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Even when I was in the orphanage, when 1 was roaming the street trying to find enough to eat, even then I thought of myself as the greatest actor in the world.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Considered the most influential artist in the history of the motion picture industry, Charlie Chaplin achieved international recognition during the early days of the silent movie era. Almost 100 years since his film debut in Making a Living, the image of Chaplin’s “Little Tramp”—toothbrush mustache, black bowler, baggy pants, oversied shoes, and waddle walk—is still instantly recognizable. The artistic expression Chaplin brought to the screen forever changed the way an audience related to the motion picture medium.
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born into poverty on April 16, 1889, in London, England. Parents Charles and Hannah Chaplin barely eked out a living as music hall entertainers. Charles senior left the family when Charlie was still a baby, leaving Hannah to raise him and his older half brother, Sydney. When Hannah became mentally ill, Charlie and Sydney had to go out and work in order to eat. Hannah spent much of the rest of her life in and out of mental institutions, leaving Charlie to live in an orphanage.CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Charlie had some experience entertaining and used that budding talent to make a living. At the tender age of eight Charlie appeared in a clog dance act called Eight Lancashire Lads. Charlie was good and was being noticed by people in the entertainment field. Sydney acted as his brother’s agent and got Charlie an engagement at the London Hippodrome when he was just ten years old.
Charlie performed onstage in Sherlock Holmes from 1903 to 1906, playing the paperboy, Billy. He then joined the Casey Circus as a mime (acting without using words). When he became a teenager, Charlie returned to work in vaudeville, where he discovered he had a talent for comedic pantomime. In 1908 Charlie joined former music hall acrobat Fred Karno and his comedy troupe. Charlie was a quick study and soon became a principal player in the cast. In 1910 Charlie got a big break when Karno selected him to accompany the troupe on a touring engagement in America.CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Chaplin performed with the Karno Troupe until 1913, when he signed a contract with Mack Sennetts Keystone Films. Silent films provided a great vehicle for Chaplin ro showcase his comedic and acrobatic talents. He made his first film, Making a Living, in 1914. It was in his second film, Kid Auto Races at Venice, that Chaplin introduced his Tramp character—a little fellow wearing clothing from several other comics. The Tramp character remained virtually the same throughout the rest of Chaplin’s career.
Not content to be just an actor, Chaplin wanted more control over his work and the filmmaking process. His silent comedy movies were making money, and he felt he was worth more money than he was being paid. When his contract was up at Keystone, he signed for an unprecedented salary of $1,250 a week, plus a $10,000 signing bonus, with another pioneering company, Essanay Films.
At Essanay, Chaplin further developed his Tramp character. Audiences around the country related to the downtrodden fellow, who despite adversity remained optimistic. The Tramp (1915), the first film devoted to the character, introduced the image of Chaplin traipsing off alone down a desolate road. Essanay enthusiastically promoted Chaplin’s Tramp character. His image became a merchandiser’s dream, appearing on collectors’ cards, toys, and books.
The tremendous financial success of his films gave Chaplin more time to work on his writing, directing, and acting skills. When his contract with Essanay was up in 1915, Chaplin’s brother, Sydney, worked out a deal with the Mutual Film Company that gave a half-million-dollar contract to a man who as a kid had to dance for his supper.
It was during his time at Mutual that Chaplin produced some of his greatest work, including films like The Floorwalker (1916) and The Immigrant (1917). Despite being well compensated at Mutual, Chaplin still yearned to have complete freedom and his own company. In 1919 Chaplin and colleagues Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford,* and director D. W. Griffith founded United Artists Corporation (UA).
Before doing work exclusively for UA, Chaplin had a few more film obligations to fulfill at Mutual. His first full-length feature film, The Kid, was a masterpiece. Chaplin believed that in order for a film’s comedy to fully come through, an element of sadness had to be present. In The Kid (1921), the Tramp takes in a small orphan boy. Ultimately The Kid grossed about $2.5 million dollars.
There is a separate entry for names in bold type. The 1923 A Woman of Paris was a terrible disappointment for Chaplin. It was the first UA film he directed; but it flopped at the box office, so Chaplin returned to the safety of his Tramp character and produced The Gold Rush. Perhaps Chaplin’s best work, The Gold Rush (1925) focuses on the Tramp’s search for gold and romance in the Klondike Mountains. Classic scenes from the film include Chaplin and two starving prospectors boiling and eating a shoe. The Gold Rush was Chaplin’s most successful silent film, grossing more than $4 million dollars.
It was three years before Chaplin released his next film, called The Circus, in 1928. By now the sound era had come upon the film industry. Many, including Chaplin, were skeptical. He continued to make silent pictures throughout the 1930s. His film Modern Times (1936), though brilliantly conceived, caused controversy because of its socialist overtones. In 1940 Chaplin gave moviegoers their last look at the Tramp in his first talkie, The Great Dictator. In this satire of Adolf Hitler, Chaplin portrayed a Jewish barber whose resemblance to the Fiihrer gets him into trouble. The film received several Oscar nominations and grossed $5 million at the box office.
No stranger to controversy in his personal life, Chaplin’s first two wives, Mildred Harris and Lita Grey, were sixteen years old when he married them. His third wife, Paulette Goddard, was nineteen on her wedding day; Chaplin was forty-seven and already the father of two. Oona, the daughter of play-wright Eugene O’Neill, was just eighteen years old when she married a fifty-four-year-old Chaplin. Together they had eight children, the last of which was born when Chaplin was 73.
After Chaplin’s release of Limelight (1952), he left for Europe with his family. Though he had lived in America for almost forty years, Chaplin never became a citizen. Once he was in England, the United States rescinded his reentry visa. Angry and bitter, Chaplin vowed never to return to America. He settled his family in Vevey, Switzerland, and made a few more unmemorable films before publishing his autobiography in 1964. His last film, A Countess from Hong Kong, was released in 1967.
At age eighty-three Chaplin did return to America to accept a special Oscar for his outstanding contributions to the film industry. In 1975 Chaplin was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN

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