First Movie Success
During a second vaudeville tour, the New York Motion Picture Company invited Charlie Chaplin to be part of their Keystone Studios troupe. He began working with Keystone under Mack Sennett in January 2014. His first appearance on film was in the 1914 short «Making a Living.»
Chaplin soon created his legendary «Little Tramp» character. The character was introduced to audiences in February 1914 in «Kid Auto Races at Venice» and «Mabel’s Strange Predicament.» The films were so successful with audiences that Mack Sennett invited his new star to direct his own films. The first short directed by Charlie Chaplin was «Caught in the Rain,» released in May 1914. He would continue to direct most of his films for the rest of his career.
November 1914’s «Tillie’s Punctured Romance,» starring Marie Dressler, included Charlie Chaplin’s first feature film appearance. It was a box office success causing Chaplin to ask for a raise. Mack Sennett thought it was too expensive and his young star moved to the Essanay studio of Chicago.
While working for Essanay, Chaplin recruited Edna Purviance to be his co-star. She would go on to appear in 35 of his movies. By the time the one-year contract with Essanay expired, Charlie Chaplin was one of the biggest movie stars in the world. In December 1915, he signed a contract with the Mutual Film Corporation worth $670,000 a year (approximately $15.4 million today).
The Rink (1916).
George Rinhart / Getty Images
Childhood
Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889, on East Street, Walworth, London. His parents, both entertainers in the Music Hall tradition, separated before he was three. Chaplin lived with his mother, Hannah, and his older brother at various addresses and he had little contact with his alcoholic father, Charles Chaplin Senior. Chaplin’s father died when the boy was only 12, leaving him and his older half-brother, Sydney Chaplin, in the sole care of his mother. Hannah Chaplin suffered from schizophrenia, and was eventually admitted to the Cane Hill Asylum at Coulsdon. Chaplin had to be left to the workhouse at Lambeth, London. He moved after several weeks to the Central London District School for paupers in Hanwell.
The young Chaplin brothers forged a close relationship to survive. They gravitated to the Music Hall while still very young, and both proved to have considerable natural stage talent. Chaplin’s early years of desperate poverty were a great influence on the characters and themes of his films and in later years he would revisit the scenes of his childhood deprivation in Lambeth.
Unknown to Charlie and Sydney until years later, they had a half-brother through their mother, Wheeler Dryden, who was raised abroad by his father. He was later reconciled with the family, and worked for Chaplin at his Hollywood studio.
Chaplin’s mother died in 1928, in Hollywood, seven years after being brought to the United States by her sons.
Limelight (1952)
Not surprisingly, then, in choosing his next subject he deliberately sought escape from disagreeable contemporary reality. He found it in bitter-sweet nostalgia for the world of his youth – the world of the London music halls at the opening of the 20th century, where he had first discovered his genius as an entertainer.
Buster Keaton and Chaplin in Limelight, 1952
With this strong underlay of nostalgia, Chaplin was at pains to evoke as accurately as possible the London he remembered from half a century before and it is clear from the preparatory notes for the film that the character of Calvero had a very similar childhood to Chaplin’s own. Limelight’s story of a once famous music hall artist whom nobody finds amusing any longer may well have been similarly autobiographical as a sort of nightmare scenario.
Chaplin’s son Sydney plays the young, talented pianist who vies with Calvero for the young ballerina’s heart, and several other Chaplin family members participated in the film. It was when on the boat travelling with his family to the London premiere of Limelight that Chaplin learned that his re-entry pass to the United States had been rescinded based on allegations regarding his morals and politics.
Chaplin therefore remained in Europe, and settled with his family at the Manoir de Ban in Corsier sur Vevey, Switzerland, with view of lake and mountains. What a difference from California. He and Oona went on to have four more children, making a total of eight.
Legacy
Chaplin as the Tramp
In 1998, the film critic Andrew Sarris called Chaplin «arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon.» He is described by the British Film Institute as «a towering figure in world culture,» and was included in Time magazine’s list of the «100 Most Important People of the 20th Century» for the «laughter to millions» and because he «more or less invented global recognizability and helped turn an industry into an art.»
The image of the Tramp has become a part of cultural history. The character is recognizable to people who have never seen a Chaplin film, and in places where his films are never shown. Praising the character, Richard Schickel suggests that Chaplin’s films with the Tramp contain the most «eloquent, richly comedic expressions of the human spirit» in movie history. Memorabilia connected to the character have continued to fetch large sums in auctions: in 2006 a bowler hat and a bamboo cane that were part of the Tramp’s costume were bought for $140,000 in a Los Angeles auction.
As one of the founding members of United Artists, Chaplin also had a role in the development of the film industry. Although UA never became a major company like MGM or Paramount Pictures, the idea that directors could produce their own films was «years ahead of its time.» As a filmmaker, Chaplin is considered a pioneer and one of the most influential figures of the early twentieth century. He was the first to popularize feature-length comedy and to slow down the pace of action, adding pathos and subtlety to it.
According to David Robinson, Chaplin’s innovations were «rapidly assimilated to become part of the common practice of film craft.» Filmmakers who cited Chaplin as an influence include Federico Fellini (who called Chaplin «a sort of Adam, from whom we are all descended»), Jacques Tati («Without him I would never have made a film»), and René Clair («He inspired practically every filmmaker»).
Chaplin also strongly influenced the work of later comedians. Marcel Marceau said he was inspired to become a mime artist after watching Chaplin. In other fields, Chaplin helped inspire the cartoon characters Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Canemaker, John. Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World’s Most Famous Cat. Pantheon, 1991. ISBN 978-0679401278
- Chaplin, Charles. My Autobiography (Chaplin). Simon & Schuster, 1964. ISBN 0671782401
- Chaplin, Charles. Die Geschichte meines Lebens. Fischer-Verlag, 1964. (Germ.) ISBN 3596244609
- Chaplin, Charles. My Life in Pictures. Bodley Head, 1974. ISBN 0448148382
- Hansmeyer, Christian. Charlie Chaplin’s techniques for the creation of comic effect in his films. GRIN Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-3638787192
- Klemperer, Victor. LTI — Notizbuch eines Philologen. Leipzig: Reclam, 1990. ISBN 3379001252
- Louvish, Simon. Chaplin: The Tramp’s Odyssey. Thomas Dunne Books, 2009. ISBN 978-0312581695
- Mast, Gerald, and Bruce F. Kawin. Short History of the Movies. Pearson, 2010. ISBN 978-0205755578
- Robinson, David. Chaplin: His Life and Art. McGraw-Hill, 2001. ISBN 0070531811
- Sarris, Andrew. You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet: The American Talking Film – History and Memory, 1927–1949. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0195038835
- Schickel, Richard (ed.). The Essential Chaplin: Perspectives on the Life and Art of the Great Comedian. Ivan R. Dee, 2006. ISBN 978-1566637015
- Vance, Jeffrey. Chaplin: Genius of the Cinema. New York: Abrams, 2003. ISBN 0810945320
- Whitfield, Stephen J. The Culture of the Cold War. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN 0801851963
Вклад артиста
Чарли Чаплин был гениальным артистом, звездой и универсальным мастером немого кино. Он сам выступал в качестве режиссёра, сценариста, актёра, монтажёра, продюсера и композитора своих картин. Благодаря своему таланту и, несмотря на тяжёлое детство, Чарльз смог добиться мировой славы и признания.
Созданный им образ Бродяги стал невероятно популярным и одним из самых узнаваемым в массовой культуре. Соединив разные детали, которые до этого уже использовали другие комики (широкие штаны, огромные ботинки, трость и т.д.) и добавив лиричные и трагические черты, Чаплин создал уникального, разностороннего и противоречивого персонажа, полюбившегося зрителям во всём мире.
Картины величайшего комика до сих пор интересны зрителям самых разных возрастов, и они по праву считаются классикой мирового кино.
Отъезд из США, последние годы жизни
Когда в 1952 году Чарли Чаплин уезжает в Англию, чтобы представить там свой новый фильм «Огни рампы», возвратиться в США он уже не может — ему запретили обратный въезд.
Поэтому актёр покупает дом в Швейцарии в городе Веве.
В следующий раз он попадёт в Америку лишь в 1972 году — ему дадут кратковременную визу ради церемонии вручения премии Оскар.
Последним фильмом Чарли Чаплина стала картина «Графиня из Гонконга», главные роли в которой сыграли Софи Лорен и Марлон Брандо.
Умер актёр во сне 25 декабря 1977 года, похоронен на местном кладбище города Веве. На берегу Женевского озера поставили памятник актёру.
Marriages, knighthood, and death
Chaplin had many relationships with women, some supportive, some extremely difficult. He was married four times. Chaplin was 29 when he married his first wife, Mildred Harris, a 16-year-old child-actress, on October 23, 1918. The marriage lasted two years and resulted in one son, Norman Spencer Chaplin, who survived only three days. At age 35 Chaplin met and married 16-year-old Lita Grey on November 26, 1924. The union was a disaster resulting in a sensational divorce and then record-breaking settlement of $825,000, on top of $1 million in legal fees. They had two sons and divorced in 1927. Chaplin’s third marriage was to Paulette Goddard in 1936. His last marriage was Chaplin’s happiest union. On June 16, 1943 at 57 years old, he married 17-year-old Oona O’Neil, daughter of the playwright Eugene O’Neil. Oona remained his wife the rest of Chaplin’s life. They gave each other what each needed, she longed for the love of a father figure, and Chaplin craved her loyalty and support as his public popularity declined. They had eight children, three sons and five daughters.
He was named in the New Year’s Honors List in 1975 and, on March 4, was knighted at the age of 85 as a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. The honor was first proposed in 1931, and again in 1956, when it was vetoed by the then Conservative government for fears of damage to relations with the United States at the height of the Cold War and the planned invasion of the Suez.
Chaplin’s robust health began to slowly fail in the late 1960s, after the completion of his final film A Countess of Hong Kong. In his final years he grew increasingly frail, and died in his sleep on Christmas Day 1977, in Vevey, Switzerland, at age 88. He was interred in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery in Corsier-Sur-Vevey, Vaud. On March 1, 1978, his body was stolen by a small group of Polish and Bulgarian mechanics in an attempt to extort money from his family. The plot failed, the robbers were captured, and the body was recovered 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva (and reburied under six feet of concrete to prevent another attempt).
Early Life
Famous for his character «The Tramp,» the sweet little man with a bowler hat, mustache and cane, Charlie Chaplin was an iconic figure of the silent-film era and was one of film’s first superstars, elevating the industry in a way few could have ever imagined.
Born Charles Spencer Chaplin in London, England, on April 16, 1889, Chaplin’s rise to fame is a true rags-to-riches story. His father, a notorious drinker, abandoned Chaplin, his mother and his older half-brother, Sydney, not long after Chaplin’s birth. That left Chaplin and his brother in the hands of their mother, a vaudevillian and music hall singer who went by the stage name Lily Harley.
Chaplin’s mother, who would later suffer severe mental issues and have to be committed to an asylum, was able to support her family for a few years. But in a performance that would introduce her youngest boy to the spotlight, Hannah inexplicably lost her voice in the middle of a show, prompting the production manager to push the five-year-old Chaplin, whom he’d heard sing, onto the stage to replace her.
Chaplin lit up the audience, wowing them with his natural presence and comedic angle (at one point he imitated his mother’s cracking voice). But the episode meant the end for Hannah. Her singing voice never returned, and she eventually ran out of money. For a time, Chaplin and Sydney had to make a new, temporary home for themselves in London’s tough workhouses.
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The Gold Rush (1925)
Chaplin generally strove to separate his work from his private life; but in this case the two became inextricably and painfully mixed. Searching for a new leading lady, he rediscovered Lillita MacMurray, whom he had employed, as a pretty 12-year-old, in The Kid. Still not yet sixteen, Lillita was put under contract and re-named Lita Grey.
Chaplin and Lita Grey sign the contract for The Gold Rush
Chaplin quickly embarked on a clandestine affair with her; and when the film was six months into shooting, Lita discovered she was pregnant. Chaplin found himself forced into a marriage which brought misery to both partners, though it produced two sons, Charles Jr and Sydney Chaplin.
Childhood
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in London, England, on April 16th, 1889. His father was a versatile vocalist and actor; and his mother, known under the stage name of Lily Harley, was an attractive actress and singer, who gained a reputation for her work in the light opera field.
Charlie was thrown on his own resources before he reached the age of ten as the early death of his father and the subsequent illness of his mother made it necessary for Charlie and his brother, Sydney, to fend for themselves.
Chaplin aged 9 or 10, at the time he toured with the Eight Lancashire Lads
Having inherited natural talents from their parents, the youngsters took to the stage as the best opportunity for a career. Charlie made his professional debut as a member of a juvenile group called “The Eight Lancashire Lads” and rapidly won popular favour as an outstanding tap dancer.
HE ACCEPTED HIS 1972 HONORARY OSCAR IN PERSON.
In 1952, because of his alleged Communist politics, the U.S. denied Chaplin re-entry to the United States after he traveled to London for the premiere of his film Limelight. Incensed, he moved his family to Switzerland and vowed he’d never return to Hollywood. But 20 years later, possibly to make up for his exile, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored the 82-year-old Chaplin with an honorary Oscar (his second of three). Chaplin attended the ceremony and received an enthusiastic standing ovation. When he finally spoke, he said, “Thank you for the honor of inviting me here. You’re all wonderful, sweet people.”
Politics
Chaplin’s political sympathies always lay with the left. In the 1940s his views (in conjunction with his influence, fame, and status in the United States as a resident foreigner) were seen by many as dangerously leftist. His silent films made prior to the Great Depression typically did not contain overt political themes or messages, apart from the Tramp’s plight in poverty and his run-ins with the law. But his films made in the 1930s were more openly political. Modern Times depicts workers and poor people in dismal conditions. The final dramatic speech in The Great Dictator, which was critical of blindly following patriotic nationalism, and his vocal public support for the opening of a second European front in 1942 to assist the Soviet Union in World War II, were controversial. In at least one of those speeches, according to a contemporary account in the Daily Worker, he intimated that Communism might sweep the world after the war and equated it with «human progress.»
Apart from the controversial 1942 speeches, Chaplin declined to patriotically support the war effort as he had done for the First World War (although his two sons saw service in the Army in Europe), which led to public anger. For most of the war, he was fighting serious criminal and civil charges related to his involvement with actress Joan Berry, in which he fought a paternity suit and charges of transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes under the Mann Act. After the war, the critical view towards what he regarded as capitalism in his 1947 black comedy, Monsieur Verdoux led to increased hostility, with the film being the subject of protests in many American cities. As a result, Chaplin’s final film, Limelight, was less political and more autobiographical in nature. His following European-made film, A King in New York (1957), satirized the political persecution and paranoia that had forced him to leave the United States five years earlier (one of the few films of the 1950s to do so). After this film, Chaplin lost interest in making overt political statements, later saying that comedians and clowns should be «above politics.»
Although Chaplin had his major successes in the United States and was a resident from 1914 to 1952, he always retained his British nationality. During the era of McCarthyism, Chaplin was accused of «un-American activities» and came under suspicion as a communist sympathizer. J. Edgar Hoover, who had instructed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to keep extensive secret files on him, tried to end his United States residency. FBI pressure on Chaplin grew after his 1942 campaign for a second European front in the war and reached a height in the late 1940s, when Congressional figures threatened to call him as a witness in hearings. This was never done, possibly from the fear of Chaplin’s ability to lampoon the investigators.
In 1952, Chaplin left the United States for what was intended as a brief trip home to England. Hoover learned of it and negotiated with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to revoke his re-entry permit. Chaplin then decided to stay in Europe, and made his home in Vevey, Switzerland. He briefly returned to the United States in April 1972, with his wife, to receive an Honorary Oscar. Even though he was invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he was only issued a one-time entry visa valid for a period of two months. However, by this time the animosities towards the now elderly and apolitical Chaplin had faded, and his visit was a triumphant success.
Chaplin growing up
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 in London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Chaplin had a rough childhood; his mother, Hannah Hill Chaplin, a talented singer, actress, and piano player, spent most of her life in and out of mental hospitals. His father, Charles Spencer Chaplin Sr. was a fairly successful singer until he began drinking. After his parents separated, Charlie and his half-brother, Sidney, spent most of their childhood in orphanages, where they often went hungry and were beaten if they misbehaved. He first started acting at age five. He acted in a music hall in , standing in for his mother.
When Charlie was a child, he was kept in bed for many weeks from a bad illness. At night, his mother would sit at the window and act out what was going on outside. His first important work came when he joined The Eight Lancashire Lads. In , his brother Sydney helped him get the role of a comic cat in the pantomime Cinderella. In he was in a play called “Jim: A Romance of Cockayne”. Chaplin was in Casey’s ‘Court Circus’ variety show. The next year, he became a clown in Fred Karno’s ‘Fun Factory’ comedy company.
