After which little Charlie Chaplin continued his performance. Who is Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin is a film actor, screenwriter, composer, film director, producer and editor. The creator of one of the most famous images of world cinema and one of the most influential people in the silent film era.
Twice winner of a non-competitive honorary Oscar “for his invaluable contribution to the transformation of cinema into art.”

Charles Spencer (Charlie) Chaplin was born in London into a family of stage actors. The parents separated, the boy spent his early years with my mother and older brother. Mom performed in the evenings and often took her son with her so as not to leave him at home alone. Little Charlie loved his mother very much and she had a huge influence on him. According to the actor, she gave him faith in herself, in the “kingdom of her dreams,” in love, mercy and humanity.

Charles also owes his first performance on stage at the age of 5 to his mother. Somehow her voice broke, she had to leave the stage and the director allowed little Charlie to come out, who immediately received a standing ovation. The audience began throwing coins onto the stage, and the boy began to collect them, which further touched and amused the audience. Charles felt at home on stage, chatting with the audience, dancing and singing. When his mother followed him onto the stage, the audience greeted her with thunderous applause. This was Charlie's first performance and his mother's last.

She was never able to return to the stage and a long difficult period began in their lives. The family was literally begging, constantly changing housing. The children wandered, tried to earn money, at one time lived in a shelter for the poor, for some period in new family father. The mother was ill and periodically lay in psychiatric clinics and the children at this time were left to their own devices.

If the older brother managed to get some primary education, then Charlie was completely illiterate by the age of 12. In an orphanage, he learned to write his name and was very proud of it. At the school for the poor, where Charlie briefly went, he also learned almost nothing. But he achieved “incredible success” by reading funny poems and the fame of his talent spread throughout the school.

This is what Charles himself recalled about his school period: “The facts and information did not arouse any particular interest in me, they were confusing. If only one of the teachers could show the “product face”, making an enticing preface to his subject, could stir my imagination and ignite my fantasy instead of hammering facts into my head, would reveal to me the secrets of numbers and romance geographical maps, would have helped me to feel the idea in history and music in poetry - who knows, maybe I would have become a scientist.” Living in a poor area, my mother always monitored the speech of Charlie and his brother and corrected mistakes so that the children did not adopt the “clumsy speech of the slums” that the neighbors used. She read to the children, talked about the theater, acted out skits and historical jokes.

At the age of 9, Charlie joined the children's dance group "Eight Lancashire Boys" and traveled around the English province for two years. This provided a small income, but Charlie wanted to perform alone and make people laugh. As a result, he left the team.

Charlie sold newspapers, glued toys, worked in a printing house, a glassblowing workshop, in a doctor's office, was a servant, a dance teacher, but whatever he did, he, like his brother, remembered that all this was temporary and in the end he would become actor.

After each dismissal, Charlie polished his shoes and suit and went to the theatrical agency.
This went on for quite some time, but one day 12-year-old Charlie was unexpectedly invited to play in the troupe and go on tour. Charlie lied that he was 14, they handed him the text and he was afraid that he would be asked to read it right away, because he practically could not read. Fortunately, he was sent home and Charlie learned the lyrics with the help of his brother.

The role was big, but three days later Charlie spoke it without hesitation.
After the first rehearsal, the director asked if he had ever acted before? “I had no idea that there was a rhythm of action, the ability to pause, the ability to easily enter into the mise-en-scène proposed by the director. All this came to me naturally.” It must be said that Charlie accepted praise as if it were due to him from birth.

But success was still far away. Charlie faced years of loneliness, disappointment and unsuccessful, disgraceful performances. In moments of despair, he wanted to give up everything, but Charles understood that his lack of education would only allow him to be a lackey, and he continued his work.

When Charles was 23 years old, he came on tour to America, which immediately captivated him. The performance was a failure, but the actor felt that there were other opportunities here and it was not necessary to be chained to the theater. He even thought about becoming a farmer and raising pigs.
Charles bought textbooks and decided to educate himself, but that time he never opened the books.
But he practiced playing the violin and cello for several hours a day, took lessons once a week and dreamed of becoming a concert performer. But over time, I realized that I would not achieve perfection in this and abandoned classes.

Charles still continued to visit second-hand bookstores and was fascinated by idealist philosophers, and then he became acquainted with fiction - Twain, Poe and Irving. “My desire for knowledge was not so disinterested. I was not led pure love to knowledge, but only the desire to protect oneself from the contempt that the ignorant cause.” At one of his performances in America, a young man, a future influential producer, approached him and said that when he gets rich, he will definitely invite him to the cinema. And so it happened. In 1913, the actor signed a contract with the Keystone studio with a salary of $150 per week.

The actor did not immediately adapt to cinema, but over time the public fell in love with Chaplin. Charles himself created a unique image of the Tramp, which soon became recognizable throughout the world.

Soon Chaplin began to work independently, simultaneously performing the role of actor, director and screenwriter. A little later, he began producing films and writing music.

After 4 years, he received a contract for $1 million, which was an unthinkable amount at that time.
Six years later, Charlie Chaplin founded his own film company, United Artists. The pinnacle of the director’s creativity was his film “Lights big city"(1931) and "The Great Dictator" (1940), where Chaplin played two roles simultaneously: a fascist dictator and a humble Jewish barber. For this role, Chaplin was awarded the Best Actor Award in New York.

In 1952, Chaplin and his family sailed on tour to England and, already on the way, learned that they had lost their rights to return to the United States. He was accused of anti-American sentiments, connections with communists and reluctance to obtain citizenship.

The actor settled in Switzerland and lived there for the rest of his life in happiness and prosperity.

In 1957, the comedy “A King in New York” was released, which was banned from showing in the United States.
Charlie Chaplin's last film was the comedy A Countess from Hong Kong, starring Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando.

Chaplin is also the author of four autobiographical books, a successful composer, honorary doctor of the Universities of Oxford and Durham and a Knight of the Legion of Honour. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival, Golden Lion Film Festival and twice Oscar.

In 1975 he was knighted in Great Britain.

George Bernard Shaw called Chaplin "the only genius who came out of the film industry."

Chaplin's World: "Charles and Charlie - two different stories»

In old photographs, which feature no shortage of Charles Chaplin's Swiss estate, the actor is almost always surrounded by children. At one point, the family even printed a special photo card for Christmas: in the center, Charles Chaplin with his wife Una O'Neill.

Smiling Oona in a little black dress, Chaplin with a smile on his face in a chic suit with a tie and the obligatory snow-white headscarf. Behind their parents are eight Chaplin children, four of whom not only grew up, but were also born here, on the family estate in Corzier-sur-Vevey, located inside a huge park. Oona Chaplin was carrying her fifth child when they moved in.

“Mom loved giving birth, and dad loved seeing her pregnant,” she joked eldest daughter Chaplin Geraldine.

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Manoir de Ban is the last residence of "the most famous man in the world". Charles Chaplin lived in Switzerland for 25 years after he left the United States, where at that time Senator McCarthy was rampaging and a “witch hunt” was underway. There, Chaplin was pursued by the FBI, and some journalists and associations even called for a boycott of his films.

Chaplin's America and moving

Charles Chaplin lived in America for about 40 years, but never received American citizenship, traveling all his life with a British passport. In the USA, Chaplin realized what is called the “American Dream” and even became its embodiment. But there Charles Chaplin was condemned for the film “The Great Dictator”. Few people know that he had to film the film himself, with his own money, together with his brother Sidney.

American financiers believed that Germany was at that time a defense against communism. Six days after France and Great Britain entered the war against Nazi Germany, Charles Chaplin began filming.

In the USA, The Great Dictator was released at the end of 1940, and Europe had to wait until the end of the war to see this film...

“I would never have made this film if I had known about the camps at that moment,” Chaplin later said.

Oona and Charles Chaplin signed documents to purchase an estate with a park near Geneva on December 31, 1952. Manoir de Ban is an 1850s building with 14 rooms with fine furnishings. As the Swiss press of that time wrote, “Madame’s room is “Marie Antoinette”, Monsieur’s room is “Empire”.

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"Two different stories - Charles and Charlie"

The idea of ​​​​creating a large museum dedicated to Charlie Chaplin and his works was born in 2000 in Switzerland as a result of a meeting between Swiss Philippe Meylan and Canadian Yves Durand. The first is an architect and friend of the Chaplin family, the second is a big fan of Chaplin's work. General manager Chaplin's World Jean-Pierre Pigeon says that the house and the museum were specially separated and that the studio was not built close to the actor's house.

“When you look at the Manoir, Charles Chaplin's home, this place is dedicated only to the family, his personal life, and the studio is dedicated to Charlie's masterpieces, these are two different stories - Charles and Charlie", he says.

In Chaplin's house there are home videos filmed by his wife Oona O'Neill. If you look only at old films, it will seem that Charles Chaplin joked non-stop.

Jean-Pierre Pigeon: "Yes. He loved to joke, it’s obvious, but at some point he still became a father. He wasn't a jokester 24/7, of course. At least that’s what his children say.”

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However, the British writer Peter Ackroyd does not hide in his book dark sides biographies of Chaplin. So he wrote that Chaplin had real “bulimia” when it came to women and he did not always treat them elegantly, including his wife Una O’Neill. At work he was also a tyrant, in life he was quite frugal, terrified of losing all his savings.

Difficult childhood

The fear of being left without money was apparently associated with the extremely difficult childhood of Charles Spencer Chaplin. What we will later see in the film “Baby”, Chaplin himself experienced - hunger, cold, wandering through the streets, nights in flophouses. After their parents' divorce, little Charles and his brother Sidney remained to live with their mother, Hannah Chaplin.

In the Chaplin’s World museum, the first halls also do not look joyful - this, in fact, was Chaplin’s childhood. “The only thing Chaplin remembered in color were the transport tickets that were lying around everywhere in London; all his other memories were in black and white.”, says Jean-Pierre Pigeon, General Director of Chaplin’s World, in an interview with RFI.

However, Chaplin never reproached his parents for their poverty. Mother - a former pop actress, broke up with her father - no time talented actor- because of his addiction to wine.

© Roy Export SAS

Chaplin's My Autobiography (Penguin Modern Classics), which he wrote in the same house in Switzerland while working six to eight hours a day, shows how much Charles loved his mother, even when she couldn't contain them. Life was so difficult that due to hunger, Charles Chaplin's mother temporarily lost her mind and was forced to undergo rehabilitation in psychiatric hospitals. But in his autobiography, Chaplin wrote an entire ode to his mother.

Charlie Chaplin: “Every evening, returning from the theater, my mother used to lay out sweets on the table for Sydney (Charles Chaplin’s half-brother - ed.) and for me, in the morning we would find a piece of pie or candy - believing that we should not make noise, because she usually slept late."

However, such times were only at the very beginning, then the mother sent the boys to their neighbors - the McCarthy family. Chaplin loved to go there only because he could have a hearty meal there, but even despite his hunger, he still preferred to spend time at home with his mother.

Charlie Chaplin: “Of course, there were days when I stayed at home; my mother made tea and fried bread in beef fat, I loved it, then for an hour she read with me, because she read beautifully, and I discovered the happiness of being next to her, I realized that I had a place It’s nicer to stay at home than to go to the McCarthy family.”

In Chaplin's world, mother is associated with childhood, and therefore also with gnawing poverty. He said that even the poorest families could afford a piece of meat baked over the fire on weekends - an unprecedented luxury for their family, for this he was angry with his mother for a long time and was ashamed that even on weekends they could not eat normally. One day they managed to save some money to buy a piece of meat, which they cooked over the fire. The meat shrunk to some ridiculous size, but then the boy felt happy and was eternally grateful to his poor mother.

In addition, little Charles owes his first performance on stage to Hannah Chaplin. In the book “My Autobiography,” he recalls that his mother’s voice often broke during stage performances due to colds and weakness, and then the audience laughed at the poor woman. One of these days when Hannah Chaplin once again could not continue her performance, and the audience booed her, 5-year-old Charles came on stage instead and sang the then famous song about Jack Jones...

The audience threw coins at the kid, he then paused for a moment and said: wait a minute, please, I’ll quickly pick up all the money and continue singing again. The spectators were dying of delight and tenderness.

The house where the doors didn't close

Michael Chaplin, the son of Charles Chaplin, who attended the inauguration of the museum on his father’s birthday, April 16, said that he spent his entire childhood in the Manoir de Ban house in Corziers-sur-Vevey.

Michael Chaplin:“I went to a regular school near my house. Sometimes I would bring friends home to play in our beautiful park. I remember how some of them stated with regret that my father was already an elderly, gray-haired man. This is not Charlie, they told me, poorly hiding their disappointment that they did not meet the Tramp in this house. Unfortunately, he was not there. This homeless tramp, this gypsy, who was always on the move, unfortunately, did not live here. But together with (the museum) Chaplin's World, we can say that he will finally find a home here. Now he will be fine.", explains Michael Chaplin, president of the Charlie Chaplin Museum Foundation. After Chaplin's death, pilgrimages from all over the world to the actor's house did not stop, " some even rushed to kiss the walls, they were so grateful to him for his films. That’s how I realized how powerfully my father’s art spoke to people from anywhere in the world.”

“Michael Jackson came here and then invited the whole family to Disneyland. Surrealism!” recalled relatives. “The gypsies became our friends: they returned here several times and gave us huge holidays,” says Michael Chaplin. The house often hosted large afternoon teas for neighboring children from difficult families, and once even for children from Chernobyl, who were brought to Switzerland for rehabilitation...

From project to opening

It so happens that during a visit to Chaplin’s World, visitors will immerse themselves in black and white world Chaplin mania, and during a visit to the house they will learn about how “the most famous person in the world."

CEO Chaplin's World Jean-Pierre Pigeon: “A whole epic is connected with the Manoir de Ban estate! Charles Chaplin passed away on December 25, 1977. And his wife Una - in 1991. After which the two Chaplin children settled in this house along with their families - Michael and Eugene. In 2000 they decided to sell Manoir. When family friend Philippe Meylan found out about this, he said: “No, what are you talking about!” This is impossible! Something needs to be done! We can't let this kind of legacy just go away." This is how their first conversation took place, during which they discussed the possibility of turning Charlie Chaplin's house into a museum. Michael and Eugene Chaplin then said that they really didn’t want the house to turn into a mausoleum, this was one of their main demands. They wanted the place to continue to be a place of laughter and emotion. As a result of several months of work, Philippe Meylan wrote a hundred-page draft and showed it to Chaplin's family. They loved it and decided to sell the house through the Charles Chaplin Museum Foundation.”

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A full 16 years passed from idea to opening. The opening of the museum was initially planned for 2005. The project developers - Yves Durand and Philippe Meylan - began to settle formalities with the construction plan, and in Switzerland these are often very long processes. Moreover, according to Swiss law, local residents can challenge any project. What happened at some point: one of the people living in the neighborhood wanted the Chaplin’s World project to be closed, fearing a large influx of tourists to the quiet town of Corzier-sur-Vevey. The proceedings with the neighbor lasted five years. Further construction was delayed by financial matters. In total, about 60 million Swiss francs were spent on the creation of the museum.

At the very beginning of filming “The Great Dictator,” Chaplin wondered how to shoot this picture, because his character, Charlie, does not speak. “And then suddenly I found a solution. It was even obvious. Even when playing Hitler, I could rant through my body language and be as talkative as I needed to be. Conversely, when I played Charlie, I could remain silent a little."- said Chaplin.

Chaplin's World has an entire room dedicated to "The Great Dictator." “Hitler was one of the greatest actors I have ever seen,” said Charles Chaplin. Later, when one of the employees of the Nazi German Ministry of Culture managed to escape, he met with Charles Chaplin and told him that Hitler had watched The Great Dictator alone.

“I would give anything to know what he thinks of him,” Chaplin answered him. It is believed that it was from the final scene of The Great Dictator that Chaplin was unable to renew his American visa and was forced to leave for Switzerland to escape McCarthyism.

Last days at Manoir de Ban

©Roy Export Co Est

In Switzerland, Charles Chaplin never learned French and got angry when one of the children switched to French at dinner. It may seem that in Manoir de Ban Charlie Chaplin from the incarnation American dream turned into " ordinary person" However, it was there that he wrote the scripts for his last two films, A King in New York and A Countess from Hong Kong, with Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. “The King of New York” was banned from showing in the United States until 1973: due to the king’s connection with the boy Rupert, who read Karl Marx in one of the schools in New York, the king himself was accused of having connections with communists. So Chaplin ridiculed McCarthyism, which drove him out of the country.

Charles Chaplin did not stop writing and composing music in Switzerland until his death. “To work is to live. And I want to live,” he said. Charles Chaplin passed away at his home, Manoir de Ban, on Christmas Day 1977. Una O'Neill and his children remained by his side until the last moment.

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, better known to us as Charlie Chaplin, was born on April 16, 1889. In the family of stage actors of the London Music Hall, he was the first common child. Before her marriage to Charlie's father, Charles Spencer Chaplin, Hannah gave birth to her first son, Sidney Hill. His father was a certain Jew Hawks. But after marriage, Sidney Hill, like his half-brother Charlie, received the surname Chaplin. Charlie and his brother Sid had a happy early childhood. My father was extremely popular. He had a pleasant baritone voice, was regularly invited to London music halls and toured extensively throughout Europe. But soon the pre-existing problem with alcohol worsened, and 37-year-old Chaplin Sr. died in a London hospital. Charlie's widowed mother continued to perform in the music hall, but she began to have problems with her larynx. One day, 5-year-old Charlie Chaplin, whom his mother constantly took with her, had to replace his mother. When she could not finish singing her song, the spontaneous boy came on stage and began to sing himself. Touched spectators showered him with coins and small bills. Charles, having stopped singing, collected money to the laughter of the audience and only then finished singing. That's probably when it started creative biography Charlie Chaplin. Then his childhood ended. Hannah was no longer able to perform. And soon, when the boy was 7 years old, his mother lost her mind and she was placed in psychiatric hospital. Charlie and Sid ended up in an orphanage. At the age of 9, Charlie Chaplin was accepted into the dance group "Eight Lancashire Boys". It was here that he first made audiences laugh by portraying a cat in a Christmas pantomime in 1900. But a year later Charlie left the group. He had to earn a living and simply did not have time to study and attend school. Charlie Chaplin worked wherever he was hired. He sold newspapers, helped nurses in the hospital, and worked in a printing house. At the age of 14, Chaplin's dream came true: Charlie was accepted into permanent job to the theater and received the role of a messenger in the production of Sherlock Holmes. It is noteworthy that the teenager was illiterate. Therefore, his brother Sid helped him learn the role. Films In 1908, 19-year-old Charlie Chaplin was accepted into the Fred Karno Theater, where pantomimes and sketches were prepared for English music halls. Very soon the young man becomes a key actor in most performances. After 2 years, Carnot's troupe goes on tour to America. Then Charlie Chaplin decided that he would stay in the USA. One day Mack Sennett saw Chaplin perform. The American film producer liked the game so much that he invited the artist to work in his studio. In September 1913, Charlie Chaplin signed a contract with Keystone. The studio agreed to pay him $150 a week in salary. At first things didn't go very well. Sennett even wanted to fire Charlie Chaplin, considering his decision to hire him reckless. But a year later the Englishman becomes a leading actor. Audiences love this gruff ad-lib hero from Mack Sennett. But they like the artist even more when he deviates from the image invented by Sennett. When Chaplin, playing Chaz (or Chace), invented by Sennett, brings more humanity and lyricism to the game, the audience greets the hero more warmly. Sennett once asked Charlie Chaplin to put on a new make-up for the comedy film “Children's Car Racing”. Then the artist came up with his new image, which is now familiar to all of us. These are wide trousers, a too-tight jacket (business card), a bowler hat that is too small, huge boots worn on the wrong foot, and a mustache. Thus the image of the Little Tramp was born. Over time, this familiar appearance was supplemented by a cane, which Charlie saw in one of his father’s photographs. The tramp instantly becomes mega-popular. But when Charlie Chaplin achieves success, he begins to realize that he can be a more successful writer and director than those who manage him. Chaplin's first film, Caught in the Rain, appeared in 1914. Here Charles performed not only as an actor, but also for the first time as a director and screenwriter. Unlike the Keystone studio, from which Chaplin left, the Essenay Film studio pays the artist $1,250 per week of work and 10 thousand for the contract. In 1916-17, Mutual Film paid the comedian even better: 10 thousand dollars a week and 150 thousand per contract. In 1917, Charlie Chaplin signed a contract with the First National studio for $1 million and became the most expensive actor of his time. In 1919, Chaplin opened his own film studio, United Artists. Charles Chaplin worked at this studio until the early 1950s, when he was forced to leave America forever. The most popular films directed by Charlie Chaplin at United Artists were the full-length films "A Woman of Paris", "Gold Rush", "City Lights" and "Modern Times". The audience received the film “Parisian Woman” coolly. This is a psychological drama where Chaplin appeared only as a cameo. The habit of seeing the favorite image of the Little Tramp prevailed. But critics praised it very highly new job Charlie Chaplin, recognizing his talent as an author. The Gold Rush and The Circus, released in the mid-to-late 1920s, were more warmly received and are considered classics of cinema. When Chaplin came to his native London in the 1920s, and then to Paris, he was greeted by huge crowds of fans. The second trip to Europe took place in the 1930s. Charlie Chaplin brought his new films “City Lights” and “Modern Times”. Persecution Charlie Chaplin's debut in sound films took place in 1940. It was an anti-Hitler film, “The Great Dictator.” In addition, this was the last film in which Chaplin appeared as the Little Tramp. With the release of the film, Chaplin's persecution begins. He is accused of anti-American activities and adherence to communist ideas. J. Edgar Hoover, head of the American FBI, intensifies the collection of the dossier on Chaplin, which began back in the 1930s. The peak of the persecution came in the 1940s, when Charlie Chaplin made his film Monsieur Verdoux. It was banned by censorship. They started throwing dirt on the artist. Chaplin was reproached for everything: ingratitude towards his host country (the actor never accepted US citizenship), for being a secret communist and a Jew. We dug into our personal lives, bringing out dirty laundry to the surface. Nevertheless, the film “Monsieur Verdoux” was nominated for an Oscar for best scenario The artist was kicked out of America in 1952, when Chaplin went to London for the premiere of his film Footlights. Hoover obtained from immigration services a ban on the artist’s return to the United States. Charlie Chaplin settled in the Swiss city of Vevey. Anticipating that he could be expelled from the country, Charlie leaves power of attorney for all his property to his wife. And she, having sold everything, moved with her children to Switzerland. Recent years and death In Switzerland, Charlie Chaplin continues to create. He wrote music for some of his silent films. Voiced "Gold Rush". In 1948, the artist wrote the story “Ramp”, which formed the basis for the film “Lightlights”. In 1954, Chaplin was awarded the International Peace Prize. And in 1957, Charlie Chaplin’s film “The King in New York” was released, where the actor performed main role. Seven years later, the Great Mute published his memoirs, which formed the basis for the biographical film Chaplin, which viewers saw in 1992. The artist’s last film, “The Countess from Hong Kong,” was produced in 1967. Charlie Chaplin managed to visit the USA again in 1972. He was given a short visa to attend the Oscars. This was the second statue Charlie received. Three years later, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain knighted Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin passed away on December 25, 1977. He left in his sleep. The artist was buried in the cemetery in Vevey. But in March 1978, after the coffin was stolen for ransom, his ashes were reburied in another Swiss city - Corsier-sur-Vevey, the grave was filled with a one and a half meter ball of concrete. Personal life Charlie Chaplin's personal life consists of 4 marriages and 12 children (one of them was recognized by a genetic examination as step-brother). The actor's first wife was Mildred Harris. The actors lived together for only 2 years. Their first child, Norman, died almost immediately after birth. Chaplin lived with his second wife Lita Gray for 4 years. To marry 16-year-old Lita, Charlie had to take her to Mexico, where the marriage was registered. To this union were born sons Charles Chaplin (Junior) and Sidney Earl Chaplin. During the divorce proceedings, the artist paid Lita a huge amount of money at that time as compensation: according to various estimates, from 700 to 850 thousand dollars. Chaplin lived with his third wife, Paulette Goddard, from 1932 to 1940. After a divorce and moving to Switzerland, Paulette married the writer Erich Maria Remarque. The fourth wife of the British artist is Una O'Neill. Their wedding took place in 1943. Una was 36 years younger than her husband. They lived together until Chaplin's death. This marriage produced 3 sons and 5 daughters. Last child was born when the comedian turned 72 years old.

Charlie Chaplin. (photo from 1915).

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889 in Walworth (UK) into a family of music hall performers. He first appeared on stage at the age of 5, when it was necessary to replace his mother in the program, who had problems with her larynx. Little Charlie managed to get a standing ovation from the audience, who pelted him with coins and bills. The young actor captivated the audience even more when he began, with childlike spontaneity, to collect this money from the stage right during the performance.

From that moment, Chaplin's career began, which, stretching for 75 years, continued until the death of the great comedian.

Charlie Chaplin took violin lessons.

Chaplin's childhood was spent in hopeless poverty. The father left the family, and Charlie and his brother were forced to go to an orphan school. Charlie Chaplin worked as a newspaper salesman, as an errand boy in a printing house, as a doctor's assistant, and never lost hope that he could someday make money as an actor.

Charlie Chaplin received his first role in the theater at the age of 14 - the role of the messenger Billy in the play Sherlock Holmes. Chaplin was illiterate at the time and was very afraid that he would be asked to read a few paragraphs out loud. He learned the role with the help of his brother Sidney.

Charlie Chaplin in the film Baby Car Race (1914)

On September 23, 1913, Chaplin signed a contract with the Keystone film company. His salary then was $150. In 1914, he made his first film, “Caught in the Rain,” where he acted as a director, actor and screenwriter. His earnings are growing exponentially. Already in 1915 he received $1250, and in 1916 Mutual Film paid the comedian $10 thousand a week. In 1917, Chaplin signed a $1 million contract with the First National Pictures studio and became, at that time, the most expensive actor in history.

It is known that even after Charlie Chaplin managed to earn his first million, he continued to live in a more than modest hotel room, and kept the checks he received in the studio in an old suitcase all his life. In 1922, Charlie Chaplin built his own house in Beverly Hills. The house had 40 rooms, an organ and a cinema hall.

At the end of 1940, Chaplin finished filming his film “The Great Dictator,” which, in fact, was a political satire on Nazism in general and Hitler in particular. It was last movie, where Chaplin used the image of tramp Charlie. The film was refused to be shown in cinemas in England and the USA because they were afraid of disturbing the fragile peace with Germany, and Chaplin was accused of inciting hysteria. A commission was even appointed to investigate the actor's anti-American actions. After Hitler watched the film, the actor was called a “scoundrel.”

During World War II, Chaplin spoke at one of the rallies and called for opening a second front as quickly as possible. The first word in his speech was “comrades,” after which Western propaganda began to call the actor a “communist.”

Still from the film Footlights. Chaplin as Calvero.

In 1952, Chaplin completed work on his painting “Lights of Footlights,” which tells the story of creativity and the fate of a creative person. On September 17 of the same year, he went to the world premiere of his film in London, and was unable to return back to the USA. The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover, managed to get immigration authorities to ban Chaplin from entering the country. By the way, Charlie Chaplin lived in the USA for more than 40 years, but never received American citizenship. Official reason refusal to enter the country was the presence of the comedian's name on Orwell's list. After this, Chaplin settled in the city of Vevey in Switzerland.

Charlie Chaplin and his wives.

Charlie Chaplin was a success with women. He had 11 children, and a certain Joan Berry tried to force a twelfth child on him through the court in 1943, but an examination proved that her child had nothing to do with Chaplin.

Charlie Chaplin's first wife in 1918 was 16-year-old Mildred Harris. The marriage lasted only 2 years. In his autobiography, Chaplin wrote: " Mildred wasn't evil, but she was hopelessly zoological. I could never get to her soul - it was filled with some kind of pink rag and all sorts of nonsense».

Charlie Chaplin with his wife Oona.

In 1924, Charlie Chaplin married 16-year-old Lita Gray. The marriage took place in Mexico, which avoided problems with American legislation, which did not allow marriage at 16 years of age. After the divorce in 1928, Chaplin paid Lita a record amount for that time - $825 thousand, which led to an investigation by the tax authorities. According to Joyce Milton, Chaplin's biographer, this relationship was the basis for Nabokov's novel Lolita.

Chaplin's third wife was actress Paulette Goddard, who starred in his films Modern Times and The Great Dictator. They separated in 1940, and Goddard’s second husband was the writer Erich Maria Remarque.

Charlie Chaplin with his wife and children.

Chaplin's fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, was 36 years younger than him. When Una got married in 1943, her father stopped communicating with her. In 1952, leaving for London, Chaplin gave his wife a power of attorney for his bank account, which allowed Una to take Chaplin’s property out of the USA. She later renounced her American citizenship.

Chaplin and O'Neill had three sons and five daughters. The last child was born when the comedian was 72 years old.

The grave of Charlie Chaplin and his wife.

Charlie Chaplin died on December 25, 1977 at the age of 88. 2 months after the funeral of the great actor, sensational news spread around the world - the coffin with the comedian’s body was stolen from the cemetery at the Anglican Church in Vevey. On the morning of March 2, 1978, the cemetery caretaker reported this to the police, and in the evening unknown people called Chaplin’s widow and stated that the sarcophagus with the body of her husband was in a “safe place.”

Negotiations with the robbers, who demanded 600 thousand Swiss francs, lasted almost a month. The police detected the criminals on the 27th call. The attackers turned out to be 38-year-old Gancho Ganev and 24-year-old Roman Vardas.

Chaplin's bowler hat at auction in Los Angeles

In 2012, Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat and cane were sold for $62.5 thousand at the Bonhams auction house in Los Angeles. The auction organizers said that these were the accessories that the great comedian used on the set of the films “Modern Times” and “City Lights.” True, it is not known for certain how many canes and bowler hats that were filmed with Chaplin have survived to this day.

Charlie Chaplin's first Oscar came from The Great Dictator. In 1941, the actor received a statuette for “Best Actor”. In 1948, Chaplin was once again awarded an Oscar. This time - for the best script (“Monsieur Verdoux”). In 1962, Charlie Chaplin became a doctor at Oxford University, and in 1975, Elizabeth II awarded him the Order of the Knight Commander British Empire. In 1970, Charlie Chaplin's star was laid on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And his photos today are included in the collections of the most iconic photographs of famous photographers.

Charlie Chaplin receiving an Academy Award in 1972.

In 1972, 82-year-old Charlie Chaplin was awarded an honorary Oscar “for his invaluable contribution to the art of cinema in this century.” The audience gave the great comedian a standing ovation for 12 minutes.

Throughout his film career, Chaplin starred in 82 films. Chaplin earned about $10.5 million from his films.

Kristina Tuchina

NWe no longer need to be afraid of disputes, confrontations, problems with ourselves and with other people. Even stars collide, and new worlds are born from their collisions. Today I know what it is -"Life".
From Charlie Chaplin's speech on his 70th birthday

The name Chaplin is widely known throughout the planet, and it is no coincidence: it is not even worth mentioning that Charlie Chaplin made an incredible contribution to the development of the film industry in general and the United States of America in particular. The British origin of the outstanding director and actor did not at all prevent his fame from spreading throughout the world.

Born in England in 1889, Chaplin lived in his native London until he was eighteen, experiencing a number of family troubles. He even had to spend several years in a shelter for homeless children. At the age of 18, having previously participated in children's ensembles, he joined the Carnot troupe. And in 1912, already during an American tour, he was noticed by the heads of the Kinstone film company and a year later they signed a contract with him. Initially, it was difficult for young Chaplin to meet the new demands of cinema, and the company’s management even had the opinion that Chaplin’s acceptance into the troupe was a mistake. However, he got a chance to up his game and soon the films began to rise in popularity.

Ultimately, the comedies with Chaplin as an actor were a resounding success, but this was not enough for him, and he decided to work independently as a director. His first film, Caught in the Rain, became one of the studio's best. In total, Chaplin starred in 35 Kinstone films, and he directed or co-wrote more than two-thirds of them.

At the beginning of Chaplin's career as an actor, his image of a tramp was formed. The image turned out to be quite controversial, but with each film the image became deeper and more original. Chaplin adapted to each scenario, adding certain details to the character.

1915 was a particularly productive year for Chaplin: he produced 12 films for the Essenay company in Chicago. At the same time, Chaplin himself was an actor in all of them, without exception. As he himself said, all films are based on one course of events: he gets into some kind of trouble and tries to pretend that nothing actually happened. In 1916, Chaplin signed a contract with Mutual. Repeating his success in "Kinstone", he made the film "Department Store Controller", which gained great success. He filmed comedies in two parts, and for the first time his films began to show notes of tragedy and drama, which became more and more apparent in his later work.

All events taking place in the world are reflected in Chaplin’s films in one way or another. So, during the First World War, he was visited by the idea of ​​​​the film “On the Shoulder!”, in which we're talking about about the senseless cruelty of war.

Unsuccessful marriage with underage actress Mildred Harris had a bad effect on Chaplin's work, and in 1919 he released only two films. However, Chaplin could not remain idle for long, and soon he decided to create his own film company in a quest for independence. As a result, in 1922, the Charles Chaplin Film Corporation was born.

The memoirs of his secretary Elsie Godd contain the most complete and reliable information about how Charlie worked on his films. At first, he analyzed the scene in detail with the actors, including using his own example: he even sometimes played all the roles in front of the troupe. Then he checked costumes, sets and makeup, monitored rehearsals and regulated the actors' performances. When filming began, Chaplin lost all seriousness and efficiency, and began again to seem like a carefree, merry fellow, as most viewers know him from films. The finished film was shown in a cinema in Los Angeles, and Chaplin carefully monitored the audience's reaction, drawing certain conclusions for himself.

In 1925, Charlie was working on one of the best films the entire history of the film industry - the "Gold Rush". Even Chaplin himself considered it a masterpiece. In it, Chaplin continued his in-depth development of the characters' characters, where one detail could depict half of a person's character.

The year 1926 becomes tragic for Chaplin: he begins to create the film "The Circus", but at the end of the year he finds himself in yet another marital ups and downs, which ultimately lead to his admission to a clinic for nervous patients. After leaving it, he continues filming “The Circus,” but the initially cheerful comedy takes on dark and suspenseful tones. But already in 1928, his film “City Lights”, released in 1831, is permeated with charming love intonations. The film was the first among Chaplin's works to feature sound, but Charlie was always faithful to silent films.

Many Americans were annoyed that Chaplin was not, in fact, an American citizen, and many cinemas tried to boycott City Lights, then Chaplin took the film to Europe, where he was greeted with great respect and love.

In 1940, Charlie made the film "The Great Dictator", making fun of Hitler. He himself played two roles in this film - the modest Jewish hairdresser Charlie and the fascist dictator Hynkel, in whom Hitler was easily recognizable. The film became one of the most popular at the time, and was also Chaplin's first completely sound film. While still working, the director expressed his opinion: “Dictators are funny. I want people to laugh at them.” The film was subsequently sent to Hitler, who watched it. Upon learning of this, Chaplin replied that he would give anything to know his opinion about the film.

However, despite the popularity of Chaplin's films among the US population, Hollywood never liked him, and more and more demands began to come to deport Chaplin because of his political views, and also because of his passion for underage female actresses. In the late 1940s, the question of Chaplin's citizenship was raised again, but he stated that he was an internationalist and therefore was not seeking citizenship.

In 1952, Chaplin released the film Footlights, about which he predicted that it would become his greatest and last picture. He worked on the script for more than three years, and some of the autobiographical aspects of the film are very prominent.

In September 1952, due to the intensity of the citizenship issue, Chaplin sailed with his family to England, and a few months later settled in Switzerland. However, Chaplin does not lose touch with the States. In 1957, he released the film "King of New York", revealing the story of King Shadow, expelled from his kingdom and leading a poor lifestyle. The film gained enormous public resonance and was banned from showing in America.

Despite Chaplin's admonitions about Footlights, his last film was A Countess from Hong Kong, in which Charlie played only a small cameo. The film was considered unsuccessful, but Chaplin's name ensured a successful release of the film around the world.

Despite Hollywood's dislike for Charlie Chaplin, he was recognized by the American Film Academy, which awarded him an Oscar in 1972 for outstanding contribution into cinematography. He was afraid that his appearance at the awards would cause attacks, but he was greeted with a standing ovation. Subsequently, he worked on versions of various scripts and voiced silent films. Chaplin died on a quiet Christmas night on December 25, 1977.

Of course, Chaplin's contribution to the film industry, as well as to art in general, both in the USA and around the world, is colossal. The genre of comedy was popularized, and even Chaplin inadvertently divided it into at least two movements: comedies for entertainment and comedies that carry a dramatic, moral, historical and any other load. His image of a tramp began to wander from one director to another, although, of course, no one could achieve the image, the embodiment that they managed to create. Silent cinema in the USA received incredible development, and in general, Chaplin’s ability to shoot 20-30 films a year intensified competition among other film companies; this ability also forced other film workers: cameramen, assemblers, the actors themselves, make-up artists and costume designers, to work extremely hard, which brought certain results. As mentioned earlier, Chaplin made a huge number of films that occupy a certain niche in the cinema of the 20th century, and, of course, his name will be on the lips of many generations for a long time.