(1889 – 1977) Sir Charles Spencer ‘Charlie’ Chaplin was a versatile actor, director and music producer whose prolific entertainment career spanned over 75 years. Influential film roles included the films, The Kid(1921) and The Great Dictator (1940)
“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot”
Short bio Charlie Chaplin
Chaplin was born in London, 16 April 1889, to parents who worked in the entertainment industry. At an early age, his alcoholic father passed away, and later his mother had a breakdown and was taken to an asylum. This left Charlie and his brother to fend for themselves. Following in their parent's footsteps, they were drawn to the musical hall, and Charlie gained a prominent reputation as a performer.
In 1910, Charlie traveled to America and gained experience in the fledgeling film industry. It was here in America that he was to develop his first famous characters such as the Tramp – the trademark Charlie Chaplin character of a bowler hat, moustache and ill-fitting clothes. Charlie Chaplin became the great star of the silent era, and his popularity spread throughout the globe.
Charlie Chaplin had tremendous intensity. He would finance, write and direct all his films himself. He was a great perfectionist and would make his actors perform scenes up to 100 times to get it just right. Yet he also liked to improvise much of his performances and would not stick rigidly to a script.
Some of his most famous films include – city lights(1931) and The Great Dictator (1940). The Great Dictator was a satire on the totalitarian dictators of and Mussolini. Chaplin himself played two roles – a Jewish barber, who was discriminated against. He also played the role of the “Adenoid Hynkel – dictator of Tomania a clear parody of Adolf Hitler.
The film was made one year before the US entered the war against Germany, and was controversial at a time when anti-Semitism was rife in America. Despite his parody of Hitler in this film, Chaplin refused to publicly endorse the war effort in 1942 – causing the authorities to become suspicious of his political leanings.
“Wars, conflict, it's all business. One murder makes a villain. Millions a hero. Numbers sanctify.”
Monsieur Verdoux (1947);
In the post-war period, the FBI under J Edgar Hoover kept close tabs on Chaplin because of his perceived left-wing 'Communist views' Eventually, the US authorities decided to revoke his entry visa into the US and Chaplin was forced to live in Switzerland.
“Since the end of the last world war, I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America's yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted. Under these conditions I find it virtually impossible to continue my motion-picture work, and I have therefore given up my residence in the United States.”
Charlie Chaplin later said he was not a Communist but refused to condemn Communists because he disliked the nature of the McCarthy era.
“Friends have asked how I came to engender this American antagonism. My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. Although I am not a Communist I refused to fall in line by hating them.
Secondly, I was opposed to the Committee on Un-American Activities — a dishonest phrase to begin with, elastic enough to wrap around the throat and strangle the voice of any American citizen whose honest opinion is a minority of one.”
– My Autobiography (1964)
Chaplin had great comic talent; this was a talent that shone through in his silent films but also in later years.
“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.”
Chaplin was put forward for a knighthood in 1956, but, it was blocked by the Conservative cabinet who feared a backlash from the American government.
Chaplin was eventually knighted in 1975. He was also awarded an Oscar in 1972 for his music score in the 1952 film Limelight. He was also awarded an honorary award in 1972 for “the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century.”
He came out of exile to receive the award and the longest standing ovation in the history of the Oscars.
Charlie Chaplin had a turbulent personal life. He had 11 children with three different women and had several other girlfriends and marriages.
He died in his sleep in Vevey, Switzerland on Christmas Day 1977.
Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography of Charlie Chaplin”, Oxford, UK. , 30th Nov. 2009. Last updated 16 February 2018.
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin biography in English will help prepare for the lesson. Chaplin's biography in English will tell about the life and work of the famous film actor.
Charlie Chaplin biography in English
Charlie Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the silent era. He is mostly famous for his screen persona "the t ramp" .
Born on April 16, 1889 in London, Chaplin is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. He had been a productive and creative film maker for about 75 years before he died in 1977.
early life
Chaplin suffered from poverty and hardship in his childhood. He was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine. His mother struggled financially when his father was absent. When he was 14, his mother was sent to a mental asylum.
Career
Chaplin’s first performances were at music halls as a stage actor and comedian at the age of 19. He went to the USA where he was scouted for the film industry, and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. 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.. By 1918, he was one of the best known figures in the film industry.
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.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature length was:
- The Kid (1921),
- A Woman of Paris (1923),
- The Gold Rush (1925),
- and The Circus (1928).
In the 1930s, Chaplin refused to move to sound films. He produced instead:
- city lights (1931)
- and Modern Times (1936)
Both without dialogue.
Later his films became more political by producing. The Great Dictator(1940) where he satirized Adolf Hitler.
Controversy
The 1940s were a decade marked with controversy for 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.
His latest films
Charlie Chaplin abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York(1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Charlie Chaplin short biography
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in 1889 in south London. His father died when he was a child, and the family didn't have much money. Charlie first performed on the theater stage at the age of five.
After he joined Frank Karno's company, he went to the USA in 1914 and in his first year there he acted in 35 of Hollywood's early films. These were “silent films”: before the invention of cinema sound—the actors couldn’t speak, but acted out their feelings in their faces and movements. Charlie Chaplin became one of the most famous actors in the world, and everyone knew and loved the role he played: a man with a black hat, big shoes, a little mustache and unusual walk.
Charlie Chaplin
The inventors of cinema were French, not Americans. The cinema became popular very quickly. In 1908 the USA had 10,000 cinemas.
Chaplin was born in England in 1889. His mother was so poor that she couldn't look after him. But he started acting at the age of five and was soon a successful comic in the theater. When he went to America he got into films and became a star immediately.In 1916, Chaplin earned $10,000 a week, and an extra $150,000 per film.In 1929 the age of the silent film came to an end.A new technology made it possible to record sound and pictures together. But some old directors couldn't change their style. And some great silent actors had terrible voices. They couldn't get parts in normal films.
Chaplin's voice was good but he didn't really want to talk in such films. His love was the silent films. In 1931 he made another classic film, City lights, but again it was silent. In the "Kid" (1921) Charlie Chaplin is a window repairer. The little boy helps him by breaking windows! In most of his films, Chaplin plays a poor man on the streets. But the actor was a millionaire. His silent films were perfect works of art. He created a language with his face and his body. Without words he could say everything.
Questions:
1. What is silent film?
2. Who was the inventor of it?
3. Chaplin was born in England, wasn't he?
4. When did the age of silent films come to an end?
5. What language did Chaplin create?
Vocabulary:
inventor - inventor
immediately - immediately
technology - technology
Charlie Chaplin
The founders of cinema were the French, not the Americans. The movie became very popular very quickly. In 1908 there were 10,000 movie theaters in the US.
Chaplin was born in 1889 in England. His mother was so poor that she could not support him. But he started acting at the age of five and went on to become a successful comedian in the theater. When he came to America and started acting in films and soon became a star. In 1916, Chaplin earned ten thousand dollars a week and an additional one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per film. In 1929, the silent film era ended. New technologies have made it possible to reproduce sound and image simultaneously. But some actors couldn't change their style. And some of the great silent actors had terrible voices. They couldn't act in normal films.
Chaplin's voice was good, but he did not want to talk in such films. Silent cinema was his love. In 1931 he made another classic film, City Lights, but again that was how he was silent. In Tiny (1921), Charlie Chaplin is a glazier. A little boy helps him by breaking windows! In most films, Chaplin plays a poor man from the street. But the actor was a millionaire. His silent films were a high work of art. He created facial and body language. He could say everything without words.
He was born in Walworth, London, England to Charles Chaplin, Sr. and Hannah Harriette Hill, both Music Hall entertainers. His parents separated soon after his birth, leaving him in the care of his increasingly unstable mother. In 1896, she was unable to find work; Charlie and his older half-brother Sydney had to be left in the workhouse at Lambeth, moving after several weeks to Hanwell School for Orphans and Destitute Children. His father died an alcoholic when Charlie was 12, and his mother suffered a mental breakdown, and was eventually admitted to the Cane Hill Asylum at Coulsdon, near Croydon. She died in 1928.
Charlie first took to the stage when, aged 5, he performed in Music Hall in 1894, standing in for his mother. As a child, he was confined to a bed for weeks due to a serious illness, and, at night, his mother would sit at the window and act out what was going on outside. In 1900, aged 11, his brother comic helped get him the role of a cat in the pantomime
Cinderella at the London Hippodrome. In 1903 he appeared in Jim, A Romance of Cockayne, followed by his first regular job, as the newspaper boy Billy in Sherlock Holmes, a part he played into 1906. This was followed by Casey's Court Circus variety show, and, the following year , he became a clown in Fred Karno's Fun Factory slapstick comedy company.
Move to America.
According to immigration records, he arrived in the USA with the Karno troupe on October 2, 1912. In the Karno Company was Arthur Stanley Jefferson, who would later become known as Stan Laurel. Chaplin and Laurel wound up sharing a room in a boarding house. Stan Laurel returned to England but Chaplin remained in the USA. His act was seen by film producer Mack Sennett, who hired him for his studio, the Keystone Film Company.
While Chaplin initially had difficulty adjusting to the Keystone style of film acting, he soon adapted and flourished in the medium. This was made possible in part by Chaplin developing his signature Tramp persona, and by eventually earning directorship and creative control
Over his films, which enabled him to become Keystone's top star and talent.
His salary history suggests how rapidly he became world famous, and the skill of his brother, Sydney, at being his business manager.
1914: Keystone, worked for $150 a week.
1914-1915: Essanay Studios, of Chicago, Illinois, $1,250 a week, plus $10,000 signing bonus.
1916-1917: Mutual, $10,000 a week, plus $150,000 signing bonus.
1917: First National, $1 million deal - the first actor ever to earn that sum. He also formed his own independent production company, the Charles Chaplin Film Corporation, which made him a very wealthy man.
Chaplin as Auteur.
Chaplin built his own Hollywood studio in 1918, and assumed an unparalleled degree of artistic and financial independence over his productions. Using this independence, over the next 35 years he created a remarkable, timeless body of work that remains entertaining and influential. These include comedy shorts and Pay Day), longer films and The Pilgrim), and his great silent feature length films: The Kid, A Woman of Paris, The Gold Rush, and The Circus. After the arrival of sound films, he made City Lights and Modern Times, essentially silent films scored with his own music and sound effects. His dialogue films made in Hollywood were The Great Dictator, Monsieur Verdoux, and Limelight.
Modern Times, a silent movie, did feature some dialogue. It is actually his first movie where his own voice is heard. However, it is still, majorly and essentially, a silent film.
In 1919 he founded the United Artists film distribution company with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, and served on the board of UA until the early 1950’s.
Although "talkies" became the dominant mode of moviemaking soon after they were introduced in 1927, Chaplin resisted making a talkie all through the 1930s. It is a tribute to Chaplin's versatility that he also has one film credit for choreography for the 1952 film Limelight, and one credit as a singer for the title music of the 1928 film The Circus. The best-known of several songs he composed are "Smile", famously covered by Nat King Cole, among others, and the theme from Limelight, which won a belated Oscar for best film score in 1973.
His first dialogue picture, The Great Dictator was an act of defiance against Adolf Hitler and fascism, filmed and released in the United States one year before it abandoned its policy of isolationism to enter World War II. Chaplin played a fascist dictator clearly modeled on Hitler, as well as a Jewish barber cruelly persecuted by the Nazis. Hitler, who was a great fan of movies, is known to have seen the film twice. After the war and the uncovering of the Holocaust, Chaplin stated that he would not have been able to make such jokes about the Nazi regime had he known about the actual extent of the pogrom.
Chaplin: The Later Years.
Chaplin won the honorary Oscar twice. When the first Oscars were awarded on May 16, 1929, the voting audit procedures that now exist had not yet been put into place, and the categories were still very fluid. Chaplin had originally been nominated for both Best Actor and Best Comedy Directing for his movie The Circus, but his name was withdrawn and the Academy decided to give him a special award "for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus » instead. The other film to receive a special award that year was The Jazz Singer.
Chaplin's second honorary award came 44 years later in 1972, and was for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". He came out of his exile and collected his award less than a month before the death of J. Edgar Hoover. Upon receiving the award, Chaplin received the longest standing ovation in Academy Award history, lasting a full five minutes from the delighted, enthralled star-studded studio audience.
Chaplin was also nominated without success for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay for The Great Dictator, and again for Best Original Screenplay for Monsieur Verdoux.
In 1973, he received an Oscar for the Best Music in an Original Dramatic Score for the 1952 film Limelight, which co-starred Claire Bloom. The film also features a cameo with Buster Keaton, which was the first and last time the two great comedians ever appeared together. Because of Chaplin's difficulties with McCarthyism, the film did not open in Los Angeles when it was first produced. This criterion for nomination was not fulfilled until 1972.
His final films were A King in New York and A Countess From Hong Kong, starring Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando.
Chaplin's professional successes were repeatedly overshadowed by his private life, particularly with regard to his politics and his pattern of relationship with young women. On October 23, 1918, the 28 year old Chaplin married the 16-year-old Mildred Harris. They had one child, Norman Spencer Chaplin, who died in infancy; they divorced in 1920. At 35, he became involved with 16-year-old Lita Gray during preparations for The Gold Rush. They married on November 26, 1924 after she became pregnant. They had two sons, the actors Charles Chaplin Jr. and Sydney Earle Chaplin. Their extraordinarily bitter divorce in 1928 had Chaplin paying Gray a then-record-breaking $825,000 settlement. The stress of the sensational divorce, compounded by a tax dispute, allegedly turned his hair white. The publication of court records, which included many intimate details, led to a campaign against him. Chaplin and actress Paulette Goddard were involved in a romantic and professional relationship between 1932 and 1940, with Goddard living with Chaplin in his Beverly Hills home for most of this time. After the relationship ended, Chaplin made public statements that they had been secretly married in 1936, but in private he claimed they were in fact never officially married. In any case, their common-law marriage ended amicably in 1942, with Goddard being granted a divorce and settlement. Afterwards, Chaplin briefly dated actress Joan Barry, but ended it when she started harrassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness. In May 1943, she filed a paternity suit against him. Blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father, but as blood tests were inadmissible evidence in court, he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the child turned 21. Shortly thereafter, he met Oona O'Neill, daughter of Eugene O'Neill, and married her on June 16, 1943. He was 54; she was 17. This marriage was a long and happy one, with eight children. They had three sons Christopher Chaplin, Eugene Chaplin and Michael Chaplin and five daughters Geraldine Chaplin, Josephine Chaplin, Jane Chaplin, Victoria Chaplin and Annette-Emilie Chaplin.
In April 1972, Chaplin returned to America to accept an Honorary Academy Award. The presentation is remembered as one of the emotional highlights in all of the Academy Award history. Chaplin's weeklong return visit to the US, his last, also included numerous honors in both New York and Los Angeles.
On March 4, 1975 he was knighted as a Knight of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. The honor was first proposed in 1956, but vetoed by the British Foreign Office on the grounds that he sympathized with the left and that it would damage British relations with the United States, at the height of the Cold War and with planning for the ill- fated invasion of Suez underway.
Charlie Chaplin, byname of Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (born April 16, 1889, England-died December 25, 1977, Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland), British comedian, producer, writer, director, and composer who is widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen and one of the most important figures in motion-picture history.
Why is Charlie Chaplin important?
Comedian, actor, producer, writer, and director Charlie Chaplin is widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen and one of the most important figures in . In 1972 he received a special for “the incalculable effect he has had on making motion pictures the art form of this century.”
What is Charlie Chaplin remembered for?
Charlie Chaplin is best remembered for his recurring character “the Little Tramp.” Outfitted in a too-small coat, too-large pants, floppy shoes, and a battered derby, Tramp was shunned by polite society and unlucky in love but ever a survivor. Audiences loved his cheekiness, his deflation of pomposity, his unexpected gallantry, and his resilience.
What were Charlie Chaplin's achievements?
Charlie Chaplin starred in, wrote, and directed some of the most memorable films in motion-picture history, including (1921), (1925), (1931), (1936), (1940), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor, Monsieur Verdoux(1947), and (1952).
What was Charlie Chaplin's childhood like?
brown brothersIn truth, Chaplin did not always portray a tramp; in many of his films his character was employed as a waiter, store clerk, stagehand, fireman, and the like. His character might be better described as the quintessential misfit-shunned by polite society, unlucky in love, jack-of-all-trades but master of none. He was also a survivor, forever leaving past sorrows behind, jauntily shuffling off to new adventures. The Tramp's appeal was universal: audiences loved his cheekiness, his deflation of pomposity, his casual savagery, his unexpected gallantry, and his resilience in the face of adversity. Some historians have traced the Tramp’s origins to Chaplin’s Dickensian childhood, while others have suggested that the character had its roots in the motto of Chaplin’s mentor, Fred Karno: “Keep it wistful , gentlemen, keep it wistful.” Whatever the case, within months after his movie debut, Chaplin was the screen’s biggest star.
His 35 Keystone comedies can be regarded as the Tramp's gestation period, during which a caricature became a character. The films improved steadily once Chaplin became his own director. In 1915 he left Sennett to accept a $1,250-weekly contract at Essanay Studios. It was there that he began to inject elements of pathos into his comedy, notably in such shorts as The Tramp(1915) and Burlesque on Carmen(1915). He moved on to an even more lucrative job ($670,000 per year) at the Mutual Company Film Corporation. There, during an 18-month period, he made the 12 two-reelers that many regard as his finest films, among them such gems as One A.M. (1916), The Rink (1916), The Vagabond(1916), and Easy Street(1917). It was then, in 1917, that Chaplin found himself attacked for the first (though hardly the last) time by the press. He was criticized for not enlisting to fight in . To aid the war effort, Chaplin raised funds for the troops via bond drives.
In 1918 Chaplin jumped studios again, accepting a $1 million offer from the First National Film Corporation for eight shorts. That same year he married 16-year-old film extra Mildred Harris-the first in a procession of child brides. For his new studio he made shorts such as Shoulder Arms(1918) and The Pilgrim(1923) and his first starring feature, (1921), which starred the irresistible as the kid befriended and aided by the Little Tramp. Some have suggested that the increased dramatic content of those films is symptomatic of Chaplin's efforts to justify the praise lavished upon him by the critical intelligentsia. A painstaking perfectionist, he began spending more and more time on the preparation and production of each film. In his personal life too, Chaplin was particular. Having divorced Mildred in 1921, Chaplin married in 1924 16-year-old Lillita MacMurray, who shortly would become known to the world as film star Lita Grey. (They would be noisily divorced in 1927.)
From 1923 through 1929 Chaplin made only three features: A Woman of Paris(1923), which he directed but did not star in (and his only drama); (1925), widely regarded as his masterpiece; and (1928), an underrated film that may rank as his funniest. All three were released by , the company cofounded in 1919 by Chaplin, husband-and-wife superstars and , and director . of the three films, is one of the most-memorable films of the silent era. Chaplin placed the Little Tramp in the epic setting of the Yukon, amid bears, snowstorms, and a fearsome prospector (Mack Swain); his love interest was a beautiful dance-hall queen (Georgia Hale). The scene in which the Tramp must eat his shoe to stay alive epitomizes the film's blend of rich comedy and well-earned pathos.
