Charlie Chaplin, a British and American actor, writer, producer and director, was one of Hollywood's top stars, best known during the silent film era.
His name is associated with the Little Tramp, a character with a mustache, a bowler hat, a bamboo cane and a funny gait. Charlie Chaplin's biography reveals the actor's interesting life both in his films and behind the camera.
Hard childhood
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in Walworth, London, England on April 16, 1889. His mother, Hannah Harriet Pedlingham (Hill), a talented actress and singer, spent most of her life in mental hospitals, and his father, Chaplin Sr., a talented vocalist, died early from drunkenness. When his parents divorced, Charlie and his brother lived in orphanages.
Charlie Chaplin's nationality remains a mystery . There are opinions that the actor's real name was Israel Thornstein, and he is Jewish, but his parents were not of Jewish origin.
The letter found suggests that the boy was born in a gypsy caravan outside London and had some degree of gypsy ancestry, but this ancestral claim has not been verified.
Having barely learned to read, the future actor and his brother left school and left with a group of comic artists. Having inherited the natural talent of their parents, the young people entered the stage, which became the best opportunity for their career. Charlie made his debut as a member of a youth group called the Eight Lancashire Lads at the age of nine and quickly gained popularity among audiences.
He subsequently starred in several comedies and by the age of nineteen had become a popular music hall performer in England.
[edit] Biography
Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889 in London, at 8 pm, on East Lane, in the Walworth area, into a family of music hall performers.
His mother gave birth to Sidney Hill, Charlie's half-brother, from a certain Jew named Sidney Hawkes[1]. There is a version that Charlie was also a Jew, but this is not documented or is hidden in the archives[2].
He first performed on stage in 1894, at the age of five, replacing his mother in the music hall program. At the end of 1898, Chaplin joined the children's dance group "Eight Lancashire Lads". In 1903, at the age of 14, he received a regular job in the theater and the role of delivery boy Billy in the play Sherlock Holmes. On February 21, 1908, he received a position as an actor in Fred Karno's theatrical enterprise.
Carier start
Chaplin began his acting career at the age of nine, touring with a group of comic performers. When he was twelve, he landed his first role in a stage show and performed as "Bill" and later in various productions of William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes.
At the age of 18, the young man worked as a comedian in Fred Karno's vaudeville troupe, joining it on a tour of the United States in 1910, and gained popularity among American audiences. The future film actor was first offered to star in the comedy film “Making a Living.”
Charlie spent his youth in California. Here he signed a contract with the popular director Mack Sennett of the Keystone film company for a fee of $150 per week.
Following Sennett's demand to appear lyrical and memorable on screen, Chaplin designed an outfit consisting of a too-small jacket, very wide trousers, large shoes and a frayed coat. As a final touch, he glued on a mustache, applied makeup, and used a cane as an all-purpose support. This is how Chaplin’s immortal image was born - The Little Tramp , and films with his participation began to bring in big profits.
These years were the most fruitful in the work of the film actor. He starred in 35 films and played the Little Tramp in almost all of them. After appearing in more than thirty short films, Chaplin realized that the speed and frenzy of Sennett's productions were holding back his personal talents, and in 1915, after completing his contract with the producer, he transferred to the Essanay company for a fee of $1,200.
Filmography and independence
The following year, 1916, Charlie became more in demand and signed a contract with the Mutual Film Corporation for a large fee ($10,000) and starred in 12 comedies, in which he used sharper humor for the first time. These include:
- "Firefighter";
- "Tramp";
- "Graph";
- "Pawnshop";
- "Behind the Screen";
- "Ice rink";
- "Easy Street"
- "Medicine";
- "Immigrant";
- "Adventurer".
In 1918, Charlie, along with husband and wife stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and director D. Griffith, built his own studio and signed a million-dollar contract with National Films.
He created silent film classics in the following films:
- “A Dog’s Life” is about the existence of tramps;
- “Leverage,” about World War I;
- "Baby" is about the touching story of life in the slums.
Feeling the need for a complete break from his filmmaking activities, Chaplin sailed for Europe in September 1921. After a long vacation, he returned to Hollywood and began working actively at his studio, United Artists.
Chaplin made nine feature films:
- "Baby" (1921);
- "The Great Dictator" (1940);
- "A King in New York" (1957);
- "Parisian Woman" (1923);
- "Gold Rush" (1925);
- "Modern Times" (1936);
- "Circus" (1928);
- "City Lights" (1931);
- "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947);
Many films became bestsellers and became more famous over time. They showed through the Little Tramp's positive outlook on a life of chaos that the human spirit exists and will always remain in this world.
Charlie Chaplin's Star Time
Once in Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin quickly realized that he could make films on his own. He soon began producing his own feature films, one of which became a hit among American television audiences. The twelve-minute film The Kid instantly became popular, turning Charlie Chaplin into the darling of the American nation.
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Over the next two decades, Charlie Chaplin's popularity continued to grow, but there were also major upheavals. Between 1920 and 1940, he made films such as The Kid, The Great Dictator and Modern Times. His films brought incredible income, having enormous box office receipts. However, after 1940 his star began to fade. At the same time, Charlie Chaplin was experiencing some difficulties in his personal life.
City lights and the Great Dictator
In 1931, Charlie Chaplin directed the film City Lights, which depicts the friendship of a tramp with a blind flower girl and a drunken millionaire. Many critics considered the film the artist’s best work.
It was a sentimental and sweet story in which the Little Tramp falls in love with a blind flower girl and vows to restore her sight. The musical score, the only "sound" element of this film, was composed by the author himself. The painting “City Lights” turned out to be a difficult and long work in the master’s creative career. Filming lasted two years and eight months.
Before work on the film began, sound cinema appeared . This great revolution in cinema was a difficult task for Chaplin, since the character of his silent tramp was universal, his pantomime understood in all corners of the world. But if the tramp starts speaking English, this large audience will instantly shrink. Chaplin solved this problem by ignoring the speech and making City Lights a silent film. The premieres were some of the most exciting that cinemas have ever seen.
In Los Angeles, his guest was Albert Einstein, and in London, Bernard Shaw was present at the screening.
The Great Dictator (1940) is Chaplin's most overt political satire and his first sound film. In the film, the film actor played a dual role - a Jewish barber who lost his memory in a plane crash in World War I and spent years in hospital, and Adenoid Hynkel, the dictator of Tomania (Germany), a parody of Adolf Hitler. Paulette Goddard played Hannah, the barber's girlfriend, and Jack Oakey played Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as Napaloni. The film did well at the box office and won the 1941 Academy Award for Best Film and Actor.
Last years
At the end of the forties, the Cold War in America reached its peak, and Chaplin, being a foreigner with liberal and humanistic views, became the main target of the FBI.
He was charged with committing immoral acts and political suspicion. This was the beginning of the last and unhappy period of the actor's life in the United States, which he finally left in 1952. Chaplin, who was never a US citizen, sold all his American possessions and settled in Geneva, Switzerland, with his wife Una O'Neill and children.
In 1966, the filmmaker made his last film, A Countess from Hong Kong, for Universal Pictures, the only color film starring Italian Sophia Loren and American actor Marlon Brando. The film was planned back in the 1930s specifically for Paulette Goddard, but it was only in the seventies that the project was realized. In the film, Chaplin appears briefly as a ship's steward, his son Sydney again plays the leading role, and the three daughters have small scenes.
The film was a box office failure, but one song from the soundtrack became a hit and is still very popular today.
By the 1970s, times had changed in America, and Chaplin was once again recognized for his rich contributions to cinema. In 1972, he visited the United States, where he was awarded high awards in New York and Hollywood. In 1975, this respectable old man became Sir Charles Chaplin. And on December 25, 1977, he died at his home in Vevey, Switzerland, at the age of 88 from old age.
His funeral was a small and private Anglican ceremony, in accordance with his wishes. In 1978, the coffin with the body of the film actor was stolen from the grave and discovered only three months later. The remains were reburied, and the tombstone was strengthened with a layer of cement. The famous comedian left a will. A million dollars will be given to the person who blows five rings of cigarette smoke out of his mouth and passes the sixth through them. A million is waiting for its owner.
Personal life and interesting facts
Charlie Chaplin was married four times and had eleven children. In 1918, he married Mildred Harris, who gave birth to a boy who lived only three days, and the couple divorced in 1920.
Chaplin became interested in actress Lita Gray while filming the film. Six months later, Lita discovered that she was pregnant, and he was forced into a marriage that brought unhappiness to both spouses. Charlie Chaplin's wife Lita Gray gave birth to two sons, Charles Jr. and Sydney Earle. They separated in 1927.
In 1936, Chaplin married Paulette Goddard, and his last marriage was in 1943 to eighteen-year-old Wona O'Neill, daughter of the playwright Eugene. The fourth wife gave birth to three sons - Eugene, Michael and Christopher, and five daughters - Geraldine, Josephine, Victoria, Jane, Annette-Emily. Charlie Chaplin's children, son Sydney and daughter Geraldine, became actors.
The artist's life and career were full of contradictions and unexpected stories . The first sandal occurred during World War I, when Chaplin's loyalty to England was questioned, although he never applied for American citizenship, claiming to be a "visitor" to the United States. The FBI believed that the actor was introducing communist propaganda into his films. The painting “The Great Dictator” aroused even greater suspicion. However, the film grossed more than $5 million and received five Oscar nominations.
Another scandalous story occurred when Chaplin was dating 22-year-old Joan Barry. The feelings were short-lived, and the relationship soon ended. The girl stated that she was pregnant and filed a paternity suit. Laboratory tests showed that Chaplin was not the father of the child. But at the time, blood tests were inadmissible evidence, and he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the child turned 21.
There was an article in English newspapers that in a theater in San Francisco, California, in 1915, a famous film actor took part in a competition as a double of himself and did not even make it to the finals of the competition.
Young Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin became popular thanks to his character, who was named The Tramp. This funny intellectual with a top hat, a stupid mustache, shabby pants and trampled shoes will forever remain in the memory of movie lovers of all generations. However, the real Charlie Chaplin was far from being like his hero. This curly, thin guy with kind eyes is a real Charlie, who went through fire and ice before he received fame and recognition.
The young Charlie Chaplin, wearing a white collarless shirt, a jacket with bulging pockets and constantly breaking locks, looked more like Bob Dylan than his classic character. But the most shocking news, which bewilders people who have ever seen a silent film with Chaplin, is that in life he did not wear a mustache. Yes, yes, this actor was always clean-shaven.
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Everyone who knew Charles Spencer Chaplin said that he looked like a true British gentleman until the end of his days. Every inch of his body, every piece of clothing and his manner simply reeked of the intelligentsia.
