Charlie Chaplin (Saklo)
"Charles Chaplin" redirects here. For other uses,
see Charles Chaplin (disambiguation).
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE
(16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker,
and composer who rose to fame in the silent era. Chaplin became a
worldwide icon through his screen persona "the Tramp"
and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film
industry.[His career spanned more
than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before
his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. As his father
was absent and his mother struggled financially, he was sent to a workhouse
twice before the age of nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a
mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music
halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19 he was signed
to the prestigious Fred Karno company, which took him
to America. Chaplin was scouted for the film industry, and began appearing in
1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and
formed a large fan base. Chaplin directed his own films from an early stage,
and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual,
and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the
best known figures in the world.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists,
which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length
was The Kid (1921), followed by A
Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The
Circus (1928). He refused to move to sound films in
the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern
Times (1936) without dialogue. Chaplin became increasingly
political, and his next film, The Great Dictator (1940),
satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were a decade marked with
controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of
communist sympathies, while his involvement in a paternity
suit and marriages to much younger women caused scandal. An FBI
investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and
settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include
Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952),
A King in New York (1957), and A
Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the
music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial
independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a
picture. His films are characterised by slapstick
combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's
struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well
as autobiographical elements. In 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for
his work, Chaplin received an Honorary Academy Award for
"the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form
of this century". He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold
Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator
often ranked on industry lists of the greatest films of all time.
Early years (1889–1913)
Background and childhood hardship
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (born
Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Hill) and Charles Chaplin, Sr. There is no official
record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth,
in South London.His mother and father had married four years previously, at
which time Charles Sr. became the legal carer of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney
John Hill.At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers.
Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, had a brief and unsuccessful career under
the stage name Lily Harley, while Charles Sr., a butcher's son,was a popular
singer. Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by
around 1891. The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son – George
Wheeler Dryden – fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child
was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for
30 years.
Chaplin's childhood was
fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the
most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to
his authorised biographer David Robinson. Chaplin's early years were spent with
his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had
no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin
Sr. provided no financial support. As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was
sent to a workhouse when he was seven years old.The council housed him at the Central
London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn
existence".He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before
Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys
were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute
children.
In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental
asylum – she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by
an infection of syphilis and malnutrition.For the
two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with
their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew.Charles Sr. was by then a
severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died
two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the
liver.
Hannah entered a period of remission,but in May 1903 became ill again.
Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from
where she was sent back to Cane Hill.He lived alone for several days, searching
for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydney – who had enrolled in
the Navy two years earlier – returned.Hannah was released from the asylum eight
months later,but in March 1905 her illness returned, this time permanently.
"There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate",
Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928.
