Charlie Chaplin Life Story: Charlie Chaplin: The Master of Silent Comedy
Charlie Chaplin: Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was the most famous actor in early to mid-Hollywood cinema, and later also a notable director. His primary character was The Tramp: a vagrant with the refined habits and nobility of a man of his word who wears a tight coat, larger than average jeans and shoes, a derby or bowler hat, a bamboo cane, and his signature square mustache.
The Tramp: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin was born in London on April 16, 1889. The two his folks were music lobby performers and Charlie began showing up on the stage while still a tyke. His dad, Charles Chaplin, abandoned the family and in the long run passed on of liquor addiction.
His mom, Hannah Chaplin, discovered it progressively hard to look for some kind of employment on the stage and in 1895, the family entered the Lambeth Workhouse.Later, Charlie’s mother had a mental breakdown and was sent to the Cane Hill Lunatic Asylum.
Chaplin’s Films: A Look at His Greatest Works
Chaplin’s career as an entertainer seemed destined. He claimed that his first appearance before an audience was at the age of five when he stepped on the stage at Aldershot Canteen theatre to take over from his mother whose voice suddenly failed her.
At the age of eight, he joined Jacksons Eight Lancashire Lads, one of the juvenile variety troupes which were popular then. He later obtained favorable press notices as a child in the legitimate theatre and played the West End and lengthy provincial tours as Billy, the page boy in Sherlock Holmes.
His first film, Making a Living (1914), in which he was dressed as a dubious dandy was indifferent, though well received by the trade press. For his second film, a five-minute improvisation shot during the event which gave it its title, Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), he adopted the costume that became world famous.
According to legend, it was made up of various items borrowed from other Sennett comedians: Fatty Arbuckle’s huge trousers; Charles Avery’s tiny jacket; a derby hat belonging to Arbuckle’s father-in-law; Ford Sterling’s boots, so oversized that they had to be worn on the wrong feet; and Mack Swain’s mustache, sharply pruned.
Biography Of Charles Chaplin
In 1919, he helped to establish the United Artists film dissemination organization with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, every one of whom were trying to get away from the developing force union of film merchants and lenders in the creating Hollywood studio framework.
This move, alongside unlimited authority of his film creation through his studio, guaranteed Chaplin’s autonomy as a producer. He served on the leading body of UA until the mid-1950s.
Chaplin’s last American film was a nostalgic tribute to his youth in the backstreets and variety theatres of London. Full of autobiographical references, Limelight (1952), narrates of the friendship and mutual support of an old, failed, alcoholic comedian and a dancer struck with psychosomatic paralysis.
At 77, Chaplin made one last film, a pleasant romantic comedy, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). It might have been more successful and more kindly received if he had not made the mistake of using international stars – Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren – unsuited to his style of working.
He never wholly retired, however. Almost until the end of his life, he continued to work on the preparations of a film called, The Freak. Having composed the music for his sound films, he continued to create new scores for reissues of his silent pictures.
Chaplin died on Christmas Day, in 1977, in Vevey, Switzerland, following a stroke at the age of 88, and was interred in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery in Corsier-Sur-Vevey, Vaud. A year later, his body was stolen 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. After that event, the body was again buried under six feet of concrete to prevent another such attempt.
