Charlie Chaplin
Created | Updated Jun 30, 2004
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in London, England, on April 16th 1889. His father, Charles Chaplin Senior, was a vocalist and actor; his mother, Hannah Harriette Hill, was known under the stage name of Lily Harley and was an attractive actress and singer, who gained a small reputation for her work in the Music Hall. Soon after Charlie's birth his parent's divorced. His father died early in his life. When Charlie was 12 years old his mother suffered a mental breakdown and was admitted in an asylum. This left he and his half-brother Sydney, to fend for themselves.
Charlie's first taste of the stage was together with his mother on Music Hall at age 5. Both brothers, having inherited natural talents from their parents, took to the stage as the best opportunity for a career. Charlie made his professional debut as a member of a juvenile group called "The Eight Lancashire Lads" and rapidly won popular favour as an outstanding tap dancer.
The Tramp
Chaplin is most remembered and loved for his famous character, usually just known as 'The Tramp'. This character had baggy pants, a tight coat, a bowler hat, bamboo cane, and a little moustache. This character first premiered in the short, Kid Auto Race
, where Chaplin's tramp continually walks into the veiw of the camera filming the race. The Tramp had a funny walk and was a truly iconic, hilarious and complex character which grew in depth throughout all of Chaplin's films.
Beginning His Career
After Chaplin went to America and gained some experience in the film and theatre world, and he even roomed with Stan Laurel on a tour. It was during the time he was acting in movies that he came up with the Tramp character. He then signed a contract with the Mutual Film Corporation to make 12 two-reel comedies. These include The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M. (a production in which he was the only character for the entire two reels with the exception of the entrance of a cab driver in the opening scene), The Count, The Pawnshop, Behind the Screen, The Rink, Easy Street (heralded as his greatest production up to that time), The Cure, The Immigrant and The Adventurer.
Independence
After Chaplin completed the films in 1917 he signed a contract with First National.
After a couple of films, including Shoulder Arms, one of his first War comedies, he joined with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith to found the United Artists Corporation. B.B. Hampton, in his History of the Movies says : "The corporation was organized as a distributor, each of the artists retaining entire control of his or her respective producing activities, delivering to United Artists the completed pictures for distribution on the same general plan they would have followed with a distributing organization which they did not own. The stock of United Artists was divided equally among the founders. This arrangement introduced a new method into the industry. Heretofore, producers and distributors had been the employers, paying salaries and sometimes a share of the profits to the stars. Under the United Artists system, the stars became their own employers. They had to do their own financing, but they received the producer profits that had formerly gone to their employers and each received his share of the profits of the distributing organization."
Charlie usually worked with no script, and created his films almost completely on inspiration. If he had an idea for a movie in a spa, he would have a set built in the studio. Though like all true artists not every day was filled with ideas. Chaplin would leave the set for days at a time before having enough ideas to continue. He would also reshoot scenes again and again until he was satisfied. Because he was using his own money, he could create movies however he wanted.
Chaplin also composed the majority of the music for his movies. He wasn't very good at working with notes and writing them on paper, but he knew what he wanted and would hum it to someone who would then write the notes. In addition to this he also wrote the theme to Limelight, which won the Oscar for Best Music Score in 1973, 20 years after it was released. Chaplin also composed the song 'Smile', the theme to his final silent movie Modern Times.
Under his contract with U.A., Chaplin made eight full-length pictures in the following order : Woman Of Paris (1923) which he wrote, directed and produced; Gold Rush (1925) ; Circus (1928); City Lights (1931); Modern Times (1936); The Great Dictator (1940), in which he played the role of the Dictator and a Jewish Barber (From records discovered in his bunker it is believed that Hitler had seen this movie twice), he also talked on screen for the first time; Monsieur Verdoux (1947) in which the public saw a new Chaplin, without his traditional moustache, baggy trousers and wobbly cane; and Limelight (1952) . In 1957, he released his comedy A King in New York; and in 1966 he produced his last picture A Countess from Hong Kong for Universal Pictures, starring Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando.
Controversy
Chaplin was not friends with the government. He always sided with the Left political views, and this was displayed in many of his movies, notably Modern Times. Chaplin retained his British nationality. During the era of McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of "un-American activities" as a suspected communist. Chaplin was also know as a womanizer and pedophile. He like teenage women. In 1918, when he was 28 he married Mildred Harris, a 16 year old, who he then divorced two years later. In 1924 he fell in love with 16 year old Lita Grey, and married her when she became pregnant with two sons. He bitterly divorced her in 1927. The stresses of divorce, compounded by a tax dispute, allegedly turned his hair white. Then in 1936, Chaplin secretly married the actress Paulette Goddard. After a number of happy years, the marrige ended in divorce in 1942. J. Edgar Hoover had instructed the FBI to keep extensive files on him and tried to end Chaplin's residency in America.
In 1952 Chaplin left the United States for a trip to England. While he was away Hoover learned about the trip and negotiated with the INS to revoke his reentry permit. Chaplin decided to stay in Europe and then moved to Switzerland with his family.
Because of the controversy surrounding Chaplin, Limelight was not seen in the United States until 1972. It was 20 years after Limelight premiered in Europe, and the political tension had died down when the Hollywood Academy offered him an Oscar for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". Although invited by the establishment, the state department granted him a visa allowing him to return only once, and for no more than two months. That was enough time for him, he'd had enough from America, and he went to recieve the oscar.
The Final Years
Charles Chaplin was a comedian of the rarest type. He not only financed and produced all his films (with the exception of "A Countess from Hong Kong"), but was also the author, actor, director and soundtrack composer of his films as well.
On March 4, 1975, after many years of exile, he was knighted a KBE by Queen Elizabeth II. The honour, which was first proposed in 1956, had been vetoed by the British Foreign Office because the British feared that giving the honour to Chaplin, a known communist supporter, would damage their relations with the United States.
Chaplin and his family lived happily in Switzerland for the rest of his life. On Christmas Day 1977 Charles Chaplin passed away in Vevey, Switzerland, survived by eight children from his last marriage with Oona O'Neill, and one son from his short marriage to Lita Grey.
On March 3, 1978, two months after his death, his body was stolen from the cemetery. Robbers attempted to extort money from his family but their plot failed. They were captured, and the body was recovered near Lake Geneva eleven weeks after the event.
Quotes
- A day without laughter is a day wasted.
- Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.
- I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
- In the end, everything is a gag.
- Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain.
- Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
- A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.
- The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.
- All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.
- I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President.
