Short Biography

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born April 16, 1889 in London, England to Charles Chaplin, Sr & Hannah Smith.
he was married 4 times & had 11 children.

Charles Chaplin`s parents, Charles and Hannah Chaplin, were music hall entertainers. His first stage appearance, at age five, was singing a song in place of his mother who had become ill. At eight he toured in a musical, "The Eight Lancaster Lads". Nearly 11, he appeared in "Giddy Ostende" at London`s Hippodrome. From age 17 to 24 he was with Fred Karno`s English vaudeville troupe, which brought him to New York in 1910, aged 21. In November of 1913 he signed a contract with Mack Sennett at Keystone and left for Hollywood the next month. His first movie, Making a Living (1914), premiered in February of 1914. He made 35 films that year, moved to Essanay in 1915 and did 14 more, then jumped over to Mutual for 12 two-reelers in 1916 and 1917. In 1918 he joined First National (later absorbed by Warner Bros.) and in 1919 formed United Artists along with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith. His first full-length film was The Kid (1921); his first for UA, which he produced and directed himself, was A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923). In 1929, at the first Oscar awards, he won a special award "for versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing" The Circus (1928). In 1943 he was accused of fathering a child; the papers made much of the scandal, but it was proved in a court trial that he was not the father. The same year he entered his fourth marriage, to Oona Chaplin, daughter of playwright Eugene O`Neill. They had eight children. Tired of political and moralistic controversies and plagued with tax problems, he left the United States for Switzerland in 1952. He published his memoirs in 1964. In 1972 he returned to Hollywood to claim a special Oscar honoring his lifetime contributions to movies. He was named Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1975. He died in his sleep from old age.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan < stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Mini Biography

Thought of by many as the greatest comedian of all time, Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in London, England on 16 April 1889. In 1908 he joined Fred Karno`s touring stage company with his brother Sydney; Stan Laurel was also a member of the same company. In 1912 the troupe went to perform in America, and Chaplin decided to stay. The following year, producer Mack Sennett saw him perform and decided to take him on at the Keystone Studio, which already boasted such names as `Roscoe `Fatty` Arbuckle` , Mabel Normand, the Keystone Kops and Mack Swain. However, Chaplin moved on to become an even a bigger star than any of the above legendary names, making a staggering 35 pictures in one year alone.

His first movie was Making a Living (1914); however, his next film, Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914), was destined to change his entire career. This picture saw him wearing baggy pants borrowed from `Roscoe `Fatty` Arbuckle`, size 14 shoes belonging to Ford Sterling (and worn upside down to keep them from falling off), a tiny jacket from Keystone Kop Charles Avery, a bowler hat belonging to Arbuckle`s father-in-law and Mack Swain`s mustache trimmed down to toothbrush size.

From 1915 onwards Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, scored and, of course, starred in all his movies. He joined the Essanay Company the following year and in 1917, The Immigrant (1917) and Easy Street (1917)

Miscellaneous Information

Friends and Family

Burgess Meredith [Friend]

Ernst Lubitsch [Friend]

Jack Oakie [Friend]

A.C. Blumenthal [Friend]

Sid Grauman [Friend]

Ben Turpin [Friend]

Dawn Addams [Friend]

Huntington Hartford [Friend]

George Gershwin [Friend]

John Steinbeck [Friend]

Clifford Odets [Friend]

Luise Rainer [Friend]

Stan Laurel [Friend]

Erich Von Stroheim [Friend]

Buster Keaton [Friend]

Mary Pickford [Friend]

D.W. Griffith [Associate]

Douglas Fairbanks [Friend]

Syd Chaplin [Brother]

Hannah Chaplin [Mother]

Charles Chaplin [Father]

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