Charlie Chaplin – Biography, Movie Career, Facts & Death

Charlie Chaplin (April 16, 1889, probably in London, and died on December 25, 1977, in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland) was a British actor, director, screenwriter, editor, composer, film producer, and comedian. Chaplin is the first world star in cinema and one of the most influential comedians in film history. His most famous role is that of the ” hitchhiker “.

The invented by him figure with a two-finger mustache (also Toothbrush mustache called), oversized pants and shoes, tight jacket, bamboo stick in his hand, and small watermelon on his head, with the manners and dignity of a gentleman, became a film icon.

His films were characterized by the close connection between slapstick comedy and serious to tragic elements. The American Film Institute chose Chaplin at number 10 of the greatest male American film legends. He started his career as a child with appearances in the Music Hall.

He soon enjoyed great success as a comedian in the early silent film comedies. As the most popular silent film comedian of his time, he developed artistic and financial independence. In 1919 he founded the film company United Artists together with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and David Wark Griffith.

Charlie Chaplin was one of the founding fathers of the American film industry – the so-called Hollywood dream factory. Closeness to communism was suspected after a stay abroad in 1952 during the McCarthy era denied return to the U.S.

He continued his work as an actor and director in Europe. In 1972 he received his second honorary Oscar: he received the first for his work in the film The Circus in 1929 and the second for his life’s work. In 1973 he received the first “real” Oscar for the best film music on the limelight.

Early life

Charlie Chaplin was probably the son of Charlie Chaplin sr. (1863-1901) and Hannah Harriet Chaplin (1865-1928) born. Both were artists at the British Music Halls, the father singer, and entertainer, the mother dancer, and singer. Shortly after Charles’ birth, his parents separated.

Charles and his four-year-old half-brother Sydney (1885-1965) grew up with the mother, who from 1896 could no longer pursue her profession due to psychological problems. Since Chaplin sr. Regularly deprived of maintenance payments, the family lived in great poverty and had to go to the poor houses, again and again, seek refuge in London.

Charlie Chaplin spoke as a child Cockney, a London dialect. Chaplin was given the first chance in 1894 to perform in front of an audience with a vocal performance. At the age of nine, on the recommendation of his father, he was hired for the music hall group The Eight Lancashire Lads.

Chaplin received board and lodging and basic schooling while touring the Lancashire Lads. When his father died of his alcohol addiction in 1901, Chaplin only had his mother and half-brother as family caregivers. He was half-orphaned, and therefore in almost all biographies one speaks of “Dickensian youth”.

And similar to the fate of children that Charles Dickens described in the 19th century, Charlie Chaplin found his way. Sydney now provided for the maintenance of brother and mother several times in asylums was admitted and declared 1905 to be insane.

Chaplin was almost entirely on his own, was first put into an orphanage with his half-brother when he was six, later roamed the streets and got to know the lowest social milieu that he was closely watching. He finally left school at the age of 13. He hired himself as an errand boy, newspaper seller, printer, toymaker, and glassblower to make a living.

After his engagement with the Lancashire Lads ended, Chaplin found engagements on the London stages. In the summer of 1903, he played his first major role in the unsuccessful play Jim, A Romance of Cockayne. he was followed by the role of the errand boy Billy in the stage version of Sherlock Holmes written by William Gillette.

This staging was a great success. Chaplin went on tour four times with this play until 1906. Sydney Chaplin also participated in the ensemble but left the theater company when he was with Fred Karnohas been contracted. Charles followed his brother and signed a two-year contract with Karno in 1908.

Personal life of Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin had an intense sentimental life, he marries four times, the first three with stars of his films, of which he divorced with scandal: Mildred Harris, Lita Gray, and Paulette Goddard. At the age of 54, he met Oona, the daughter of Irish playwright Eugene O’Neill, only 18, whom he married, had six children, and lived with her to the end of his life.

The Beginnings in Hollywood

With Fred Karno, who continued the tradition of comic pantomime with his theater troops, Chaplin quickly became one of the main actors. His first success at Karno was the role of drunkard Swell in the play Mumming Birds.

In 1910, Charlie Chaplin took the lead in the new production Jimmy the Fearless, which earned him positive reviews in the newspapers for the first time. The Yorkshire Evening Star described him as an “aspiring actor”, whose performance identified him as a born comedian.

Karno then offered Chaplin to tour North America with an ensemble. From June 1910 to June 1912, Karno troupe played in the United States and Canada. Chaplin’s escapade in a Night in an English Music Hall, a re-performance of Mumming Birds, was particularly popular with the public and the press.

After only five months in England, Karno sent his ensemble with Chaplin to America for a second tour. However, this tour was not as successful as the first, which is why Chaplin responded gratefully to the interest of the American film industry.

In May 1913, Adam Kessel and Charles O. Baumann