Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. lived from 16 April 1889 to 25 December 1977. He was an English performer—comic actor, filmmaker, singer, film editor, and composer—who became famous during the silent-film era. His character the Tramp turned him into a global icon, and he is regarded as a major figure in cinema history. His career lasted over 75 years, beginning in his Victorian-era childhood and continuing until just a year before his death.

Chaplin grew up poor and struggling in London. His father was absent, and his mother had money troubles; he was placed in a workhouse twice before turning nine. When he was 14, his mother was sent to a mental asylum. He started performing young, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he joined the Fred Karno company, which brought him to the United States. In 1914, his films for Keystone Studios made him widely popular. He soon introduced and stuck with the Tramp as his on-screen identity. He began directing his own movies and refined his skills at Essanay Studios, where the Tramp gained emotional depth in *The Tramp* (1915). He built a large following and demanded higher pay as he moved to Mutual and First National. By 1918, he was among the world’s highest-paid and most famous people.

In 1919, Chaplin helped found the distribution company United Artists, giving him full control over his films. His first feature-length movie was *The Kid* (1921), followed by *A Woman of Paris* (1923), *The Gold Rush* (1925), and *The Circus* (1928). He initially refused to switch to sound films in the 1930s, making *City Lights* (1931) and *Modern Times* (1936) without dialogue. His first sound film was *The Great Dictator* (1940), a satire of Adolf Hitler.

The 1940s brought controversy, and Chaplin’s popularity dropped sharply. He was accused of having communist sympathies, and some in the press and public were shocked by his involvement in a paternity suit and his marriages to much younger women. The FBI opened an investigation, and in 1952 Chaplin was forced to leave the United States, settling in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, including *Monsieur Verdoux* (1947), *Limelight* (1952), *A King in New York* (1957), *The Chaplin Revue* (1959), and *A Countess from Hong Kong* (1967).

Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence let him spend years developing and producing a single picture. His films blend slapstick with pathos, especially in the Tramp’s struggles against hardship. Many include social and political themes, along with autobiographical elements. In 1972, he received an Honorary Academy Award for “the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century,” part of a renewed appreciation for his work. He remains highly respected, with *The Gold Rush*, *The Circus*, *City Lights*, *Modern Times*, and *The Great Dictator* frequently appearing on lists of the greatest films.

**Life and career**

**1889–1913: early years**

**Background and childhood hardship**

Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. was born on 16 April 1889 in London to Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr. Some have speculated that his paternal grandmother was Romani, but “without a birth certificate, no one will ever know the truth.” No official birth record exists, though Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London.

His parents had married four years earlier, at which point Charles Sr. became the legal guardian of Hannah’s first son, Sydney John Hill. When Chaplin was born, both parents were music-hall entertainers. Hannah, a shoemaker’s daughter, had a brief, unsuccessful career under the stage name “Lily Harley.” Charles Sr., a butcher’s son, was a popular singer. Though they never divorced, the couple was estranged by around 1891. The next year, Hannah gave birth to a third son, George Wheeler Dryden, fathered by music-hall entertainer Leo Dryden. Dryden took the child at six months old, and he did not re-enter Chaplin’s life for about thirty years.

Chaplin’s childhood was defined by poverty and hardship, making his later rise—according to his authorized biographer David Robinson—“the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told.” He spent his early years with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington. Hannah had no income except occasional nursing and dressmaking; Charles Sr. provided no financial support. As conditions worsened, Chaplin was sent to Lambeth Workhouse at age seven. The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which he later recalled as “a forlorn existence.” He was briefly reunited with his mother eighteen months later, but Hannah was forced to readmit the family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were then sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children.

In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum; she had developed psychosis, apparently triggered by a syphilis infection and malnutrition. During her two-month stay, Chaplin and Sydney lived with their father, whom they barely knew. Charles Sr. was by then severely alcoholic, and conditions were poor enough to prompt a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He died two years later, aged 38, from cirrhosis of the liver. Hannah entered a period of remission but fell ill again in May 1903. Chaplin, then 14, had to take her to the infirmary, from where she returned to Cane Hill. He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasion.