Person    | Male  Born 16/4/1889  Died 25/12/1977

Charlie Chaplin

Categories: Cinema, Seriously Famous

Countries: Switzerland, USA

Born Charles Spencer Chaplin in East Street, Walworth (possibly, see Londonist). Comic actor, composer, director and producer. Born into a music hall family. He joined a troupe of child dancers, 'Eight Lancashire Lads' at the age of 8. At 17, whilst on tour in America, he joined the Mack Sennett Keystone Company motion picture company. His acting technique was characterised by a high degree of pathos, accentuated in the then silent movies, but he was unwilling later to adapt his style to the 'talkies'. His success enabled him to co-found United Artists in 1919. His major films included The Tramp (1915), Shoulder Arms (1918), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940). Became immensely famous and claimed that the only person he met who had not seen his films was Gandhi. 1952 left the US for a premier in London but, due to his supposed left-leaning political views (this being the McCarthy era), he was refused re-entry to the States and he went to live in Switzerland, where he died. He returned just once to receive an honorary Oscar in 1972. He was knighted in 1975.

Don't believe everything you read, especially about his poverty-stricken childhood - he embroidered shamelessly. For example his mother died in California in 1928, not when he was a baby. One story we hope is true: The Nazis, troubled by his success, asserted that he was Jewish. On being told this Chaplin replied "I do not have that honour."

Even his birth place is in doubt. According to the Telegraph his birth certificate has never been found and there are papers that suggest he was born near Birmingham.

January 2013 Spittalfields Life carries a wonderful article on Charlie in Spittalfields.

History.com tells the story of how Chaplin's body was stolen from the Swiss cemetery for ransom. (No money was paid, the culprits were arrested and Chaplin was reburied in a concrete grave.)

2022: Londonist report on Chaplin's time, aged 7, as a pupil at a school for destitute children in Ealing.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Charlie Chaplin

Commemorated ati

Chaplin - Lambeth Walk

The BFI date the Hippodrome performance to Christmas 1900. The quote about a ...

Read More

Chaplin mosaics 1

Southbank Mosaics

Read More

Chaplin mosaics 2

This image is from the 1918 'A Dog's Life'.

Read More

Show all 13

Other Subjects

John Le Mesurier

John Le Mesurier

Actor. Born John Elton Halliley in Bedford. Adopting his mother's surname, he was a supporting actor in many films of the 1950s and 1960s, but was projected to national fame as Sergeant Wilson in t...

Person, Cinema, Humour, TV & Radio

2 memorials
Pierre Rouve

Pierre Rouve

Diplomat, art critic, broadcaster, film producer and lecturer. Born Petar Christoff Ouvaliev in Sofia, Bulgaria. He came to Britain in 1947 as a diplomat. His extensive career in the British film i...

Person, Art, Cinema, TV & Radio, Balkans

1 memorial
William Hartnell

William Hartnell

Actor.  Born  24 Regent Square.  First to take the role of Dr Who, 1963-66. Died in a hospital near Maidstone.

Person, Cinema, TV & Radio

1 memorial
Jean Simmons, OBE

Jean Simmons, OBE

Actor. Born Crouch Hill. Played Estelle in David Lean's 1946 Great Expectations, Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's 1948 Hamlet. Became American citizen in 1956. Died California.

Person, Cinema, USA

1 memorial
Stuart Freeborn

Stuart Freeborn

Make-up artist. He worked on some of the most notable films of the 20th century, including Alec Guinness as Fagin in David Lean's 'Oliver Twist'. Worked for Kubrick on the three incarnations of Pet...

Person, Cinema, Craft / Design

1 memorial

Previously viewed

MacDonald House

MacDonald House

W1, Grosvenor Square, 1, MacDonald House

This tablet commemorates the naming of this building in 1961 after the first Prime Minister of Canada, the Rt. Hon. Sir John Alexander Ma...

2 subjects commemorated
Lucy Holland

Lucy Holland

Daughter of Jane.

Person, Tragedy

1 memorial
Imperial Hotel - statue 13

Imperial Hotel - statue 13

WC1, Russell Square

On this site there used to be a sister hotel to Hotel Russell, also designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll and erected in 1898. It was demolish...

1 creator
Charles Burt, JP

Charles Burt, JP

Chairman of Weekly Board at the Royal Free Hospital in 1895.

Person, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Henry Croft

Henry Croft

The original Pearly King. Born in the St Pancras Workhouse (now, 2015, the St Pancras Hospital, immediately north of St Pancras Gardens). His mother was in and out of the workhouse, sometimes givin...

Person, Tourism / Traditions

2 memorials