landed with a clog dancing troupe named the Eight
Lancashire Lads. It was a short stint, and not a terribly profitable one,
forcing the go-getter Chaplin to make ends meet anyway he could.
"I (was) newsvendor, printer,
toymaker, doctor's boy, etc., but during these occupational digressions, I
never lost sight of my ultimate aim to become an actor," Chaplin later
recounted. "So, between jobs I would polish my shoes, brush my clothes,
put on a clean collar and make periodic calls at a theatrical agency."
Eventually other stage work did come
his way. Chaplin made his acting debut as a pageboy in a production of Sherlock
Holmes. From there he toured with a vaudeville outfit named Casey's Court
Circus and in 1908 teamed up with the Fred Karno pantomime troupe, where
Chaplin became one of its stars as The Drunk in the comedic sketch, A Night in
an English Music Hall.
With the Karno troupe, Chaplin got his
first taste of the United States, where he caught the eye of film producer Mack
Sennett, who signed Chaplin to a contract for a $150 a week.
In 1914 Chaplin made his film debut in
a somewhat forgettable one-reeler called Make a Living. To differentiate
himself from the clad of other actors in Sennett films, Chaplin decided to play
a single identifiable character. "The Little Tramp" was born, with
audiences getting their first taste of him in Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914).
Over the next year, Chaplin appeared
in 35 movies, a lineup that included Tillie's Punctured Romance, film's first
full-length comedy. In 1915 Chaplin left Sennett to join the Essanay Company,
which agreed to pay him $1,250 a week. It's with Essanay that Chaplin, who by
this time had hired his brother Sydney to be his business manager, rose to stardom.
During his first year with the
company, Chaplin made 14 films, including The Tramp (1915). Generally regarded
as the actor's first classic, the story establishes Chaplin's character as
unexpected hero when he saves farmer's daughter from a gang of robbers.
By the age of 26, Chaplin, just three
years removed from his vaudeville days was a movie superstar. He'd moved over
to the Mutual Company, which paid him a whopping $670,000 a year. The money
made Chaplin a wealthy man, but it didn't seem to derail his artistic drive.
With Mutual, he made some of his best work, including One A.M. (1916), The Rink
(1916), The Vagabond (1916), and Easy Street (1917).
Through his work, Chaplin came to be
known as a grueling perfectionist. His love for experimentation often meant
countless retakes and it was not uncommon for him to order the rebuilding of an
entire set. It also wasn't rare for him to begin with one leading actor,
realize he'd made a mistake in his casting, and start again with someone new.
But the results were hard to refute.
During the 1920s Chaplin's career blossomed even more. During the decade he
made some landmark films, including The Kid (1921), The Pilgrim (1923), A Woman
in Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), a movie Chaplin would later say he wanted
to be remembered by, and The Circus (1928). The latter three were released by
United Artists, a company Chaplin co-founded in 1919 with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford,
and D.W. Griffith.
Off-Screen Drama
Chaplin became equally famous for his
life off-screen. His affairs with actresses who had roles in his movies were
numerous. Some, however, ended better than others.
In 1918 he quickly married 16-year-old
Mildred Harris. The marriage lasted two years, and in 1924 he wed again, to
another 16-year-old, actress Lita Grey, whom he'd cast in The Gold Rush. The
marriage had been brought on by an unplanned pregnancy, and the resulting
union, which produced two sons for Chaplin (Charles Jr., and Sydney) was an
unhappy one for both partners. The two split in 1927.
In 1936, Chaplin married again, this
time to a chorus girl who went by the film name of Paulette Goddard.
They lasted until 1942. That was followed by a nasty paternity suit with
another actress, Joan Barry, in which tests proved Chaplin was not the father
of her daughter but a jury still ordered him to pay child support.
In 1943, Chaplin married 18-year-old
Oona O'Neil, the daughter of playwright, Eugene O'Neil. Unexpectedly the two
would go on to have a happy marriage, one that would result in eight children
for the couple.
Later Films
Chaplin kept creating interesting and
engaging films in the 1930s. In 1931, he released City Lights, a critical and
commercial success that incorporated music Chaplin scored himself.
More acclaim came with Modern Times (1936),
a biting commentary about the state of world's economic and political
infrastructures. The film, which did incorporate sound and did not include
"The Little Tramp" character, was, in part, the result of an 18-month
world tour Chaplin had taken between 1931 and 1932, a trip in which he'd
witnessed severe economic angst and a sharp rise in nationalism in Europe and
elsewhere.
Chaplin spoke even louder in The Great
Dictator (1940), which pointedly ridiculed the governments of Hitler and
Mussolini. "I want to see the return of decency and kindness,"
Chaplin said around the time of the film's release. "I'm just a human
being who wants to see this country a real democracy . . ."
But Chaplin was not universally
embraced. His romantic liaisons led to his rebuke by some women's groups, which
in turn led to him being barred from entering some U.S. states. As the Cold War
age settled into existence, Chaplin didn't withhold his fire from injustices he
saw taking place in the name of fighting Communism in his adopted country of
the United States.
Chaplin soon became a target of the
right wing conservatives. Representative John E. Ranking of Mississippi pushed
for his deportation. In 1952, the Attorney General of the United States obliged
when he announced that Chaplin, who was sailing to Britain on vacation, was not
permitted to return to the United States unless he could prove "moral
worth." The incensed Chaplin said goodbye to United States and took up
residence on a small farm in Vevey, Switzerland.
Nearing the end of his life, Chaplin
did make one last return to visit to the United States in 1972, when he was awarded
a special Academy Award from the Motion Picture Academy. The trip came just six
years after Chaplin's final film, A Countess from Hong Kong (1966), the
filmmaker's first and only color movie. Despite a cast that included Sophia Loren
and Marlon
Brando, the film did poorly at the box office. In 1975, Chaplin received
more recognition when Queen Elizabeth knighted him.
In the early morning hours of December
25, 1977, Charlie Chaplin died at his home in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Vaud,
Switzerland. His wife Oona and seven of his children were at his bedside at the
time of his passing. In a twist that might very well have come out of one of
his films, Chaplin's body was stolen not long after he was buried from his
grave near Lake Geneva in Switzerland by two men who demanded $400,000 for its
return. The men were arrested and Chaplin's body was recovered 11 weeks later.
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