1889–1913: early years Background and childhood hardship for
paupers, 1897 Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. was born on 16 April 1889 in London, to
Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and
Charles Chaplin Sr. His paternal grandmother came from the Smith family, who belonged to
Romani people. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at
East Street,
Walworth, in
South London. His parents had married four years earlier, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal guardian of Hannah's first son,
Sydney John Hill. At the time of Chaplin's birth, both parents were
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 about three decades. Chaplin's childhood was marked by poverty and hardship, making his later rise, according to his authorised biographer
David Robinson, "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told". 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
Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old. The council housed him at the
Central London District School for
paupers, which he later remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, but 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
psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of
syphilis and malnutrition. During her two-month stay, Chaplin and Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom they scarcely knew. Charles Sr. was by then severely alcoholic, and conditions were poor enough to prompt a visit from the
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Charles Sr. died two years later, aged 38, from
cirrhosis of the liver. Hannah entered a period of remission but became ill again in May 1903. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking her to the infirmary, from where she returned to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydneywho had joined the Navy two years earlierreturned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but her illness recurred in March 1905 and became permanent. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote; she remained in care until her death in 1928.
Young performer '' Between his time in the poor schools and his mother succumbing to mental illness, Chaplin began to perform on stage. He later recalled making his first amateur appearance at the age of five years, when he took over from Hannah one night in
Aldershot. This was an isolated occurrence, but by the time he was nine Chaplin had, with his mother's encouragement, grown interested in performing. He later wrote: "[she] imbued me with the feeling that I had some sort of talent". Through his father's connections, Chaplin became a member of the
Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing troupe, with whom he toured English music halls throughout 1899 and 1900. Chaplin worked hard, and the act was popular with audiences, but he was not satisfied with dancing and wished to form a comedy act. In the years Chaplin was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads, his mother ensured that he still attended school but, by the age of 13, he had abandoned education. He supported himself with a range of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor. At 14, shortly after his mother's relapse, he registered with a theatrical agency in London's
West End. The manager sensed potential in Chaplin, who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in
Harry Arthur Saintsbury's
Jim, a Romance of Cockayne. It opened in July 1903, but the show was unsuccessful and closed after two weeks. Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews. Saintsbury secured a role for Chaplin in
Charles Frohman's production of
Sherlock Holmes, where he played Billy the pageboy in three nationwide tours. His performance was so well received that he was called to London to play the role alongside
William Gillette, the original Holmes. "It was like tidings from heaven", Chaplin recalled. At 16 years old, Chaplin starred in the play's West End production at the
Duke of York's Theatre from October to December 1905. He completed one final tour of
Sherlock Holmes in early 1906, before leaving the play after more than two-and-a-half years.
Stage comedy and vaudeville comedy company, 1913 Chaplin soon found work with a new company and went on tour with his brother, who was also pursuing an acting career, in a
comedy sketch called
Repairs. In May 1906, Chaplin joined the juvenile act Casey's Circus, where he developed popular
burlesque pieces and was soon the star of the show. By the time the act finished touring in July 1907, the 18-year-old had become an accomplished comedic performer. He struggled to find more work, however, and a brief attempt at a solo act was a failure. Meanwhile, Sydney Chaplin had joined
Fred Karno's prestigious comedy company in 1906 and, by 1908, he was one of their key performers. In February, he managed to secure a two-week trial for his younger brother. Karno was initially wary, and considered Chaplin a "pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster" who "looked much too shy to do any good in the theatre". However, the teenager made an impact on his first night at the
London Coliseum and he was quickly signed to a contract. Chaplin began by playing a series of minor parts, eventually progressing to starring roles in 1909. In April 1910, he was given the lead in a new sketch,
Jimmy the Fearless. It was a big success, and Chaplin received considerable press attention. Karno selected his new star to join the section of the company that toured North America's
vaudeville circuit, a section which also included
Stan Laurel. The young comedian headed the show and impressed reviewers, being described as "one of the best pantomime artists ever seen here". His most successful role was a drunk called the "Inebriate Swell", which drew him significant recognition. The role was in the play titled
Mumming Birds, known as
A Night in an English Music Hall when Chaplin performed it on tour, which was the longest-running sketch the music halls produced, and included
throwing pies at the players among other innovations. The tour lasted 21 months, and the troupe returned to England in June 1912. Chaplin recalled that he "had a disquieting feeling of sinking back into a depressing commonplaceness" and was, therefore, delighted when a new tour began in October.
1914–1917: entering films Keystone Six months into the second American tour, Chaplin was invited to join the New York Motion Picture Company. A representative who had seen his performances thought he could replace
Fred Mace, a star of their
Keystone Studios who intended to leave. Chaplin thought the Keystone comedies "a crude mélange of rough and rumble", but liked the idea of working in films and rationalised: "Besides, it would mean a new life." He met with the company and signed a $150-per-week contract in September 1913. Chaplin arrived in Los Angeles in early December, and began working for the Keystone studio on 5January 1914. Film critic Pauline Kael notes that the early two-reelers were lewd and full of bathroom humour and drunkenness. Chaplin's boss was
Mack Sennett, who initially expressed concern that the 24-year-old looked too young. He was not used in a picture until late January, during which time Chaplin attempted to learn the processes of filmmaking. The
one-reeler Making a Living marked his film acting debut and was released on 2February 1914. Chaplin strongly disliked the picture, but one review picked him out as "a comedian of the first water". For his second appearance in front of the camera, Chaplin selected the costume with which he became identified. He described the process in his autobiography: The film was ''
Mabel's Strange Predicament, but "the Tramp" character, as it became known, debuted to audiences in Kid Auto Races at Veniceshot later than Mabel's Strange Predicament
but released two days earlier on 7February 1914. His interest in tramps came from various sources, with Chaplin crediting the hobo comic strip, "Weary Willie and Tired Tim", from the London comic magazine Illustrated Chips'', as a childhood influence. Chaplin adopted the Tramp as his screen persona and attempted to make suggestions for the films he appeared in. These ideas were dismissed by his directors. During the filming of his 11th picture,
Mabel at the Wheel, he clashed with director
Mabel Normand and was almost released from his contract. Sennett kept him on, however, when he received orders from exhibitors for more Chaplin films. Sennett also allowed Chaplin to direct his next film himself after Chaplin promised to pay $1,500 ($ in dollars) if the film was unsuccessful.
Caught in the Rain, issued on 4May 1914, was Chaplin's directorial debut and was highly successful. Thereafter he directed almost every short film in which he appeared for Keystone, at the rate of approximately one per week, a period which he later remembered as the most exciting time of his career. Chaplin's films introduced a slower form of comedy than the typical Keystone farce, and he developed a large fan base. In November 1914, he had a supporting role in the first
feature length comedy film, ''
Tillie's Punctured Romance'', directed by Sennett and starring
Marie Dressler, which was a commercial success and increased his popularity. When Chaplin's contract came up for renewal at the end of the year, he asked for $1,000 a week, an amount Sennett refused, as he thought it was too large.
Essanay , his regular leading lady, in
Work (1915) The
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago sent Chaplin an offer of $1,250 a week, with a signing bonus of $10,000. He joined the studio in late December 1914, where he began forming a stock company of regular players, actors he worked with again and again, including
Ben Turpin,
Leo White,
Bud Jamison,
Paddy McGuire,
Fred Goodwins and
Billy Armstrong. Chaplin soon recruited a leading lady,
Edna Purviance, whom he met in a café and hired on account of her beauty. She went on to appear in 35 films with him over eight years; the pair also formed a romantic relationship that lasted until 1917. , filmed on location in
Niles Canyon, California Chaplin asserted a high level of control over his pictures and started to put more time and care into each film. There was a month-long interval between the release of his second production,
A Night Out, and his third,
The Champion. The final seven of Chaplin's 14 Essanay films were all produced at this slower pace. Chaplin also began to alter his screen persona, which had attracted some criticism at Keystone for its "mean, crude, and brutish" nature. The character became more gentle and romantic;
The Tramp (April 1915) was considered a particular turning point in his development. The use of pathos was developed further with
The Bank, in which Chaplin created a sad ending. Robinson notes that this was an innovation in comedy films, and marked the time when serious critics began to appreciate Chaplin's work. At Essanay, writes film scholar
Simon Louvish, Chaplin "found the themes and the settings that would define the Tramp's world". During 1915, Chaplin became a cultural phenomenon. Shops were stocked with Chaplin merchandise, he was featured in cartoons and
comic strips, and several songs were written about him. In July, a journalist for
Motion Picture wrote that "Chaplinitis" had spread across America. As his fame grew worldwide, he became the film industry's first international star. In September 1915, Chaplin topped a poll held by
Pictures and the Picturegoer of the greatest British film actors, receiving 142,920 votes from readers. The classic music hall sketch,
A Night in an English Music Hall, would be the basis for his 12th Essanay film,
A Night in the Show, released in November 1915. which Robinson says made Chaplinat 26 years oldone of the highest-paid people in the world. The high salary shocked the public and was widely reported in the press. John R. Freuler, the studio president, explained: "We can afford to pay Mr. Chaplin this large sum annually because the public wants Chaplin and will pay for him." Mutual gave Chaplin his own Los Angeles studio to work in, which opened in March 1916. He added two key members to his stock company,
Albert Austin and
Eric Campbell, and produced a series of elaborate two-reelers:
The Floorwalker,
The Fireman,
The Vagabond,
One A.M. and
The Count. For
The Pawnshop, he recruited the actor
Henry Bergman, who was to work with Chaplin for 30 years.
Behind the Screen and
The Rink completed Chaplin's releases for 1916. The Mutual contract stipulated that he release a two-reel film every four weeks, which he had managed to achieve. With the new year, however, Chaplin began to demand more time. He made only four more films for Mutual over the first ten months of 1917:
Easy Street,
The Cure,
The Immigrant and
The Adventurer. With their careful construction, these films are considered by Chaplin scholars to be among his finest work. Later in life, Chaplin referred to his Mutual years as the happiest period of his career. However, Chaplin also felt that those films became increasingly formulaic over the period of the contract, and he was increasingly dissatisfied with the working conditions encouraging that. Chaplin was attacked in the British media for not fighting in the
First World War. He defended himself, claiming that he would fight for Britain if called and had registered for the American draft, but he was not summoned by either country. Despite this criticism, Chaplin was a favourite with the troops, and his popularity continued to grow worldwide. ''
Harper's Weekly'' reported that the name of Charlie Chaplin was "a part of the common language of almost every country", and that the Tramp image was "universally familiar". In 1917, professional Chaplin imitators were so widespread that he took legal action, and it was reported that nine out of ten men who attended costume parties, did so dressed as the Tramp. The same year, a study by the
Boston Society for Psychical Research concluded that Chaplin was "an American obsession". The actress
Minnie Maddern Fiske wrote that "a constantly increasing body of cultured, artistic people are beginning to regard the young English buffoon, Charles Chaplin, as an extraordinary artist, as well as a comic genius".
1918–1922: First National '' (1918). It was around this time that Chaplin began to conceive the Tramp as a
sad clown. In January 1918, Chaplin was visited by leading British singer and comedian
Harry Lauder, and the two acted in a short film together. Mutual was patient with Chaplin's decreased rate of output, and the contract ended amicably. With his aforementioned concern about the declining quality of his films because of contract scheduling stipulations, Chaplin's primary concern in finding a new distributor was independence; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press: "Charlie [must] be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing [films] the way he wants... It is quality, not quantity, we are after." In June 1917, Chaplin signed to complete eight films for
First National Exhibitors' Circuit in return for $1million. He chose to build his own studio, situated on five acres of land off
Sunset Boulevard, with production facilities of the highest order.
Charlie Chaplin Studios was completed in January 1918, and Chaplin was given freedom over the making of his pictures. ''
A Dog's Life'', released April 1918, was the first film under the new contract. In it, Chaplin demonstrated his increasing concern with story construction and his treatment of the Tramp as "a sort of
Pierrot". The film was described by
Louis Delluc as "cinema's first total work of art". Chaplin then embarked on the
Third Liberty Bond campaign, touring the United States for one month to raise money for the Allies of the First World War. He also produced a short propaganda film at his own expense, donated to the government for fund-raising, called
The Bond. Chaplin's next release was war-based, placing the Tramp in the trenches for
Shoulder Arms. Associates warned him against making a comedy about the war but, as he later recalled: "Dangerous or not, the idea excited me." He spent four months filming the picture, which was released in October 1918 with great success.
United Artists, Mildred Harris, and The Kid After the release of
Shoulder Arms, Chaplin requested more money from First National, which was refused. Frustrated with their lack of concern for quality, and worried about rumours of a possible merger between the company and
Famous Players–Lasky, Chaplin joined forces with
Douglas Fairbanks,
Mary Pickford and
D. W. Griffith to form a new distribution company,
United Artists, in January 1919. The arrangement was revolutionary in the film industry, as it enabled the four partnersall creative artiststo personally fund their pictures and have complete control. Chaplin was eager to start with the new company and offered to buy out his contract with First National. They refused and insisted that he complete the final six films owed. '' (1921), with
Jackie Coogan, combined comedy with drama and was Chaplin's first film to exceed an hour. Before the creation of United Artists, Chaplin married for the first time. The 16-year-old actress
Mildred Harris had revealed that she was pregnant with his child, and in September 1918, he married her quietly in Los Angeles to avoid controversy. Soon after, the pregnancy was found to be false. Chaplin was unhappy with the union and, feeling that marriage stunted his creativity, struggled over the production of his film
Sunnyside. Harris was by then legitimately pregnant, and on 7July 1919, gave birth to a son. Norman Spencer Chaplin was born malformed and died three days later. The marriage ended in April 1920, with Chaplin explaining in his autobiography that they were "irreconcilably mismated". Losing the child, plus his own childhood experiences, are thought to have influenced Chaplin's next film, which turned the Tramp into the caretaker of a young boy. Ultimately work on the film resumed, and following its September 1921 release, Chaplin chose to return to England for the first time in almost a decade. He wrote a book about his journey, titled
My Wonderful Visit. He then worked to fulfil his First National contract, releasing
Pay Day in February 1922.
The Pilgrim, his final short film, was delayed by distribution disagreements with the studio and released a year later.
1923–1938: silent features A Woman of Paris and The Gold Rush Having fulfilled his First National contract, Chaplin was free to make his first picture as an independent producer. In November 1922, he began filming
A Woman of Paris, a romantic drama about ill-fated lovers. Chaplin intended it to be a star-making vehicle for Edna Purviance, and did not appear in the picture himself other than in a brief, uncredited cameo. He wished the film to have a realistic feel and directed his cast to give restrained performances. In real life, he explained, "men and women try to hide their emotions rather than seek to express them".
A Woman of Paris premiered in September 1923 and was acclaimed for its innovative, subtle approach. The public, however, seemed to have little interest in a Chaplin film without Chaplin, and it was a
box office disappointment. The filmmaker was hurt by this failurehe had long wanted to produce a dramatic film and was proud of the resultand soon withdrew
A Woman of Paris from circulation. '' (1925). Chaplin returned to comedy for his next project. Setting his standards high, he told himself "This next film must be an epic! The Greatest!" Inspired by a photograph of the 1898
Klondike Gold Rush, and later the story of the
Donner Party of 1846–1847, he made what Geoffrey Macnab calls "an epic comedy out of grim subject matter". In
The Gold Rush, the Tramp is a lonely
prospector fighting adversity and looking for love. With
Georgia Hale as his leading lady, Chaplin began filming the picture in February 1924. Its elaborate production, costing almost $1million, included
location shooting in the
Truckee mountains in
Nevada with 600 extras, extravagant sets, and
special effects. The last scene was shot in May 1925 after 15 months of filming. Chaplin felt
The Gold Rush was the best film he had made. It opened in August 1925 and became one of the highest-grossing films of the silent era, with a U.S. box-office of $5million. The comedy contains some of Chaplin's most famous sequences, such as the Tramp eating his shoe and the "Dance of the Rolls". Macnab has called it "the quintessential Chaplin film". Chaplin stated at its release: "This is the picture that I want to be remembered by".
Lita Grey and The Circus , whose bitter divorce from Chaplin caused a scandal While making
The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time. Mirroring the circumstances of his first union,
Lita Grey was a teenage actress, originally set to star in the film, whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage. She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with
statutory rape under California law. He therefore arranged a discreet marriage in Mexico on 25 November 1924. They originally met during her childhood and she had previously appeared in his works
The Kid and
The Idle Class. Their first son,
Charles Spencer Chaplin III, was born on 5May 1925, followed by
Sydney Earl Chaplin on 30 March 1926. On 6 July 1925, Chaplin became the first movie star to be featured on a
Time cover. It was an unhappy marriage, and Chaplin spent long hours at the studio to avoid seeing his wife. In November 1926, Grey took the children and left the family home. A bitter divorce followed, in which Grey's applicationaccusing Chaplin of infidelity, abuse and of harbouring "perverted sexual desires"was leaked to the press. Chaplin was reported to be in a state of nervous breakdown, as the story became headline news and groups formed across America calling for his films to be banned. Eager to end the case without further scandal, Chaplin's lawyers agreed to a cash settlement of $600,000the largest awarded by American courts at that time. His fan base was strong enough to survive the incident, and it was soon forgotten, but Chaplin was deeply affected by it. Less than five months after the divorce, Grey's former butler
Don Solovich was murdered in Utah, and articles speculated about connections between Chaplin and the murder. Before the divorce suit was filed, Chaplin had begun work on a new film,
The Circus. He built a story around the idea of walking a tightrope while besieged by monkeys, and turned the Tramp into the accidental star of a circus. Filming was suspended for ten months while he dealt with the divorce scandal, and it was generally a trouble-ridden production. Finally completed in October 1927,
The Circus was released in January 1928 to a positive reception. At the
1st Academy Awards, Chaplin was given a special trophy "For versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing
The Circus". Despite its success, he permanently associated the film with the stress of its production; Chaplin omitted
The Circus from his autobiography, and struggled to work on it when he recorded the score in his later years.
City Lights By the time
The Circus was released, Hollywood had witnessed the introduction of
sound films. Chaplin was cynical about this new medium and the technical shortcomings it presented, believing that "talkies" lacked the artistry of silent films. He was also hesitant to change the formula that had brought him such success, and feared that giving the Tramp a voice would limit his international appeal. He, therefore, rejected the new Hollywood craze and began work on a new silent film. Chaplin was nonetheless anxious about this decision and remained so throughout the film's production. '' (1931) is regarded as one of Chaplin's finest works. When filming began at the end of 1928, Chaplin had been working on the story for almost a year.
City Lights followed the Tramp's love for a blind flower girl (played by
Virginia Cherrill) and his efforts to raise money for her sight-saving operation. It was a challenging production that lasted 21 months, with Chaplin later confessing that he "had worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection". One advantage Chaplin found in sound technology was the opportunity to record a musical score for the film, which he composed himself. Chaplin finished editing
City Lights in December 1930, by which time silent films were an anachronism. A preview before an unsuspecting public audience was not a success, but a showing for the press produced positive reviews. One journalist wrote: "Nobody in the world but Charlie Chaplin could have done it. He is the only person that has that peculiar something called 'audience appeal' in sufficient quality to defy the popular penchant for movies that talk." Given its general release in January 1931,
City Lights proved to be a popular and financial success, eventually grossing over $3million. The
British Film Institute called it Chaplin's finest accomplishment, and the critic
James Agee hails the closing scene as "the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies".
City Lights became Chaplin's personal favourite of his films and remained so throughout his life.
Travels, Paulette Goddard and Modern Times City Lights had been a success, but Chaplin was unsure if he could make another picture without dialogue. He remained convinced that sound would not be compatible with his films, but was also "obsessed by a depressing fear of being old-fashioned". In this state of uncertainty, early in 1931, the comedian decided to take a holiday and ended up travelling for 16 months. He spent months travelling Western Europe, including extended stays in France and Switzerland, and spontaneously decided to visit Japan. The day after he arrived in Japan, Prime Minister
Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by ultra-nationalists in the
May 15 Incident. The group's original plan had been to provoke a war with the United States by assassinating Chaplin at a welcome reception organised by the prime minister, but the plan had been foiled due to delayed public announcement of the event's date. '' (1936), described by Jérôme Larcher as a "grim contemplation on the automatisation of the individual" In his autobiography, Chaplin recalled that on his return to Los Angeles, "I was confused and without plan, restless and conscious of an extreme loneliness". He briefly considered retiring and moving to China. Chaplin's loneliness was relieved when he met 21-year-old actress
Paulette Goddard in July 1932, and the pair began a relationship. He was not ready to commit to a film, however, and focused on writing a
serial about his travels (published in ''
Woman's Home Companion''). The trip had been a stimulating experience for Chaplin, including meetings with several prominent thinkers, and he became increasingly interested in world affairs. The state of labour in America troubled him, and he feared that capitalism and machinery in the workplace would increase unemployment levels. It was these concerns that stimulated Chaplin to develop his new film.
Modern Times was announced by Chaplin as "a satire on certain phases of our industrial life". Featuring the Tramp and Goddard as they endure the
Great Depression, it took ten and a half months to film. Chaplin intended to use spoken dialogue but changed his mind during rehearsals. Like its predecessor,
Modern Times employed sound effects but almost no speaking. Chaplin's performance of a gibberish song did, however, give the Tramp a voice for the only time on film. After recording the music, Chaplin released
Modern Times in February 1936. It was his first feature in 15 years to adopt political references and social realism, a factor that attracted considerable press coverage despite Chaplin's attempts to downplay the issue. The film earned less at the box-office than his previous features and received mixed reviews, as some viewers disliked the politicising. Today,
Modern Times is seen by the British Film Institute as one of Chaplin's "great features", They then visited
Phnom Penh to view
Angkor Wat, and
Da Lat, followed by
Huế, arriving in
Da Nang where he visited the
Marble Mountains and the
Henri Parmentier Museum. In a dual performance, he also played the dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", a parody of Hitler.
The Great Dictator spent a year in production and was released in October 1940. The film generated a vast amount of publicity, with a critic for
The New York Times calling it "the most eagerly awaited picture of the year", and it was one of the biggest money-makers of the era. The ending was unpopular, however, and generated controversy. Chaplin concluded the film with a five-minute speech in which he abandoned his barber character, looked directly into the camera, and pleaded against war and fascism. Charles J. Maland has identified this overt preaching as triggering a decline in Chaplin's popularity, and writes: "Henceforth, no movie fan would ever be able to separate the dimension of politics from [his] star image". Nevertheless, both
Winston Churchill and
Franklin D. Roosevelt liked the film, which they saw at private screenings before its release. Roosevelt subsequently invited Chaplin to read the film's final speech over the radio during his January 1941 inauguration, with the speech becoming a "hit" of the celebration. Chaplin was often invited to other patriotic functions to read the speech to audiences during the years of the war.
The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations, including
Best Picture,
Best Original Screenplay and
Best Actor.
Legal troubles and Oona O'Neill In the mid-1940s, Chaplin was involved in a series of trials that occupied most of his time and significantly affected his public image. The troubles stemmed from his affair with an aspiring actress named
Joan Barry, with whom he was involved intermittently between June 1941 and the autumn of 1942. Barry, who displayed obsessive behaviour and was twice arrested after they separated, reappeared the following year and announced that she was pregnant with Chaplin's child. As Chaplin denied the claim, Barry filed a
paternity suit against him. The director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
J. Edgar Hoover, who had long been suspicious of Chaplin's political leanings, used the opportunity to generate negative publicity about him. As part of a
smear campaign to damage Chaplin's image, the FBI named him in four indictments related to the Barry case. Most serious of these was an alleged violation of the
Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of women across state boundaries for sexual purposes. Historian
Otto Friedrich called this an "absurd prosecution" of an "ancient statute", yet if Chaplin was found guilty, he faced 23 years in prison. Three charges lacked sufficient evidence to proceed to court, but the Mann Act trial began on 21 March 1944. Chaplin was acquitted two weeks later, on4 April. The case was frequently headline news, with
Newsweek calling it the "biggest public relations scandal since the
Fatty Arbuckle murder trial in 1921". Barry's child, Carol Ann, was born in October 1943, and the paternity suit went to court in December 1944. After two arduous trials, in which the prosecuting lawyer accused him of "
moral turpitude", Chaplin was declared to be the father. Evidence from blood tests that indicated otherwise were not admissible, and the judge ordered Chaplin to pay child support until Carol Ann turned 21. Media coverage of the suit was influenced by the FBI, which fed information to gossip columnist
Hedda Hopper, and Chaplin was portrayed in an overwhelmingly critical light. The controversy surrounding Chaplin increased whentwo weeks after the paternity suit was filedit was announced that he had married his newest
protégée, 18-year-old
Oona O'Neill, the daughter of American playwright
Eugene O'Neill. Chaplin, then 54, had been introduced to her by a film agent seven months earlier. In his autobiography, Chaplin described meeting O'Neill as "the happiest event of my life", and claimed to have found "perfect love". Chaplin's son, Charles III, reported that Oona "worshipped" his father. The couple remained married until Chaplin's death, and had eight children over 18 years:
Geraldine Leigh (b. July 1944),
Michael John (b. March 1946),
Josephine Hannah (b. March 1949),
Victoria Agnes (b. May 1951),
Eugene Anthony (b. August 1953), Jane Cecil (b. May 1957), Annette Emily (b. December 1959), and
Christopher James (b. July 1962).
Monsieur Verdoux and communist accusations '' (1947), a dark comedy about a serial killer, marked a significant departure for Chaplin. Chaplin claimed that the Barry trials had "crippled [his] creativeness", and it was some time before he began working again. In April 1946, he finally began filming a project that had been in development since 1942.
Monsieur Verdoux is a
black comedy, the story of a French bank clerk, Verdoux (Chaplin), who loses his job and begins marrying and murdering wealthy widows to support his family. Chaplin's inspiration for the project came from
Orson Welles, who wanted him to star in a film about the French serial killer
Henri Désiré Landru. Chaplin decided that the concept would "make a wonderful comedy", and paid Welles $5,000 for the idea. Chaplin again vocalised his political views in
Monsieur Verdoux, criticising
capitalism and arguing that the world encourages mass killing through wars and
weapons of mass destruction. Because of this, the film met with controversy when it was released in April 1947; Chaplin was booed at the premiere, and there were calls for a boycott.
Monsieur Verdoux was the first Chaplin release that failed both critically and commercially in the United States. It was more successful abroad, and Chaplin's screenplay was nominated at the
Academy Awards. He was proud of the film, writing in his autobiography, "
Monsieur Verdoux is the cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made." The negative reaction to
Monsieur Verdoux was largely the result of changes in Chaplin's public image. Along with the damage of the Joan Barry scandal, he was publicly accused of being a
communist. His political activity had heightened during World War II, when he campaigned for the opening of a Second Front to help the
Soviet Union and supported various Soviet–American friendship groups. He was also friendly with several suspected communists, and attended functions given by Soviet diplomats in Los Angeles. In the political climate of 1940s America, such activities meant Chaplin was considered, as Larcher writes, "dangerously
progressive and amoral". The FBI wanted him out of the country, and launched an official investigation in early 1947. Chaplin denied being a communist, instead calling himself a "peacemonger", but felt the government's effort to suppress the ideology was an unacceptable infringement of
civil liberties. Unwilling to be quiet about the issue, he openly protested against the trials of
Communist Party members and the activities of the
House Un-American Activities Committee. Chaplin received a
subpoena to appear before HUAC but was not called to testify. As his activities were widely reported in the press, and
Cold War fears grew, questions were raised over his failure to take American citizenship. Calls were made for him to be deported; in one extreme and widely published example, Representative
John E. Rankin, who helped establish HUAC, told
Congress in June 1947: "[Chaplin's] very life in Hollywood is detrimental to the moral fabric of America. [If he is deported]... his loathsome pictures can be kept from before the eyes of the American youth. He should be deported and gotten rid of at once." In 2003, declassified British archives belonging to the
British Foreign Office revealed that author and social critic
George Orwell secretly accused Chaplin of being a secret communist and a friend of the USSR in the 1949
Orwell's list document. Chaplin's name was one of 35 that Orwell gave to the
Information Research Department (IRD), a secret British Cold War propaganda department which collaborated closely with the
CIA. overlooking
Lake Geneva in
Corsier-sur-Vevey. Chaplin put his Beverly Hills house and studio up for sale in March, and surrendered his re-entry permit in April. The next year, his wife renounced her US citizenship and became a British citizen. Chaplin severed the last of his professional ties with the United States in 1955, when he sold the remainder of his stock in United Artists, which had been in financial difficulty since the early 1940s. Chaplin remained a controversial figure throughout the 1950s, especially after he was awarded the
International Peace Prize by the communist-led
World Peace Council, and after his meetings with
Zhou Enlai and
Nikita Khrushchev. He began developing his first European film,
A King in New York, in 1954. Casting himself as an exiled king who seeks asylum in the United States, Chaplin included several of his recent experiences in the screenplay. His son, Michael, was cast as a boy whose parents are targeted by the FBI, while Chaplin's character faces accusations of communism. The political satire parodied HUAC and attacked elements of 1950s cultureincluding consumerism, plastic surgery, and wide-screen cinema. In a review, the playwright
John Osborne called it Chaplin's "most bitter" and "most openly personal" film. In a 1957 interview, when asked to clarify his political views, Chaplin stated "As for politics, I am an anarchist. I hate government and rulesand fetters... People must be free." Chaplin founded a new production company, Attica, and used
Shepperton Studios for the shooting. Filming in England proved a difficult experience, as he was used to his own Hollywood studio and familiar crew, and no longer had limitless production time. According to Robinson, this had an effect on the quality of the film.
A King in New York was released in September 1957, and received mixed reviews. Chaplin banned American journalists from its Paris première and decided not to release the film in the United States. This severely limited its revenue, although it achieved moderate commercial success in Europe.
A King in New York was not shown in America until 1973.
Final works and renewed appreciation are absent) in 1961 In the last two decades of his career, Chaplin concentrated on re-editing and scoring his old films for re-release, along with securing their ownership and distribution rights. In an interview he gave in 1959, the year of his 70th birthday, Chaplin stated that there was still "room for the Little Man in the atomic age". The first of these re-releases was
The Chaplin Revue (1959), which included new versions of ''A Dog's Life
, Shoulder Arms
, and The Pilgrim''. In America, the political atmosphere began to change and attention was once again directed to Chaplin's films instead of his views. In July 1962, the
New York Times published an editorial stating, "We do not believe the Republic would be in danger if yesterday's unforgotten little tramp were allowed to amble down the gangplank of a steamer or plane in an American port". The same month, Chaplin was invested with the honorary degree of
Doctor of Letters by the universities of
Oxford and
Durham. In November 1963, the Plaza Theater in New York started a year-long series of Chaplin's films, including
Monsieur Verdoux and
Limelight, which gained excellent reviews from American critics. September 1964 saw the release of Chaplin's memoir,
My Autobiography, which he had been drafting since 1957. The 500-page book became a worldwide best-seller. It focused on his early years and personal life, and was criticised for lacking information on his film career. Shortly after the publication of his memoir, Chaplin began work on
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), a romantic comedy based on a script he had written for Paulette Goddard in the 1930s. Set on an ocean liner, it starred
Marlon Brando as an American ambassador and
Sophia Loren as a stowaway found in his cabin. The film differed from Chaplin's earlier productions in several aspects. It was his first to use
Technicolor and the
widescreen format, while he concentrated on directing and appeared on-screen only in a cameo role as a seasick steward. He also signed a deal with
Universal Pictures and appointed his assistant,
Jerome Epstein, as the producer. Chaplin was paid $600,000 director's fee as well as a percentage of the gross receipts.
A Countess from Hong Kong premiered in January 1967, to unfavourable reviews, and was a box-office failure. Chaplin was deeply hurt by the negative reaction to the film, which turned out to be his last. Chaplin had a series of minor strokes in the late 1960s, which marked the beginning of a slow decline in his health. Despite the setbacks, he was soon writing a new film script,
The Freak, a story of a winged girl found in South America, which he intended as a starring vehicle for his daughter, Victoria. His fragile health prevented the project from being realised. In the early 1970s, Chaplin concentrated on re-releasing his old films, including
The Kid and
The Circus. In 1971, he was made a
Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour at the
Cannes Film Festival. The following year, he was honoured with a special award by the
Venice Film Festival. from
Jack Lemmon in 1972. It was the first time he had been to the United States in 20 years. In 1972, the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award, which Robinson sees as a sign that America "wanted to make amends". Chaplin was initially hesitant about accepting but decided to return to the US for the first time in 20 years. The visit attracted a large amount of press coverage and, at the Academy Awards gala, he was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the academy's history. Visibly emotional, Chaplin accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". Although Chaplin still had plans for future film projects, by the mid-1970s he was very frail. He experienced several further strokes, which made it difficult for him to communicate, and he had to use a wheelchair. His final projects were compiling a pictorial autobiography,
My Life in Pictures (1974) and scoring
A Woman of Paris for re-release in 1976. He also appeared in a documentary about his life,
The Gentleman Tramp (1975), directed by Richard Patterson. In the
1975 New Year Honours, Chaplin was awarded a
knighthood by Queen
Elizabeth II, though he was too weak to kneel and received the honour in his wheelchair.
Death By October 1977, Chaplin's health had declined to the point that he needed constant care. In the early morning of
Christmas Day 1977, Chaplin died at home after having a stroke in his sleep. On 1 March 1978, Chaplin's coffin was dug up and stolen from its grave by Roman Wardas and Gantcho Ganev. The body was held for
ransom in an attempt to extort money from his widow, Oona Chaplin. The pair were caught in a large police operation in May, and Chaplin's coffin was found buried in a field in the nearby village of
Noville. It was re-interred in the Corsier cemetery in a reinforced concrete vault. ==Filmmaking==