Popular Name of Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin
Film actor, producer, screenwriter, director, and composer, born
in London, UK. The son of music-hall entertainers, his mother
had a nervous breakdown and his father died when he was five,
forcing Charlie to become a street urchin, along with his
half-brother, Sydney, dancing for pennies in the street. After a
time in an orphanage, he joined a troupe of child dancers and
later had small roles on the London stage.
At age 17 he joined a
troupe of players touring the USA, where in 1912 he joined the
Keystone company to appear in his first silent film, Making a
Living (1914). He made 35 films in one year at Keystone, many of
which he also wrote and directed, meanwhile developing his
character of ‘The Little Tramp’. Despite the appearance of
spontaneity and improvization in his films, he worked out every
last detail to perfection. In 1915 he joined Essanay, making his
first masterpiece, The Tramp that year, and was a co-founder of
United Artists (1919). The Kid (1921) made him an international
star, and he went on to make his major works, City Lights
(1928), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), and
Limelight (1952), after which his popularity waned.
Over the years he was criticized for his many romantic affairs,
often with younger women. He never applied for US citizenship
and, in 1952, on a ship to England, he was informed that he
might not be permitted back into the States because of his
alleged leftist views, so he settled in Switzerland with his
wife Oona, daughter of Eugene O'Neill, with whom he had eight
children. He did not return to the USA until 1972, when he
accepted a Special Academy Award. Regarded as one of the few
individuals to be a true genius of motion pictures, he was
knighted in 1975.
From:
http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9244327
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