Chaplin, Charlie

Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889–1977) was born on April 16, 1889, in London, England, to musichall entertainers. He debuted on stage at age five but spent most of his early years as a street urchin, receiving little formal schooling, joining a band of roving performers, and working odd jobs to stay alive. Despite his Dickensian childhood, Charlie Chaplin became the most successful, in terms of longevity, and universally wellloved genius in motionpicture history. Through combined talents as actor, writer, director, and producer, he poked fun at the human condition while questioning the moral underpinnings of the Industrial Age.

Chaplin first came to the United States in 1910, in a touring vaudeville troupe. In late 1913, he signed with Mack Sennett at Keystone Studio and moved to Hollywood, making a staggering 35 onereelers in his first year alone. In his second film, Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), he introduced the screen persona that would star in Chaplin's first directorial masterpiece, The Tramp (1915). His happygo-lucky vagabond with the toothbrushsized moustache, baggy pants, floppy shoes, derby hat, and cane became the ultimate underdog, waddling through reels of encounters with unforgiving environments and showcasing Chaplin's gifts for improvisation, pantomime, acrobatic timing, and balletdancer agility. His alter ego became a universal icon vigorously promoted through merchandising, other media, and amateur lookalike contests. As a result, the fees Chaplin could demand skyrocketed. By 1919, after shortlived stints at a string of studios, he joined actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford and director D. W. Griffith to form their own independent film company, United Artists.

Through Chaplin's obsessive artistic control and his novel blend of slapstick and pathos, his Little Tramp brought laughter to the masses, especially needed after World War I and during the dark years of the Depression. The lighthearted tales of woe were also a vehicle for Chaplin's biting social commentary. His reoccurring themes of destitution, desolation, and concern for the downtrodden—most likely based on his upbringing—found their way into his most famous silent features, including The Kid (1921), his first as producer for United Artists, and The Gold Rush (1925), his highest grossing silent picture. City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936), his two final Little Tramp features, remained uncharacteristically silent in an era of talkies. In The Great Dictator (1940), Chaplin spoke onscreen for the first time, playing dual roles as a Tramplike Jewish barber and a thinly disguised Adolf Hitler, closing his film with an emotional plea against Nazi aggression and to end preWorld War II U.S. isolationism. He would make two other notable works, Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952). However, as a critic of America's classbased disparities and other injustices, Chaplin had become the target of an ongoing FBI witch hunt, culminating in proCommunist accusations by the House Unamerican Activities Committee, which proved false. In 1952, weary of living in a celebrityinduced fishbowl, having endured nearly 40 years of sex scandals, disastrous marriages, incometax woes, and political investigations played out in the press, Chaplin left the United States in disgust. He vowed never to return and did not until Hollywood honored him in 1972 with a special Oscar. On Christmas Day in 1977, 2 years after England's Elizabeth II conferred Chaplin with knighthood, he died in his sleep at his home in Switzerland.

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