People active in the silent era and people who keep the silent era alive.
Copyright © 2000-2008 by Carl Bennett. All Rights Reserved.

Charles Chaplin

Born 16 April 1889 in London, England, United Kingdom, as Charles Spencer Chaplin.
Died 25 December 1977 at Manoir de Ban, Corsier sur Vevey, Switzerland, of natural causes.

Half-brother of actors Sydney Chaplin and Wheeler Dryden. Married actress Mildred Harris October 1918; divorced 1920. Married actress Lita Grey in 1924; son, Charles Chaplin Jr.; son, Sydney Chaplin; divorced 1927. Married actress Paulette Goddard in 1936; divorced 1942. Married Oona O’Neill in 1943; daughter, actress Geraldine Chaplin; daughter, Victoria Chaplin; son, Michael Chaplin; son, Christopher.

Charles Chaplin began entertainment work in British music halls. As a young comedian, he toured Europe and America with the Fred Karno company through 1913. Chaplin began film work early in 1914 at Mack Sennett’s Keystone studio, where he became a world-famous film comedian. Chaplin signed with Essanay Film Manufacturing Company in 1915 for a considerable raise in pay and was, at the time, the world’s highest-paid film star. He became independent film producer, releasing through Mutual, from 1916 through 1917. Chaplin released films through First National from 1918 through 1923, and released through United Artists from 1923 into the forties.

Very soon after beginning his motion picture career, Chaplin not only was the principal comedian in his films, he developed storylines and gags for the comedies, and directed them as well. Chaplin’s comic technique — developed for vaudeville — began to mature in the 1910s, with more emphasis on story and character development (largely unheard of in the early days of comic cinema), and he occasionally brought pathos into his persona as The Little Tramp. In his later silent era work, Chaplin’s obsessive development of his stories often delayed his films for years, but the results were always worth waiting for. Today, Charles Chaplin’s little tramp remains the world’s most recognized film character.