Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin | |
|---|---|
 Chaplin in his costume as The Tramp. | |
| Born | April 16, 1889 |
| Died | December 25, 1977 |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, writer, director, producer, composer |
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr, KBE, (April 16, 1889–December 25, 1977), known as Charlie Chaplin, was a British 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
Charlie Chaplin was believed to have been born on April 16, 1889 [1]. 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
Pioneering Film 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 his greatest film, City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936), essentially silent films scored with his own music and sound effects. City Lights contained his most perfect balance of comedy and sentimentality, and, though many would make believe, the laughs heavily outweigh the tears. Of the final scene, critic James Agee wrote in 1949 that it was the greatest single piece of acting ever committed to celluloid.
His dialogue films made in Hollywood were The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947), and Limelight (1952).
While Modern Times (1936) is a non-talkie, it does contain talk -- usually coming from inanimate objects such as a radio or a TV monitor. This was done to help 1930s audiences, who were out of the habit of watching silent films, adjust to not hearing dialogue. Chaplin being observed by his boss while sneaking a smoke in the bathroom came before George Orwell's "Big Brother" by more than a decade, and might have inspired it. Modern Times was the first film where Chaplin's voice is heard (in the nonsense song at the end). However, for most viewers it is still considered a silent film.
Chaplin's films are also unendingly compared to those of Buster Keaton, mostly the argument being that, while Keaton's are masterpieces, Chaplin's are simple pathos. One viewing of City Lights decides otherwise, and any uncertainty can be won over with the Gold Rush. While Keaton was never allowed the same creative freedom as Chaplin was, the few films wherein he was allowed to create art do stand strongly by Chaplin's and on their own terms. They showcase a slightly more technically adventurous director, whose pioneering efforts by comparison of Chaplin's can be likened to the pursuits of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles. The former was the more popular and accessible, while still being hugely influential and artistically merited, while the latter was never properly allowed to roam free, and still created the more technically and artistically applauded. Although the comparison falls short, as is informed by Keaton stating that Chaplin was the greatest comedy director in history, as well as Groucho Marx - whose appraisal was not easily won - saying Chaplin was the funniest man who ever lived. This was before he spoke, too.
United Artists
In 1919 he founded the United Artists film distribution company with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, and served on the board of UA until the early 1950s.
Although "talkies" became the dominant mode of moviemaking soon after they were introduced in 1927, Chaplin resisted making a talkie all through the 1930s. It is a tribute to Chaplin's versatility that he also has one film credit for choreography for the 1952 film Limelight, and one credit as a singer for the title music of the 1928 film The Circus. The best-known of several songs he composed are "Smile", famously covered by Nat King Cole, among others, and the theme from Limelight.
The Great Dictator
His first dialogue picture, The Great Dictator (1940) was an act of defiance against Adolf Hitler and Nazism, filmed and released in the United States one year before it abandoned its policy of isolationism to enter World War II. The film was seen as an act of courage in the political environment of the time, both for its ridicule of Nazism and for the portrayal of overt Jewish characters and the depiction of their persecution. Chaplin played a Nazi dictator clearly modeled on Hitler (also with a certain physical likeness), as well as a Jewish barber cruelly persecuted by the Nazis. Hitler, who was a great fan of movies, is known to have seen the film twice (records were kept of movies ordered for his personal theater). Interestingly, Chaplin and Hitler were born only four days apart (Hilter was born on April 20, 1889).
Politics
Chaplin's political sympathies always lay with the left. His politics seem tame by modern standards, but after the 1940's his views (in conjunction with his influence and fame) were seen by many as dangerously radical. His silent films made prior to the Great Depression typically did not contain overt political themes or messages, apart from the Tramp's plight in poverty and his run-ins with the law. But his films made in the 1930's were more openly political. Modern Times (1936) depicts the dismal situation of workers and the poor in industrial society. The final dramatic speech in his 1940 film The Great Dictator, which was critical of patriotic nationalism, was highly controversial, as was his vocal public support for the opening of a second European front in 1942 to assist the Soviet Union in World War II. The critical view of capitalism in his 1947 black comedy Monsieur Verdoux was hugely controversial, with the film being protested at many US cities. His European-made film A King in New York (1957) satirized the style of McCarthyism which had forced him to leave the US five years earlier. After this film, Chaplin lost interest in making overt political statements, later saying that comedians and clowns should be apolitical and "above politics".
McCarthyism
Although Chaplin had his major successes in the United States and was a resident from 1914 to 1952, he retained his British nationality. During the era of McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of "un-American activities" as a suspected communist; and J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the FBI to keep extensive files on him, tried to end his United States residency. FBI pressure on Chaplin grew after his 1942 campaign for a second front in the war, and reached a critical level in the late 1940's, when Congressional figures threatened to call him as a witness in hearings. This was never done, probably from the fear of Chaplin's ability to ridicule and lampoon the investigators.
In 1952, Chaplin left the US for a trip to England; Hoover learned of it and negotiated with the INS to revoke his re-entry permit. Chaplin then decided to stay in Europe, and made his home in Vevey, Switzerland. He briefly returned to the United States in April 1972, with his wife, to receive an Honorary Oscar. Even though he was invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Academy Awards), he was only issued a one-time entry visa valid for two months. By this time the political animosities towards the now elderly Chaplin had faded, and his visit was a triumphant success.
Academy Awards
Chaplin won two honorary Oscars. When the first Oscars were awarded on May 16, 1929, the voting audit procedures that now exist had not yet been put into place, and the categories were still very fluid. Chaplin had originally been nominated for both Best Actor and Best Comedy Directing for his movie The Circus, but his name was withdrawn and the Academy decided to give him a special award "for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus" instead. The other film to receive a special award that year was The Jazz Singer.
Chaplin's second honorary award came 44 years later in 1972, and was for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". He came out of his exile to accept his award. Upon receiving the award, Chaplin received the longest standing ovation in Academy Award history, lasting a full five minutes from the delighted, enthralled star-studded studio audience.
Chaplin was also nominated without success for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay for The Great Dictator, and again for Best Original Screenplay for Monsieur Verdoux (1947). His son Charles Jr. wrote that Chaplin invoked the ire of the Academy in the 1930's by jokingly using his 1929 Oscar as a doorstop.
It is sometimes overlooked that Chaplin also won a competitive Academy Award. In 1973, he received an Oscar for the Best Music in an Original Dramatic Score for the 1952 film Limelight, which co-starred Claire Bloom. The film also features a cameo with Buster Keaton, which was the first and only time the two great comedians ever appeared together. Because of Chaplin's difficulties with McCarthyism, the film did not open in Los Angeles when it was first produced. This criterion for nomination was not fulfilled until 1972.
His final films were A King in New York (1957) and A Countess From Hong Kong (1967), starring Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando.
Relationships
Edna Purviance
Chaplin and his first major leading lady Edna Purviance were involved in a close romantic relationship during the production of his Essanay and Mutual films in 1916-1917. The romance seems to have ended by 1918, and Chaplin's marriage to Mildred Harris in late 1918 ended any possibility of reconciliation. Purviance would continue as leading lady in Chaplin's films until 1923, and would remain on Chaplin's payroll until her death in 1957. She and Chaplin spoke warmly of one another for the rest of their lives.
Mildred Harris
On October 23, 1918, the 28 year old Chaplin married the 16-year-old The Wonderful Wizard of Oz actress Mildred Harris. The marriage resulted from a false-alarm pregnancy claim from the underage Harris. They had one child, Norman Spencer Chaplin, who died in infancy; they divorced in 1920. During the divorce Chaplin claimed Harris had had a lesbian affair with noted actress of the time Alla Nazimova, well known for seducing young actresses. Harris in turn claimed Chaplin was a sexual addict. Both claims have merit.
Pola Negri
Chaplin was involved in a very public relationship and engagement to the actress Pola Negri in 1922-23. Negri was a Polish actress who had recently arrived in Hollywood to star in films. The stormy on-again off-again engagement was called off after about nine months, but in many ways it foreshadowed the modern sterotypes of Hollywood star relationships. Chaplin's public involvement with Negri was unique in his public life; by comparison his other romances and relationships were very discreet and private.
Lita Grey
At 35, he became involved with 16-year-old Lita Grey during preparations for The Gold Rush. They married on November 26, 1924 after she became pregnant. They had two sons, the actors Charles Chaplin Jr. (1925-1968) and Sydney Earle Chaplin (1926-). Their extraordinarily bitter divorce in 1928 had Chaplin paying Grey a then-record-breaking $825,000 settlement. The stress of the sensational divorce, compounded by a tax dispute, allegedly turned his hair white. The publication of court records, which included many intimate details, led to a campaign against him. The Chaplin biographer Joyce Milton asserted in Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin that Grey was the inspiration for the title character in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.
Paulette Goddard
Chaplin and actress Paulette Goddard were involved in a romantic and professional relationship between 1932 and 1940, with Goddard living with Chaplin in his Beverly Hills home for most of this time. Chaplin "discovered" Goddard and gave her starring roles in Modern Times and The Great Dictator. Failure to clarify their marital status is claimed to have eliminated Goddard from final consideration for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. After the relationship ended in 1940, Chaplin and Goddard made public statements that they had been secretly married in 1936, but in private Chaplin claimed they were in fact never officially married. In any case, their common-law marriage ended amicably in 1942, with Goddard being granted a divorce and settlement.
Joan Barry
Chaplin had a brief affair with Joan Barry, whom he was considering for a starring role in a proposed film, but the relationship ended when she began harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness. In May 1943, she filed a paternity suit against him. Blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father of her child, but as blood tests were inadmissible evidence in court, he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the child turned 21.
Oona O'Neill
Shortly thereafter, he met Oona O'Neill, daughter of Eugene O'Neill, and married her on June 16, 1943. He was 54; she was 18. Her father never spoke to Oona after the marriage. As far as is known, he kept his word. O'Neill and Chaplin each seemed to provide elements missing in the others' lives: she craved the love of a father figure, and Chaplin needed loyalty and approbation as his public popularity declined. The marriage was a long and happy one, with eight children. They had three sons: Christopher, Eugene and Michael Chaplin and five daughters: Geraldine, Josephine, Jane, Victoria and Annette-Emilie Chaplin. Oona survived Chaplin by fourteen years, but her final years were unhappy; grief over Chaplin's death eventually led to alcoholism.
Knighthood
On March 4, 1975, he was knighted as a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. The honour was first proposed in 1956, but was vetoed by the British Foreign Office on the grounds that he sympathized with the left and that it would damage British relations with the United States at the height of the Cold War while planning for the ill-fated invasion of Suez was underway.
Death
Chaplin died on Christmas Day, 1977, in Vevey, Switzerland, following a stroke, aged 88, and was interred in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery in Corsier-Sur-Vevey, Vaud. On March 1, 1978, his body was stolen in an attempt to extort money from his family. The plot failed, the robbers were captured, and the body was recovered 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva (and reburied under six feet of concrete to prevent another attempt).
Misinformation
Some have said or suggested Chaplin was Jewish. It is unclear how this rumour began. One anti-Semite, George Lincoln Rockwell founder of the American Nazi Party, claimed Chaplin's real name was Israel Thonstein. [1] Nazi propaganda in the 1930's also prominently portrayed Chaplin as Jewish. Chaplin's half-brother Sydney was three-fourths Jewish [2], but there has never been any documentation showing Chaplin himself to be Jewish. If the parent that the two brothers shared was Jewish, then that would make Chaplin one-quarter Jewish. For his entire public life Chaplin fiercely refused to challenge or refute such claims, saying that to do so would always "play directly into the hands of the anti-semites." He often said he would be proud of such ancestry, because "all geniuses have some Jewish blood in them." His fearless portrayal of Jewish persecution in The Great Dictator bears this conviction out.
Legacy
- There is a statue of Chaplin in front of the alimentarium in Vevey to commemorate the last part of his life, and a replica also stands in Leicester Square in London.
- Amongst his many honours, Chaplin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1985 he was honoured with his image on a postage stamp of the United Kingdom, and in 1994 he appeared on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
- In 1992 a film was made about his life entitled Chaplin, directed by Oscar-winner Lord Richard Attenborough, and starring Robert Downey Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin (Charlie's daughter, portraying Charlie's mother, her own grandmother), Sir Anthony Hopkins, Milla Jovovich, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Diane Lane, Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Rhys, Marisa Tomei, Nancy Travis, and James Woods.
- In 2001, British comedian Eddie Izzard played Chaplin in the film, The Cat's Meow, which theorized about the still-unsolved death of producer Thomas Ince aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht, of which Chaplin was a passenger of at the time.
Media
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Trivia
- Geraldine Chaplin played her own grandmother, Hannah Chaplin, in Richard Attenborough's 1992 film Chaplin.
- A bronze statue to Chaplin was erected in the small seaside town of Waterville, Co. Kerry, Ireland where the star spent many holidays in later life.
- A young Chaplin is a character in Shanghai Knights; the movie presented the fictional idea that Chaplin originally came to America by stowing away with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson's characters.
- It is true that Charlie Chaplin once lost a "Charlie Chaplin look-a-like" competition. As Chaplin became popular throughout America, Chaplin look-a-like competitions became popular. On one occasion, a rising young actor called Bob Hope took first prize.
- Chaplin was a friend of Luis Buñuel in the early 30s.
- In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted among the top 20 greatest comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
- All his life, Chaplin was known to be an avowed atheist. He had nothing but contempt for any form of religion. He once joked, "I would love to play the part of Jesus! I fit it perfectly because I am a comedian."
- In his later years Chaplin was a fan of Benny Hill, a compliment that touched Benny so much when he visited Chaplin's home on invitation from Chaplin's family in 1991 and discovered that Charlie had a vast collection of Benny Hill videos.
Filmography
Short films as actor
- 1914
- A Busy Day
- Between Showers
- Caught in a Cabaret
- Caught in the Rain
- Cruel, Cruel Love
- Dough and Dynamite
- The Face on the Bar Room Floor
- The Fatal Mallet
- A Film Johnnie
- Gentlemen of Nerve
- Getting Acquainted
- Her Friend the Bandit
- His Favorite Pastime
- His Musical Career
- His New Profession
- His Prehistoric Past
- His Trysting Place
- Kid Auto Races at Venice
- The Knockout
- Laughing Gas
- Mabel at the Wheel
- Mabel's Busy Day
- Mabel's Married Life
- Mabel's Strange Predicament
- Making a Living
- The Masquerader
- The New Janitor
- The Property Man
- Recreation
- The Rounders
- The Star Boarder
- Tango Tangles
- Those Love Pangs
- Twenty Minutes of Love
- 1915
- 1916
- 1917
- 1918
- 1919
- 1921
- 1922
- 1923
Feature films
(as actor and director except as noted)
- Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914) (actor only) - first feature-length comedy film ever produced.
- The Kid (1921)
- The Nut (1921) (cameo only)
- Souls For Sale (1923) (cameo only)
- A Woman of Paris (1923) (cameo, dir)
- The Gold Rush (1925)
- A Woman of the Sea (1926) (produced only)
- The Circus (1928)
- Show People (1928) (cameo only)
- City Lights (1931)
- Modern Times (1936)
- The Great Dictator (1940)
- Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
- Limelight (1952)
- A King in New York (1957)
- A Countess From Hong Kong (1967) (directed and makes a cameo appearance)
See also
External links
- Official Sites
- Biography
- Filmography
- Fan Sites
- Others
- Chaplin Review
- Charlie Chaplin Photo Galleries
- A collection of tribute webpages to Charlie Chaplin at Classicmovies.org
- Chaplin - An essay by Aaron Hale
- Charlie Chaplin: A WWW Celebration
- Charlie Chaplin FBI File
- The TIME 100: Charlie Chaplin
- Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Directors: Charles Chaplin
- Download Chaplin's 'Mutual Films' in full screen dvd quality at World Cinema Online
Notes
- ^ Passport to Hollywood: Film Immigrants Anthology; page 26 ISBN 0-07-070053-2