Charlie Chaplin - Wikipedia. Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (1. April 1. 88. 9 – 2. December 1. 97. 7) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. Chaplin became a worldwide icon through his screen persona "the Tramp" and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. His career spanned more than 7.

Victorian era until a year before his death in 1. Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. As his father was absent and his mother struggled financially, he was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine. When he was 1. 4, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 1. 9, he was signed to the prestigious Fred Karno company, which took him to America.

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Chaplin was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1. Keystone Studios.

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He soon developed the Tramp persona and formed a large fan base. Chaplin directed his own films from an early stage and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations.

By 1. 91. 8, he was one of the best- known figures in the world. In 1. 91. 9, Chaplin co- founded the distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature- length was The Kid (1. A Woman of Paris (1. The Gold Rush (1. The Circus (1. 92. He refused to move to sound films in the 1.

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City Lights (1. 93. Modern Times (1. 93. Chaplin became increasingly political, and his next film, The Great Dictator (1. Adolf Hitler. The 1. Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly.

He was accused of communist sympathies, while his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women caused scandal. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and settle in Switzerland.

He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1. Limelight (1. 95.

A King in New York (1. A Countess from Hong Kong (1. Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture.

His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. In 1. 97. 2, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work, Chaplin received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on industry lists of the greatest films of all time. Biography. 18. 89–1. Early years. Background and childhood hardship.

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 1. Showtime Full The Four Feathers Online Free on this page. April 1. 88. 9 to Hannah Chaplin (born Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr.

There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London.[note 1] His mother and father had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill.[note 2] At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both 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 1. 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 3.

Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson. 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.

As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old.[note 3] The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence". He was briefly reunited with his mother 1. Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children."I was hardly aware of a crisis because we lived in a continual crisis; and, being a boy, I dismissed our troubles with gracious forgetfulness."– Chaplin on his childhood. In September 1. 89. Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum – she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition. For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew.

Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Chaplin's father died two years later, at 3. Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1. Chaplin, then 1. 4, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydney – who had enrolled in the Navy two years earlier – returned. Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later, but in March 1. There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1.

Young performer. A teenage Chaplin in the play Sherlock Holmes, in which he appeared between 1. 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.[note 4] 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 Ladsclog- dancing troupe, with whom he toured English music halls throughout 1. 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 age 1. He supported himself with a range of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor. At 1. 4, 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 1. Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews.