Actors - Charlie Chaplin

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	Actors - Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr, KBE, (April 16, 1889–December 25, 1977), known as Charlie Chaplin, was a British-born actor, the most famous actor in early to mid Hollywood cinema era, and also a notable director. His principal character was "The Tramp": a 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 toothbrush moustache. 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.

Birth

He was believed to have been born on April 16, 1889 . There is some doubt whether April 16 is actually his birthday, and it is possible he was not born in 1889. There is also uncertainty about his birthplace: London or Fontainebleau, France. There is no doubt, however, as to his parentage: he was born to Charles Chaplin, Sr. and Hannah Harriette Hill (aka Lily Harley on stage), both Music Hall entertainers. His parents separated soon after his birth, leaving him in the care of his increasingly unstable mother.

Childhood

In 1896, Chaplin's mother was unable to find work; Charlie and his older half-brother Sydney Chaplin 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 temporarily to the Cane Hill Asylum at Coulsdon (near Croydon). She died in 1928 in the United States, two years after coming to the States to live with Chaplin, by then a commercial success.

Stage

Charlie first took to the stage when, aged five, 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.

America

According to immigration records, he arrived in the United States 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 United States. Chaplin's 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, which enabled him to become Keystone's top star and talent.

His salary history shows how rapidly he became world famous, and the skill of his brother, Sydney, at being his business manager.

1914
: Keystone, worked for $150 a week
1914-1915
: Essanay Studios
, of Chicago, Illinois, $1250 a week, plus $10,000 signing bonus
1916
-1917: Mutual, $10,000 a week, plus $150,000 signing bonus
1917
: First National, $1 million deal — the first actor ever to earn that sum. He also formed his own independent production company, the Charles Chaplin Film Corporation, which made him a very wealthy man

Auteur

Chaplin built his own Hollywood studio in 1918, and assumed an unparalleled degree of artistic and financial control over his productions. Using this independence, over the next 35 years he created a remarkable, timeless body of work that remains entertaining and influential. These include comedy shorts including: A Dog's Life
(1918), and Pay Day
(1922); longer films, such as: Shoulder Arms
(1918) and The Pilgrim
(1923); and his great silent feature length films, among them: The Kid
(1921), A Woman of Paris
(1923), The Gold Rush
(1925), and The Circus (1928). After the arrival of sound films, he made City Lights
(1931) and Modern Times
(1936), essentially silent films scored with his own music and sound effects. His dialogue films made in Hollywood were The Great Dictator
(1940), Monsieur Verdoux
(1947), and Limelight
(1952).

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