Charlie Chaplin net worth is $50 Million. Also know about Charlie Chaplin bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship and more …

Charlie Chaplin Wiki Biography

(Sir) Charles Spencer (Charlie) Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 in Walworth, London England. He became one of the true stars of the silent film era, first as a comic actor, and then successively in all the other roles involved in film making, including when the ‘talkies’ came along. He died on Christmas Day 1977.

So just how rich was Charlie Chaplin? Sources estimate that Charlie’s net worth was over $50 million at his passing, accrued during his 75 years in the entertainment industry, and encompassing a remarkable rags-to-riches story.

Charlie Sr. was a music hall singer, but estranged from his mother, Hannah when Charlie Jr. was very young, and she so poor that he was eventually sent to a workhouse at the age of seven. She was subsequently committed to a mental asylum for a short period, during which time Charlie and his half-brother Sydney lived with their now alcoholic father – he died two years later from cirrhosis – and after two brief periods of remission, Hannah was to spend the rest of her life under supervision until she died in 1928. Charlie spent some time on the streets of London, but with his mother’s support he had already begun performing on stage, including dancing, so by the time he was 14 he was acting comic roles, and becoming popular as well as being recognised as a star of the future, plus earning what was the start of his net worth.

Charlie Chaplin began touring the UK music halls, dancing and comic acting, called vaudeville. He developed the persona of a tramp, parodying his own experience against adversity in comic presentation which was applauded by audiences, and which he continued with for the next 25 years. Through brother Sydney, in 1908 he was introduced to a noted comedy company, Fred Karno, and quickly became a star of the show, being included in a tour of the USA. A further tour saw Charlie signed to Keystone Studios in 1913, making his film debut in early 1914 in “Making a Living” which Chaplin really didn’t like, but positive critiques persuaded him to further develop the Tramp character, debuting the costume with the persona in “Kid Auto Races at Venice”. Studio boss Mack Sennett subsequently raised Charlie’s salary from $150 per week to $1500 to next direct his own film, the success of which saw Chaplin set for a meteoric rise. His net worth rose accordingly, especially soon afterwards, when he joined the Essanay Film Company in Chicago at a salary of $1,250 a week, plus an initial bonus $10,000, over $25,000 and $200,000 today, and quite enormous in the industry at that time.

Chaplin wasn’t called up for service in World War 1 by either the UK or USA, but entertained the troops on film anyway. By 1919 Charlie was world famous, and wealthy enough to found United Artists, through which he continued to direct, star in and distribute his films, including “The Kid” – his first full-length feature film in 1922 – followed by a series of others, all silent as he refused to use sound at this point, including in 1923 “A Woman of Paris”, “The Gold Rush” in 1925, and “The Circus” (1928), followed in the 30s by “City Lights” and “Modern Times”. All were well received, maintaining his popularity and rising net worth, but uncertainty regarding sound in his films saw him travel for a couple of years, and write a book about his experiences.

Chaplin first film of the 1940s, “The Great Dictator”, satirised Hitler, and proved popular and very profitable despite its overt political theme (anti-fascist), but during the decade Charlie was suspected of being a communist sympathiser, whilst his personal life also drew criticism regarding his relationships with much younger women, and a paternity suit. An FBI report saw Chaplin leave the US and move to Switzerland.

About this time, Chaplin finally gave-up his Tramp persona, which didn’t work too well with dialogue, as his films were usually slapstick which didn’t need sound. He eventually moved on, and released “Monsieur Verdoux” in 1947 – Chaplin paid Orson Welles $5,000 for the idea – which was appreciated far more outside of the US, but which he subsequently termed his ‘… cleverest and most brilliant film I have yet made.’, and which again incorporated Chaplin’s political ideals   “Limelight” in 1952, “A King in New York” in 1957, and “A Countess From Hong Kong”(1967).

Chaplin wrote, starred in, directed, produced, edited,, and composed the music for almost all of his films from 1919, and appreciated in all these facets of movie production. A perfectionist, his growing net worth allowed him to spend as much time as he deemed necessary on the development and production of a film. His social and political themes and his own autobiography were often elements incorporated into his films, starting with the Tramp persona. Chaplin received an Honorary Academy Award in 1972, for “…the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century”. Charlie’s productions of “The Gold Rush”, “The Great Dictator”. “City Lights” and “Modern Times”, are still often ranked on industry lists of the greatest films of all time. Overall, he was involved in some way in more than 100 films, and there is no doubt that he is one of the giants of the film industry.

In Charlie Chaplin’s often public personal life, he was married four times, but somewhat notorious according to social norms of the times for affairs, often with much younger women. His first wife was American actress Mildred Harris, whom he married in 1918 when she was 16 and apparently – but not – pregnant, and he 29. A subsequent child died after birth, and they divorced in 1920. Charlie’s second wife was Lila Grey, also an American actress whom he first met when she was eight, and married in 1924 when she was just 16 and he 35, because he had supposedly impregnated her while under age. She wasn’t pregnant, but they then had two sons before divorcing in 1927, with Charlie paying a considerable settlement for the time of over $600,000. Charlie’s third wife was Paulette Goddard(1936-42) – she was 21 years younger than him. Finally, Chaplin married the love of his life, and certainly the love of her life, Oona O’Neill in 1943, when she was 18 and he 54: they had eight children, and were together until his death in Switzerland in 1977, when he was 88.

Finally, despite Charlie Chaplin’s sometimes controversial behaviour, in his obituary are listed many awards, perhaps the most prestigious being the knighthood – KBE – awarded to him by the Queen in 1975, followed by the French government’s 1971 award of Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour. In 1962, Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees were bestowed on Chaplin by both the University of Oxford and the University of Durham.

Among many film industry awards, Chaplin received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lincoln Center Film Society in 1972, which has since become an annual presentation to filmmakers and called “The Chaplin Award”. Charlie was eventually given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame also in 1972. He also received three Academy Awards – two honorary – and six of his films are preserved in the National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress; “The Great Dictator” features prominently in these belated honours, so apparently all is forgiven this film-making genius.

IMDB Wikipedia $50 million 1889 1977 5 ft 4 in (1.65 m) Abbey Road Studios Academy Award Actor Actors American film actors April 16 Audio engineering Barack Obama Bernard Herrmann Bowler hat Burning Man Catch My Breath Chaplin Charles Chaplin Charles Spencer Chaplin Charlie Charlie Chaplin Charlie Chaplin Net Worth Charlot Comedian Composer Corsier-sur-Vevey Daniel Craig December 25 Douglas Fairbanks England Film Film director Film Editor Film producer Film Score Composer Geraldine Chaplin Harold Lloyd KBE Lila Grey Mack Sennett Mary Pickford Mildred Harris Oona O’Neill Oona O’Neill (m. 1943–1977) Orson Welles Romani people Romanichal Screenwriter Silent film Sir Charles Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Switzerland Sydney Chaplin The Gold Rush The Little Tramp United Kingdom Victoria Chaplin Walworth

Charlie Chaplin Quick Info

Charlie Chaplin Trademarks

1. Despite film portrayals of him having brown eyes, Charlie actually had striking blue eyes
2. Walking with a waddle
3. On-screen and off-screen, favored the company of much younger women, who were often innocent if troubled
4. Comedy with a deep undercurrent of pathos
5. Stories often reflect his liberal political beliefs
6. Highly descriptive facial expressions
7. A tramp with toothbrush mustache, undersized bowler hat and bamboo cane who struggled to survive while keeping his dignity in a world with great social injustice.

Charlie Chaplin Quotes

• [advice to an over-emoting film actor] Don’t sell it. Remember: they are peeking at you.
• A good talking picture is inferior to a good stage play, while a good silent picture is superior to a good stage play.
• All my pictures were built around the idea of getting me into trouble, and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman.
• [on receiving a lifetime Oscar, 1972] Words are so futile, feeble.
• Life is a beautiful magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish.
• [Upon receiving an Honorary Oscar at the 44th annual Academy Awards] Thank you so much. This is an emotional moment for me. Words seem so futile and so feeble. I can only say thank you for the honor of inviting me here and you are all wonderful, sweet people. Thank you.
• I don’t believe I deserve dinner unless I’ve done a day’s work.
• My only enemy is time.
• [Upon watching the young Jerry Lewis on television] That bastard is funny! He knows how to take the audience.
• [on D.W. Griffith] The whole industry owes its existence to him.
• [on Douglas Fairbanks] He had extraordinary magnetism and charm and a genuine boyish enthusiasm which he conveyed to the public.
• I usually go to see myself the first night of a new performance, but I don’t laugh. No, I just go to see whether or not the film is taking, and what I’ve done that I shouldn’t do. And if it’s a success, I’m happy. There’s something that makes you feel pretty good in knowing that all over the world people are laughing at what you’re doing. But if it isn’t a success, then it’s terrible, to feel that you’re a failure all over the world at the same time.
• I think a very great deal of myself. Everything is perfect or imperfect, according to myself. I am the perfect standard.
• I don’t want perfection of detail in the acting. I’d hate a picture that was perfect, it would seem machine made. I want the human touch, so that you love the picture for its imperfections.
• [in 1915] Motion pictures is still in its infancy. In the next few years, I expect to see so many improvements that you could then scarcely recognize the comedy of the present day.
• Naturalness is the greatest requisite of comedy. It must be real and true to life. I believe in realism absolutely. Real things appeal to the people far quicker than the grotesque. My comedy is actual life, with the slightest twist or exaggeration, you might say, to bring out what it might be under certain circumstances.
• The first time I looked at myself on the screen, I was ready to resign [the movie contract]. That can’t be I, I thought. Then when I realized it was, I said, “Good night.” Strange enough, I was told that the picture was a scream. I had always been ambitious to work in drama, and it certainly was the surprise of my life when I got away with the comedy stuff.
• Figuring out what the audience expects, and then doing something different, is great fun to me.
• One of the things most quickly learned in theatrical work is that people as a whole get satisfaction from seeing the rich get the worst of things. The reason for this, of course, lies in the fact that nine tenths of the people in the world are poor, and secretly resent the wealth of the other tenth.
• Through humor, we see in what seems rational, the irrational; in what seems important, the unimportant. It also heightens our sense of survival and preserves our sanity.
• Comedy really is a serious study, although it must not be taken seriously. That sounds like a paradox, but it is not. It is a serious study to learn characters; it is a hard study. But to make comedy a success there must be an ease, a spontaneity in the acting that cannot be associated with seriousness.
• Even funnier than a man who has been made ridiculous is the man who, having had something funny happen to him, refuses to admit that anything out of the way has happened, and attempts to maintain his dignity. Perhaps the best example is the intoxicated man who, though his tongue and walk will give him away, attempts in a dignified manner to convince you that he is quite sober. He is much funnier than the man who, wildly hilarious, is frankly drunk and doesn’t care a whoop who knows it. Intoxicated characters on the stage are almost always “slightly tipsy” with an attempt at dignity because theatrical managers have learned that this attempt at dignity is funny.
• I hope we shall abolish war and settle all differences at the conference table… I hope we shall abolish all hydrogen and atom bombs before they abolish us first.
• It isn’t the ups and downs that make life difficult; it’s the jerks.
• My childhood was sad, but now I remember it with nostalgia, like a dream.
• I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can’t help it. It’s the truth.
• Actors search for rejection. If they don’t get it they reject themselves.
• Movies are a fad. Audiences really want to see live actors on a stage.
• I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.
• Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.
• All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman.
• [on his screen character, The Little Tramp] A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.
• I don’t believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.
• I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.
• Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is “elephant”.
• The summation of my character [The Tramp] is that I care about my work. I care about everything I do. If I could do something else better, I would do it, but I can’t.
• [answering the bad reviews he got on his last movie, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)] If they don’t like it, they are bloody idiots. A diplomat falls in love with a prostitute – what better story can they get than that?
• I have no further use for America. I wouldn’t go back there if Jesus Christ was President.
• [on being informed that Adolf Hitler sat through two screenings of The Great Dictator (1940)] I’d give anything to know what he thought of it.
• The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.
• I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
• The minute you bought your ticket you were in another world.
• I like friends as I like music, when I am in the mood. To help a friend in need is easy, but to give him your time is not always opportune.
• [Returning to Los Angeles after a 20-year self-imposed exile to accept his honorary Oscar in 1971] Thank you so much. This is an emotional moment for me and words seem so futile, so feeble… I can only say that… thank you for the honor of inviting me here and… oh… you’re wonderful, sweet people. Thank you.
• All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.

Charlie Chaplin Important Facts

• $1,250 /week
• $1,250 /week
• $150 /week
• $150 /week
• $150 /week
• $150 /week
• $150 /week
• Four years after Chaplin’s death, Ukrainian astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina named an asteroid after him. Ms. Karachkina, discoverer of 131 asteroids, named one of them 3623 Chaplin. It resides in the asteroid “belt” between Mars and Jupiter and appears as a magnitude 12.1 object, making it visible in a moderately strong telescope.
• When he was 13 years old in London, he went into the Crown Public House in Borough, and asked the landlord for a glass of water. The landlord, it turned out, was the serial killer George Chapman, who poisoned his three wives. Obviously Chaplin didn’t know it nor did he know that Chapman’s victim Maud was upstairs in the throes of death while Chaplin was downstairs. He didn’t drink the water. Chapman–also known as Seweryn Antonowicz Klosowski, his original Polish name–was also a suspect in the murders committed by the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. He was known as the “Borough poisoner”.
• In the Serbian capital of Belgrade there is a street called Charles Chaplin (ser. “Carlija Caplina”).
• He died the day before director Howard Hawks.
• He was nominated for writing, acting, directing, and producing The Circus (1928), in the first Academy Awards. However, they removed him from the competition and gave him a special award for “acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus.” And they wrote a letter to Chaplin stating that he merited a placement “in a class” by himself.
• Although Chaplin was naturally unable to compose synchronized musical scores to his films until the advent of sound films (beginning with City Lights (1931), he is said to have provided several prominent film theaters with sheets of self-composed music to be played by orchestras to his films at least as far back as 1921, beginning with The Kid (1921).
• His favorite composer is reported to have been Richard Wagner (1813-83).
• In 2011 his family found a letter from a man in England named Jack Hill, in a locked drawer of a bureau left behind after Chaplin’s death. It claimed Chaplin had been born in a caravan that belonged to the Gypsy Queen, who was Hill’s aunt, in a Roma community near Birmingham in central England.
• He died only 29 days before his The Great Dictator (1940) co-star Jack Oakie.
• Pictured as his Little Tramp character on a Vatican City commemorative postage stamp celebrating the 125th anniversary of his birth (1889), issued 8 May 2014. Price on the day of issue was EUR0.70.
• Although they both came to the US with Fred Karno’s troupe and shared a room together while with the show, Chaplin does not mention Stan Laurel even once in his autobiography.
• Was aboard William Randolph Hearst’s yacht when producer/director Thomas H. Ince died under mysterious circumstances. The incident was the subject of The Cat’s Meow (2001). The story given the most credence–although never proven–is that Hearst discovered Chaplin and Marion Davies, who was Hearst’s mistress, having sex in a cabin. Hearst pulled out a gun and chased Chaplin onto the deck. He fired at Chaplin but hit and killed Ince instead.
• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6751 Hollywood Blvd. on April 10, 1972.
• As of 2011 he is the only person to receive a 12-minute standing ovation at the Academy Awards when he appeared to accept an honorary award “for the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century”. It is the longest in the history of the Academy Awards.
• Spent some of his spare time in the tiny village of Waterville on the southern tip of Ireland. There is a life-sized statue of Chaplin on the edge of a waterfront park in the village.
• His salary quickly rose during the Teens from $150 per week in 1913 for Keystone to $1250 per week at Essanay to $10,000 per week with a $150,000 bonus at Mutual to $150,000 per film in 1918 at First National.
• He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1975 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.
• While visiting Winston Churchill in England in 1937, Chaplin found him studying newspapers and looking worried. When Chaplin asked what was disturbing him, Churchill replied, “Germany”. Chaplin made some airy remark to try to dismiss the subject, but Churchill replied, “No, no, it’s quite serious”.
• Once played Sherlock Holmes in a one-act play.
• He directed and starred in four of the American Film Institute’s 100 Funniest Movies: The Gold Rush (1925) at #25, Modern Times (1936) at #33, The Great Dictator (1940) at #37 and City Lights (1931) at #38.
• Cinematic genius that he was, he never won an Academy Award in an acting category, his only Oscar victory being in the capacity of composer.
• He remained in remarkably good physical and mental shape for most of his life, still playing tennis regularly well into his 70s and working constantly. However, after the completion of what turned out to be his last film, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), his health began to visibly deteriorate.
• One of the last movies he saw (and very much enjoyed) was Rocky (1976).
• He was born four days before Adolf Hitler.
• In 1934 he was scheduled to serve as best man at broadcaster Alistair Cooke’s marriage to Ruth Emerson (Ruth Emerson Cooke), but never showed. Reputedly, he and wife-to-be Paulette Goddard were having such a good time at Southern California’s Lake Arrowhead, they decided to stay.
• According to his daughter Geraldine Chaplin, in the last years of his life Chaplin began to worry that he might not be remembered after his death. This was a major reason why he allowed his trademark character The Little Tramp to appear on several commercial products in the 1970s.
• The fact that neither City Lights (1931) nor Modern Times (1936), two of Chaplin’s most beloved and acclaimed movies, were nominated for a single Academy Award has puzzled many. One explanation could be that Chaplin expressed disdain for the Academy Awards early on; according to his son Charles Chaplin Jr., for a time Chaplin even used the Honorary Award he won in 1929 as a doorstop. However, apparently, his view on the Awards changed with time, as he accepted and seemed touched by his second Honorary Award in 1972.
• His father, with whom he lived for only a brief period of time in his childhood while his mother was committed to a mental asylum, died as the result of alcohol abuse at 37, when Charlie was 12.
• Was an agnostic who believed in some sort of “Supreme Force”, according to his son Charles Chaplin Jr.’s autobiography, “My Father, Charlie Chaplin”.
• First actor to be nominated for a single Academy Award (Best Actor) for a film in which he was credited as portraying two different characters. In The Great Dictator (1940), he played a Jewish barber–a variation of his Little Tramp character–and Adenoid Hynkel, his version of Adolf Hitler.
• When Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle was unable to find work after his infamous trial, Chaplin supported him out of his own pocket.
• His mother was so poor, she was once forced to pawn her son’s spare clothes. She was also in and out of mental hospitals throughout her life.
• Once worked as a butler in England, a job he enjoyed. He was fired after he was caught playing a trumpet he had found in his employer’s attic.
• His film The Great Dictator (1940) was banned in Germany.
• Marlon Brando played the starring role in Chaplin’s last movie A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) in 1966. While Brando had always greatly admired Chaplin’s work and looked upon him as “probably the most talented man the [movie] medium has ever produced”, the two superstars did not get along during the shooting. In his autobiography, Brando described Chaplin as “probably the most sadistic man I’d ever met.” Chaplin, on his side, said that working with Brando simply was “impossible”.
• He loved to play tennis, but described golf as “a game I can’t stand”.
• His trademark character The Tramp appeared in about 70 movies, shorts and features, during a period of 26 years, from the one-reeler Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) to his triumphant feature The Great Dictator (1940).
• After finishing his last film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) in 1966, he composed the music to many of his silent movies, among them The Circus (1928) in 1968, The Kid (1921) in 1971 and A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923) in 1976.
• Up until his last few movies, he never shot with a working script. He would start with a story in his mind and constantly retool it, often shooting hours of scenes that wouldn’t make the final cut until he was satisfied. He spent his nights during filming, critiquing the rushes with his assistant directors. Consequently compared to the major studio’s films, he spent months/years and excessive amounts of money on his productions. He often said though he would not release any of his films until he was 100% satisfied with the result.
• Composed about 500 melodies, including “Smile” and “This Is My Song”.
• His performance as The Little Tramp in City Lights (1931) and a slew of other pictures is ranked #24 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
• Is portrayed in Sesame Street (1969) skits by Linda Bove (Linda) and Sonia Manzano (Maria).
• His performance as The Tramp in City Lights (1931) is ranked #44 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
• Profiled in in J.A. Aberdeen’s “Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers”. Palos Verdes Estates, CA: Cobblestone Entertainment.
• Founder of United Artists along with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith.
• Uncle of Spencer Dryden, drummer for the 1960s rock band Jefferson Airplane.
• In all his years of living and working in the US, he never became a citizen.
• Named the #10 Greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends list by the American Film Institute.
• At the Golden Camera Awards 2005 in Berlin, Geraldine Chaplin told in a moving speech honoring Jerry Lewis about the last time she saw her father alive. He watched a movie of Lewis on television screaming “He’s funny, that bastard!”.
• He and Buster Keaton had an interesting relationship. Long considered rivals but always having avoided commenting about each other in the press, Chaplin hired Keaton for a part in Limelight (1952). Keaton, who was flat broke at the time, went into a career decline after having been signed by MGM in 1928, as the studio would not let him improvise in any of his films nor allow him any writing or directorial input, and he was eventually reduced to writing gags–often uncredited–for other comedians’ films. Chaplin, at this point, felt sorry for Keaton due to his hard luck, but Keaton recognized that, despite Charlie’s better fortune and far greater wealth, he was (strangely) the more depressed of the two. In one scene in “Limelight”, Chaplin’s character was dying. While the camera was fading away, Keaton was muttering to Chaplin without moving his lips, “That’s it, good, wait, don’t move, wait, good, we’re through.” In his autobiography Keaton called Chaplin “the greatest silent comedian of all time”.
• Received an Honorary Oscar at The 44th Annual Academy Awards (1972). He appeared on stage blowing kisses to the Hollywood audience with tears running down his face while he received a long standing ovation. Ironically, he won another Oscar the following year.
• Was 73 years old when his youngest son, Christopher Chaplin, was born.
• Is mentioned in the song called “Facts of Life” from 2004.
• He was voted the 9th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• Called Battleship Potemkin (1925) his favorite movie.
• Did not receive screen credit on the many comedies he made for Keystone in 1914-15, as it was studio policy not to credit its actors (any Keystone film that credits Chaplin is a reissue print). His first screen credit appeared on His New Job (1915), his first film for Essanay.
• Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. “World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945”. Pages 115-124. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
• When Chaplin arrived in the US with the Fred Karno troupe on October 2, 1912, in his second trip to America, according to Ellis Island immigration records, he had $45 in his pocket. He listed his half brother Syd Chaplin, as his next of kin. Though his mother was still alive, she was in a mental hospital. Sailing with him was fellow Karno troupe member Arthur Stanley Jefferson–later to be known as Stan Laurel.
• As a child, he was confined to a bed for weeks due to a serious illness. At night, his mother would sit at the window and act out what was going on outside. This was a major reason Chaplin became a comedian.
• Biography in: “Who’s Who in Comedy” by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 99-102. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
• Although Adolf Hitler was not at all a huge fan–in fact, he had been misinformed that Charlie was Jewish, and therefore despised him–he was also well aware of how beloved Charlie was throughout the world at that time, and that was the reason he grew the Chaplin mustache: he thought it would endear him to the people.
• His paternal grandparents were Spencer Chaplin, a butcher from St. Nicholas, Ipswich, Suffolk, and Ellen Elizabeth Smith, from Trimley St. Martin, Suffolk. His maternal grandparents were Charles Frederick Hill and Mary Ann Terry, of Newington, Surrey. His heritage was English and Irish.
• His handprints, footprints and signature were immortalized in cement at Grauman’s (now Mann’s) Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, but after his fall from grace with the Americans because of his political views, the section of cement was removed from public view. It cannot be located and is now feared lost.
• Was an accomplished musician who, in his later years, often reissued his silent films with scores he had composed himself.
• Most people (now and during his lifetime) believe that Chaplin had brown eyes because they had only seen him in black and white with black eye makeup on. It fact they were very blue. Chaplin remarked in his autobiography that people meeting him for the first time were always struck by his blue eyes. And his future wife Oona Chaplin wrote “Just met Charlie Chaplin. What blue eyes he has!” to a girlhood friend in 1942.
• Son-in-law of Eugene O’Neill.
• Father-in-law of Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée.
• In Spain he had a different dubbing actor in each of his sound films. They were: Ricard Solans for The Great Dictator (1940), Félix Acaso for Limelight (1952) and Joaquín Díaz for A King in New York (1957). The dubbing actor of Monsieur Verdoux (1947) is, at this time, unknown.
• Pictured on one of 15 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the “Celebrate the Century” series, issued 3 February 1998, celebrating the 1910s.
• Pictured (as Charlie Chaplin) on one of ten 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen, issued 27 April 1994. Designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, this set of stamps also honored Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, Theda Bara, Buster Keaton and the Keystone Kops.
• After his body was recovered from grave robbers, it was reburied in a vault surrounded by cement.
• He was also the first actor to have a comic strip about him; Ed Carey’s 1916 strip, “Pa’s Imported Son-in-Law”, detailed the adventures of Chaplin.
• On July 6, 1925, he became the first actor to appear on the cover of Time magazine.
• His bowler and cane was sold for $150,000 in 1987.
• Invented his tramp costume with the help of Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle’s pants. Arbuckle’s father-in-law’s derby, Chester Conklin’s cutaway, Ford Sterling’s size-14 shoes, the diminutive Charles Avery’s jacket, and some crepe paper belonging to Mack Swain (which became the tramp’s mustache). The only item that actually belonged to Chaplin was the whangee cane.
• Cooking was not allowed in the boarding house where Stan Laurel and Chaplin stayed, so he would play the violin to cover up the sound of Laurel frying up food on a hot plate.
• When both Stan Laurel and Chaplin moved to America they shared a room in a boarding house.
• Stan Laurel was his understudy on the English stage.
• A much-repeated story claims that he once entered a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest and finished third! In some versions of the story, he came in second.
• Following his death, he was interred at Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery in Corsier-Sur-Vevey, Switzerland.
• In her book, “Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin”, Joyce Milton asserts that Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial classic, “Lolita”, was inspired by Chaplin’s relationship with Lita Grey. On the 100th anniversary of Chaplin’s birth, celebrations were held in Corsier and Vevey, Switzerland, where he last lived. For the occasion, 100 children from the region performed a choreography dressed up as little tramps.
• He was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Council (HUAC) in September 1947, but his appearance was postponed three times, and he never appeared. He sent HUAC a telegram stating “I am not a Communist, neither have I ever joined any political party or organization in my life.” HUAC determined that it was no longer needed for him to appear.
• Father, with Oona Chaplin, of Geraldine Chaplin (born August 1, 1944), Michael Chaplin (born March 7, 1946) Josephine Chaplin (born March 28, 1949), Victoria Chaplin (born May 19, 1951), Eugene Chaplin (born August 23, 1953), Jane Chaplin (born May 23, 1957), Annette Emily Chaplin (born December 3, 1959) and Christopher Chaplin (born July 8, 1962).
• First wife, Mildred Harris was the mother of his first child, a son named Norman Spencer (born July 7, 1919). The baby, who was nicknamed “The Little Mouse”, was born with severe disabilities and lived only three days.
• Father of Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Chaplin with Lita Grey.
• Half-brother of Syd Chaplin and Wheeler Dryden.
• His Beverly Hills residence was known as “Breakaway House”. Designed by Chaplin himself and built by studio carpenters, it began falling to bits over the years, much to the amusement of visitors. Built on Summit Drive in the Pickfair neighborhood, the house boasted a pipe organ Chaplin continually used to entertain his guests in the great hall; he also screened his films there. His tennis court was a hive of activity; even the elusive Greta Garbo was a frequent player. He seems to have been an inspiring host; many of his guests joined in with his antics, and reflected that they had never been so funny before or since–it was the influence of Chaplin.
• On March 3, 1978, his dead body was stolen from the Corsier-Sur-Vevey cemetery. It took until May 18 when the police found it.
• He was 54 years old when he wed Oona O’Neill (Oona Chaplin); Oona was 17.
• He was 47 years old when he wed Paulette Goddard; Paulette was 26.
• He was 35 years old when he wed Lita Grey; Lita was 16.
• He was 29 years old when he wed Mildred Harris; she was 17.
• In October 1997 he was ranked #79 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list.
• He thought his period with Mutual was the most consistently pleasant period in his career, although he felt that the plots of the films were too formualic for his taste.
• Long after becoming a millionaire, he continued to live in a shabby hotel room, and kept his studio checks in a trunk for months.
• Grandfather of Dolores Chaplin, Carmen Chaplin, Kiera Chaplin, Oona Chaplin, Aurélia Thiérrée and James Thierrée. Great-uncle of Drunkfux.
• Destroyed the original negative of “The Sea Gull (1933)” before a number of witnesses. The film never saw release, possibly because he was dismayed by the poor performance of his lead actress Edna Purviance.

Charlie Chaplin Filmography

Charlie Chaplin Awards