Hannah Chaplin

Did You Know?

• Hannah Chaplin was born at 11 Camden Street in the London district of Walworth.
• Her father, Charles Frederick Hill, was a shoemaker; her mother, Mary Ann Hodges, had been widowed before marrying him.
• Actress Geraldine Chaplin, Hannah's granddaughter, portrayed her in the 1992 film Chaplin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Acting career

At sixteen, Hannah Chaplin left home to become an actress, adopting the stage name Lily Harley after Lillie Langtry. She performed in music halls and, during an Irish sketch in the early 1880s, became involved with her stage partner Charles Chaplin Sr. Around 1883 she went to the Witwatersrand gold-mining district in South Africa with Sydney Hawkes, where, according to one psychiatrist, she was forced into prostitution. Pregnant by Hawkes, she returned to London in 1884 and lived again with Charles Chaplin, giving birth to Sydney in 1885. She soon returned to the stage, performing at the Royal Music Hall in Le Havre. She married Charles on 22 June 1885. Press notices from 1886 called her "the refined and talented artist Lily Harley" and reported her as a brilliant hit in Glasgow and other cities.

Onset of poor health

In early 1887, while back in London, Chaplin first noted her poor health. She continued performing through 1888 despite illness, but her career did not advance as her husband's did. On 16 April 1889 she gave birth to Charles Spencer Chaplin. In the early 1890s she became involved with fellow performer Leo Dryden, and on 31 August 1892 gave birth to Wheeler Dryden. Dryden left in spring 1893, taking the infant with him. Around 1892 she lived with her sister Kate, a music-hall artist known as Kitty Fairdale, and wrote successful songs for her, including "My Lady Friend" and "The Lady Judge. Chaplin's health worsened with violent headaches, and her condition declined further when her mother was committed to the London County Asylum. She briefly joined the Vaudeville corps de ballet at London's Empire Theatre, possibly to rest her voice. In 1894 she lost her voice while performing at the Canteen in Aldershot, and her five-year-old son Charlie sang in her place. Unable to perform, she supported her two remaining children by dressmaking. Her headaches became so severe that she was admitted to Lambeth Infirmary on 29 June 1895, spending a month there and being readmitted later. The children were placed elsewhere, with Charlie eventually entering an orphanage.

Final years

They brought their mother home, but she was soon sent back to hospital after being found wandering the streets. By 1921 Charlie had become wealthy from his film work and brought her to Hollywood, where she lived with round-the-clock care in a house in the San Fernando Valley. She died in a Glendale, California, hospital on 28 August 1928, with Charlie at her side, and was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.