Filmmakers
- Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977)
- UNITED STATES, 11-30-1999
Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), great silent movie star and film director.
The famed comic actor and director Charlie Chaplin was born into a theatrical family in London, England, in 1889. He first came to the United States in 1907 as a part of a London-based vaudeville touring group. On a return tour to New York, Keystone Studios signed him to star in a series of silent films to be produced in the new filmmaking capital — Hollywood.
At the time, Hollywood was the center of a fast-growing film industry, and Hollywood films were garnering international acclaim. In 1914, Chaplin made his first film appearance in the short movie Making a Living, and that same year he went on to star in an impressive 35 short films. Chaplin’s talent for mimicry and slapstick acrobatics made him immensely popular with the public and was perfectly suited for a medium dependent on physical movement to advance plot lines.
Most of Chaplin’s films featured story lines related to poverty and struggle. In the 1918, 20-minute film "The Immigrant" he portrays a penniless immigrant roaming the streets of New York. That same year, "A Dog’s Life" showcases Chaplin and his dog, Scraps, struggling to survive, again on the streets of New York. Poor Charlie lives in a vacant lot and can’t find a job. He tries to get one, but when he gets to the head of the employment line the jobs are gone.
Chaplin’s signature role as the Tramp became a popular recurrent character. The Tramp costume consisted of a short “toothbrush” mustache, top hat and oversize trousers paired with a too-small coat. The Tramp character was a man out of place, a poor man in clothes that didn’t fit.
By 1919, Chaplin had teamed up with actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks and director D.W. Griffith to create United Artists. The collaboration gave Chaplin more creative control as a filmmaker.
As a director, Chaplin’s early films often featured political stories about the lives of immigrants and the working poor. His 1936 film, "Modern Times," for example, deals with the rise of industrialization and its effect on mankind. In what is widely considered to be the greatest silent film, Chaplin portrays a factory worker pursuing happiness in the midst of assembly lines and labor disputes.
In his later films, Chaplin turned to addressing international themes, including political instability in Europe. His first talkie, "The Great Dictator," for example, ridicules Adolf Hitler and Nazism. In the film, Chaplin plays the roles of both Hitler and a Jewish barber. The film came out a year before the U.S. decided to enter the war. It was seen as courageous for its scorn for Nazism and for the sensitive portrayal of Jewish characters and the depiction of their persecution.
The late 1940s saw the rise of McCarthyism — a term referring to the intense anti-communist suspicion in the country stemming from the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. During this era, which lasted until the late 1950s, many thousands of Americans were accused of being communists or communist sympathizers. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers and even imprisonment.
One of the targets of such suspicions were individuals in the entertainment industry, including Chaplin, whose later films were deemed communist for their critical view of capitalism, among other things. In 1952 Chaplin left the country for a brief trip to England. (Although he had lived in the United States for four decades, he never sought U.S. citizenship.) While he was in England, his re-entry permit was revoked. He decided not to challenge the decision, so he did not re-enter the United States.
Chaplin then made his home in Switzerland, where he lived for the rest of his life. He briefly returned to Hollywood in 1972 to receive an honorary Oscar.