Charlie Chaplin

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Charlie Chaplin bigraphy, stories - An English actor, a composer, a script writer

Charlie Chaplin : biography

Charles Chaplin was born in 1889 in London in a family of the music hall variety actors. Charlie’s father was very popular in 1880-s but he lost voice and began drinking a lot. That’s why Charlie’s parents divorced in a year after the son’s birth. Mother performed in a variety show and earned enough money. When Charlie was five she lost her voice and after that she was seldom invited to perform on the stage. Exactly at this time the boy performed for the first time when he replaced his ill mother. His performance was a great success among the audience.

Chaplin’s father died and mother didn’t recover and lost voice forever, the family lived with poverty. Soon Charlie’s mother got sick and since 1896 the boy and his brother had to live in a school for orphans and poor children. At the age of ten Chaplin entered children’s dance band, he took part in pantomime’s shows and made audience laugh.

In 1903 Chaplin got a constant job in the theatre, several years he played in variety shows and learned to play violin. In 1908 he started to work in Fred Karno’s theatre and became one of the main actors.

In 1910 Chalie Chaplin with Fred Karno’s troupe played on tour in USA. He was taken notice by a film producer Mack Sennett who invited him to his studio to play in extemporization comedies. Very soon the actor became very popular, he started to develop his screen image from an impudent pilferer to a kind Little Tramp.

When Chaplin left Sennett’s group he filmed his first movie under the name “Cught in the rain”. He was an actor, a director and a script writer in this film. Chaplin began to earn a lot of money and little by little he became the most expensive actor in the history of cinema. One of the most popular films of this period was “The kid”; movies “The gold rush” and “The pilgrim” were very interesting too. In 1919 the actor founded he own company “United Artists”.

Chaplin was very successful in private life too in spite of the small height and undistinguished appearance. Press used to blow up his love affairs and kick up a fuss from his parting with women. Charlie Chaplin was married four times and he had twelve children.

In 1927 movietones appeared but Chaplin stuck to silent movies which made him popular and famous. The first Chaplin’s talky film was produced in 1940 – it was “The great dictator”. In 1952 after the new film “Limelight” premiere Chaplin was forbidden to return to USA. He stayed in Switzerland where he wrote music to his silent movies and dubbed “The gold rush”.

In 1954 Chaplin got the Soviet International Peace Award. In 1957 Charlie Chaplin the last time acted in his film “The king in New York”. Several years later he wrote memoires which were used as a base for a film “Chaplin”.

On the 25th of December in 1977 the actor died in his own home in Switzerland.