Charles Spencer Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin, left, and Jackie Coogan appear in a scene from Chaplin's 1921 silent film, "The Kid." As one of Hollywood's legendary figures, Chaplin made his reputation playing the role of "The Tramp" in such classic films as "Gold Rush" and "Modern Times." He was one of the founders of United Artists studios in 1919 which produced some of Hollywood's greatest motion pictures. (AP 100 Photos of the Century, 11/18/1999)

Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin cartoon in Literary Digest, 1921/10/08

fan magazine 1925, from jerre.com

1889 - born in London, theater family, orphaned

• 1908 toured with Fred Karno comedy troupe
• learned pantomine, made2 tours to U.S.

1913 - signed by Sennett for $150 per week

• made 35 films for Keystone - crude comedy
• designed Tramp constume Feb. 1914

1915 - signed by Essanay for $1250 per week

• made 13 films, e.g., The Tramp - pathos
• became celebrity in fan magazines; Chaplin craze of 1915 witht imitators, songs, merchandise

1916 - signed by Mutual for $10,000 per week

• made 12 films, The Vagabond - Edna Purviance

1917 - signed by First National for $125,000 per film

• made 8 films, A Dog's Life, 3 reeler of 2674 ft., that had realism, contrasting values, & Scamp

1918 - made Shoulder Arms to support war effort, included dream sequence

• with Fairbanks in 3rd Liberty Loan
• 1st wife 16-year old Mildred Harris (1918-20)

1919 - built own studio & created United Artists to distribute

• with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith

1920 - The Kid, 5250 ft., makes $2,500,000

• essay by Stephen M. Weissman

1923 - directed A Woman of Paris, but not as a comedy

• 2nd wife Lita Grey (1924-27)

1925 - epic Gold Rush, 8498 ft. - Georgia's picture

• ate a shoe for Thanksgiving dinner, danced the Oceana Roll with rolls and forks

1928 - The Circus, with shadow self, the ringmaster

1931 - non-talkie City Lights included music and sound effects

• began series of social comment films rather than comedy-first films
• world tour 1931-32, decided to make serious film about the Depression

1936 - Modern Times - released Feb. 5

• the 8126 ft. final cut from 215,000 ft.
• shot from Oct. 11, 1933, to Aug. 30, 1935
• at cost of $1,500,000
• in the last open sky studio in Hollywood
• the last film of the "Tramp" character
• the last "silent" film

1940 - Great Dictator had dialogue, satire about Hitler

1941 - divorced 3rd wife Paulette Goddard (1936-42); widely publicized affair with Pola Negri; paternity suit by actress Joan Barry resulted in 2 trials, found guilty despite negative blood tests (then inadmissible in California).

1943 - married 4th wife, 18-year old Oona O'Neill (1943-77).

1952 - Attorney General James McGranery revoked re-entry permit, stayed in Europe.

1972 - visit to U.S. to receive special Academy Award for "incalculable effect in making motion pictures the art form of the century" and then returned to Switzerland.

1977 - died December 25 in Vevey, Switzerland.

Sources:

• Chaplin's The Rink from American Film Institute
• Chaplin page and biographical chronology from Glen Pringle's Silent Films page
• Unofficial Charlie Chaplin page from Juha Pasanen - http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~jopa/chaplin/
• Chaplin Biographyfrom Stephen Weissman
• Charlie Chaplin page with photos and filmography from The Silents Majority (see also the Keaton page at this site)
• "Flashes of Charlie Chaplin" from Taylorology, vol. 46, Oct. 1996, edited by Bruce Long
• "The House That Charlie Built" by Charles Champlin, about the 1917 studio now home to A&M Records
• "Buster Keaton or the work of comedy in the age of mechanical reproduction" article from Cineaste 21, July 1995, pp.14-17.
• Sennett and Keaton
• Hollywood: Comedy - A Serious Business, episode 8, Thames documentary written by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill, 1979, rebroadcast on TCM 1997.

---