Interesting facts about Charlie Chaplin Charlie Chaplin - biography and interesting facts from the life of the actor Filmography and gaining independence

The boy, who was born on April 16, 1889, was charted to become perhaps the most famous silent film comedian and the world's first actor to grace the cover of the influential Time magazine on July 6, 1925. On account of Charles Spencer Chaplin 82 films. Its popularity has no boundaries to this day. There is even an asteroid named after Charlie Chaplin - 3626 Chaplin, which is located in the asteroid belt between Venus and Mars. How many wives did the actor have? Why did they steal his ashes? And why was he not allowed to live in the United States? We recall interesting facts from the biography of the actor.

Little Tramp is born

"I didn't know how to put on my makeup. I didn't like my appearance as a reporter. On my way to the dressing room, I instantly decided to put on wide pants that would sit like a bag on me, excessively large shoes and a bowler hat, and take a cane in my hands. so that everything in my suit was contradictory: baggy pants and too narrow a business card, a bowler hat that was too small for me, and huge shoes.I did not immediately decide whether I would be old or young, but remembering that Sennett considered me too young, I pasted myself a little mustache, which, in my opinion, should have made me older, without hiding my facial expressions. make-up suggested an image to me. I felt it, and when I returned to the pavilion, my character had already been born, "Chaplin wrote in his autobiography. The Tramp first appeared in the comedy Children's Car Racing.

Lucky in love

The great comedian had four wives and eleven children (however, we are only talking about legitimate children). Chaplin's first marriage was to Mildred Harris in 1918. After their divorce, he married actress Lita Gray in 1924, she was then only 16 years old, he was already 35. According to one version, their romance formed the basis of Nabokov's novel "Lolita". When the actor was 47 years old, his third wife was Paulette Goddard (she later divorced Chaplin and married Erich Maria Remarque). Chaplin's fourth and last marriage was with the daughter of the American playwright Eugene O "Neil (author of The Long Day Leaves Into Night") Una O "Neil in 1943, when Chaplin was 54 years old. The couple had eight children. Una gave birth to her last child when Chaplin was to be 73 years old. In 1992, Richard Attenborough directed a biopic about Charlie Chaplin, in which the daughter of actor Geraldine Chaplin played his mother Hannah.

And no words are needed

Becoming one of the most iconic representatives of silent cinema, Chaplin has long given up on audio and dialogue. Charlie Chaplin continued to make films according to his concept of cinematography, and was convinced that sound would destroy the charming image of the Little Tramp. However, he gradually added music and other sounds to his later films, including City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940). By the way, Chaplin received his only "Oscar" for the best score for the film "Ramp Lights".

People's love despite politics

Chaplin never became a US citizen, although he lived in the States for almost 40 years. After the film "New Times", released in 1936, the actor was accused of sympathizing with the communist system. And in 1952, the US government canceled the document that allowed Chaplin to stay in the country. This meant that he would not be able to return to the States after his vacation in England. As a result, the actor moved to Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life. He returned to the United States only once: in 1973, he was issued a special visa for a few days so that the actor personally received his first honorary Oscar. The guests of the ceremony gave a standing ovation to the actor for 12 minutes - it was the longest standing ovation in the history of the award. And a year earlier, Chaplin's Star was finally laid on the Walk of Fame: earlier, the actor was twice selected for the Star of the same category, and twice the actor's candidacy was rejected because of his political views.

Did not rest in peace

Chaplin died in his sleep on Christmas Eve December 25, 1977 in Switzerland. A few months after the funeral, looters dug up and stole the movie star's coffin. What for? They hoped to get a ransom from his family. 400 thousand pounds! Chaplin's remains were found in May 1978 after robbers threw the body into a field. They eventually confessed to the crime, and Chaplin was reburied two days later at the Meruz Cemetery in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. But just in case, the actor now rests under six feet of concrete.

by the way

Like all films with live accompaniment, Charlie Chaplin's films are best viewed in a movie theater or concert hall. Muscovites will have such an opportunity: from April 16 to May 19, three cinemas of the Moscow Moschino network - Zvezda, Yunost and Kosmos - will host Charles Chaplin's retrospective "Chaplin AV". Films of ADMI, Drojji and Long Arm, as well as composer Igor Vdovin and Mirabella Karyanova, also known as Ishome and Shadowax, will sound the soundtrack.

A bowler hat, a touching mustache, an amusing gait of "heels together", an invariable cane - these signs tell us better than any words about a particular person - Charles Spencer Chaplin. Although millions of fans of his talent call their idol simply "Charlie". By the way, in appearance, he fully corresponded to his diminutive nickname: his height was only 165 cm.

The actor and director is one of the world's most talented left-handers. With the left, he did absolutely everything, even kept a violin bow in it. And he played Charlie's violin excellently.

Chaplin and Hitler are of the same age. Moreover, they were born in one month, and Charlie is only four days older than Adolf.

By the age of 35, Chaplin's luxurious curly hair had completely turned gray.
Charlie Chaplin has always had a difficult relationship with the US authorities, and specifically with the FBI. It all started after the movie "New Times". It was then that the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a case against Chaplin, suspecting him of too ardent sympathies for the communists. The actor's performance at one of the rallies during the Second World War also added fuel to the fire. He began his speech with the word "comrades", providing food for even more gossip.

The film "The Great Dictator" also made a lot of noise. It came out at a time when no one took the aggressive moods of Nazi Germany seriously. Already during the filming of the film, the director was hinted to "get involved with this case" so as not to spoil the relations between the United States and Britain with the Germans. When Germany turned out to be less white and fluffy and attacked the Soviet Union, political well-wishers bit their tongues. But the anonymous people got loose: they sent letters with threats, promising provocations and riots from cinemas, where "The Great Dictator" would be shown.

Now we can say for sure that the Fuhrer himself saw an evil parody of himself. There were witnesses who confirmed this fact. Nothing is known about Adolf's reaction, but it should be assumed that he probably behaved in his usual manner - yelling and raging.

Chaplin was a rather tight-fisted person. Even after becoming fabulously rich, he refused to trade a modest room in a cheap hotel for a luxurious apartment. And he always kept a suitcase with him, where he carefully kept his studio receipts. In 1928, the actor got rid of all his stock assets, and just in time: the Great American Depression soon burst out ...

He was known as a giant in amorous pleasures, and chose girls of tender age as his life companions. With his first wife he had a difference of 12 years, with the second - 19, with the third - 25. Chaplin decided on his fourth marriage at the age of 54. 18-year-old Una O'Neill became his bride. He lived with her until the end of his days. Of Chaplin's 11 children, Una gave birth to eight. The last time Chaplin became a father was at the age of 72.

Once, for a joke, I signed up for the competition of my own doubles. Surprisingly, he never managed to win. According to one version, he took only third place, according to another - the second.

Chaplin found eternal peace at the age of 88. However, after a few months, his ashes were disturbed in the most disgusting way: the attackers dug up and stole the coffin with the body in order to get hold of the money from the ransom received. But they got caught, and six months after his death, the actor and director "survived" another funeral.

One of the geniuses of cinema was never awarded an Oscar. Only at the end of his life was he given a statuette, but not for a specific job, but for services in general, like many other cinema veterans.

This giant was only 165 cm tall and weighed about 60 kg. In his youth, he could boast not only blue eyes, but also dark curly hair. This handsome young man was magically transformed when, sticking on a touching mustache, putting on a bowler hat and picking up a cane, with a funny gait "heels together" entered the frame outlined by the most primitive, from the current point of view, movie camera ... Great Charlie. Charles Spencer Chaplin.

Once his mother was booed on the stage of an English variety show. Then the director, in order to somehow fill in the pause, took five-year-old Charlie by the hand onto the stage. The boy sang a song. Surprisingly, he was not booed - on the contrary, they began to throw coins on the stage. Charlie suddenly fell silent in mid-sentence and said: I'll collect the coins, and then I'll finish it to the end. The hall crashed. The director blushed. He helped Charlie collect the coins, but the boy did not "come off" from him until he was convinced that all the money was received by his mother. And only after that I finished my speech. They say he got a standing ovation. This was the debut of The Great Charlie.

After that, his artistic career was not interrupted until his death on Christmas Day 1977. As a 14-year-old teenager, in 1903, Charlie got a permanent job in the theater. But Billy was afraid of his role as a messenger in the play "Sherlock Holmes" - he had to hide that he was ... illiterate. Brother Sidney helped him with the role. Charlie learned the role, but understood that there was no further risk. Two years later, he finally learned to read and write.

Charlie Chaplin is rightfully included in the top of the most talented left-handers in the world. His left hand was a real working one. But this did not in the least prevent him from playing the violin. And he did it regularly, from the age of 16. Could spend four hours and sixteen hours on lessons or exercises.

In 1914, before filming Mabel's Uncommonly Pitfall, Charlie Chaplin actually found himself in a quandary: he didn’t know how to put on his makeup. I had to improvise. From the dressing room to the shooting pavilion came a funny man in wide trousers with a bag, excessively large shoes, a bowler hat and with a cane in his hands. Small mustache blackened under the nose to hide excessive youth, but not expressive facial expressions. Thus the image of the Tramp was born. Charlie Chaplin's calling card. Silent movie symbol. The symbol of all cinema when he was still young ...

In 1917, French film director and film critic Louis Delluc called 28-year-old Charlie Chaplin the most famous person in the world, who eclipsed the glory of Jeanne d'Arc, Louis XIV and Clemenceau, and became on a par with Jesus Christ and Napoleon. In the same year, the First National Pictures film studio signed a contract with him for one million dollars. You can imagine how much the dollar was then and what crazy money it was. The most expensive actor in history!

The following year, Charlie Chaplin married 16-year-old actress Mildred Harris for the first time. I must say that the Great Charlie preferred young teenage girls. His third wife, Paulette Goddard (who became the wife of the great writer Erich Maria Remarque at the end of her life) was 19 years old at the time of the wedding, and the fourth, Una O'Neill, was 18 years old. And Chaplin's second wife, 16-year-old Lita Gray, is generally a special conversation. Chaplin's biographer Joyce Milton assures that the relationship between Chaplin and Gray formed the basis of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita.

There is a special connection between Charlie Chaplin and ... Adolf Hitler. First, Charlie is only four days older than the Fuehrer. Second, in 1940, Chaplin directed the poignant anti-war film The Great Dictator, which poked fun at the image of Hitler. At that time, relations between the United States and Nazi Germany were neutral, and Chaplin was pressured "from above" to avoid an international scandal. After Germany attacked the USSR, the pressure stopped. There is evidence that Hitler ordered a copy of The Great Dictator and watched it. After that, Goebbels' propaganda called the Englishman Chaplin a Jew. By the way, "The Great Dictator" is Chaplin's first sound film, and the last where he appeared in the form of the Tramp.

Because of leftist views, Chaplin had trouble with American law enforcement.

Especially after speaking at a rally demanding to open a second front and starting with the appeal "Comrades!" Chaplin was never a communist, but the FBI recorded him as one. The peak of the persecution came in 1952, during the time of McCarthyism. When Chaplin went to London for the world premiere of his film "Ramp Lights," FBI Director Edgar Hoover, accusing the artist of anti-American activities, obtained a ban on his entry into the United States. From then until his death, the great actor lived in the Swiss city of Vevey.

Charles Spencer Chaplin had to be buried twice. A few months after the funeral, the criminals dug up Chaplin's coffin in order to get a ransom for it. The Swiss police were able to quickly track down and arrest the perpetrators. For the second time, Charlie Chaplin was buried, "covering" the top of the coffin with a six-foot layer of concrete to avoid similar attempts in the future.

The brilliant Horowitz plays
for the brilliant Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin's house was often visited by various celebrities. Arthur Rubinstein, Igor Stravinsky, Rachmaninov visited him, and once Vladimir Horowitz came with his wife Wanda (daughter of Toscanini) and their eight-year-old daughter Sonya. Chaplin could not hear enough of Horowitz, he asked to play again and again. When Horowitz left, Chaplin said with admiration:
- When he plays, it seems that there is an orchestra in the room. His game just blows my mind!

Chaplin and Einstein

Einstein once wrote to Charlie Chaplin: "Your film" Gold Rush "is understood all over the world, and you will certainly become a great man." To which Chaplin replied: “I admire you even more. Nobody in the world understands your theory of relativity, but you have become a great man after all. "

They say: once Einstein and Chaplin were greeted by enthusiastic Americans, and the great artist said to the great scientist: "They applaud you for the fact that no one understands you, and me for the fact that everyone understands me."

Unusual fee

In 1964, Charlie Chaplin published an autobiography. The great comedian sold the rights to its English and American editions for half a million dollars. And the Soviet newspaper Izvestia, having printed an excerpt of 1000 words, for the inconvertibility of the ruble sent Chaplin to Switzerland its fee - four kilograms (“nine pounds” - writes Chaplin's biographer D. Robinson) of black caviar. They paid in a typical Russian way. Well at least not with hemp and wax.

A celebrity who opened the wonderful world of cinema to everyone, who created a company of dreams. Yes, we are just about him.

We present you interesting facts about Charlie Chaplin

Is it significant that the famous actor was born four days earlier than Hitler? Being left-handed, he could even play the violin with this hand.

Did you know that Chaplin's first place of work was theater? He got a job there when he was not even 14 years old. And, by the way, he could not read at that age either.

In 1917, Charlie signed his first major contract with the First National for $ 1 million. This brought him not only crazy money, but also put him in first place in the niche of the richest people. Moreover, Chaplin thus became the youngest and most talented actor in the United States in the 20th century.

"City Lights" is a film where Charlie did the incredible. As you know, besides the fact that he was not indifferent to girls that were too young, he also loved boxing and tango.

There is a scene in the film where these two of his hobbies are combined in the ring. It turned out something like "tangbox".

Chaplin was not only a womanizer, as proof of which, having married four times, he was a father of many children - 11 offspring. Moreover, the last child appeared when Charlie was already over 70.

In 1975, Chaplin was honored with the attention of Queen Elizabeth II herself. She knighted him.

Here are some more interesting facts about Charlie Chaplin. Did you know that a great artist lived in America for over 40 years, but never received citizenship?

It is also interesting that by the age of 35, Chaplin did not have a single hair of his natural light brown color. His hair on his head was completely covered with gray hair.

The Tramp's iconic character was born during the filming of the 1914 film Mabel's Unusual predicament. Charlie could not even imagine how to make up himself. This is how a little man was "born" in trousers-wide trousers, with a cane, a hat and a mustache. As a result, it was this image that became the symbol of silent cinema.

Charlie Chaplin died in 1977. At that time he was 88 years old, and his youngest son was 16. And 4 years later, on the comedian's birthday on April 16, a monument was erected not far from Shakespeare in London.

Interesting facts in a short documentary video "".

Chaplin's height was only 165 cm, and his weight was 60 kilograms.

Chaplin had blue eyes and dark curly hair, but the actor quickly turned gray by the age of 35.

Having already become a millionaire, Chaplin continued to live for a long time in a third-rate hotel room. He also kept his studio receipts in an old suitcase for months.

Chaplin was left-handed, and even played the violin with his left hand.

Chaplin got a full-time job in theater at the age of 14 - before he could read.

Chaplin sympathized with the communists, the FBI opened a case against Chaplin back in the 30s - after the movie "New Times".

Chaplin lived in the United States for 40 years, but never received citizenship. Moreover, since 1952, entry into the United States was closed to him, and in order to obtain a visa, he had to answer to the Commission of the Department of Immigration to a number of charges of a political order, as well as to an accusation of moral licentiousness.

In 1917, Charlie Chaplin became the most expensive actor of the time, having signed a $ 1 million contract with First National.

Chaplin's favorite sport was boxing, and his favorite dance was tango. In the movie "City Lights" he "combined" fighting in the ring with tango.

Chaplin sold all of his shares in 1928 based on unemployment data - before the Great Depression.

During World War II, the "Committee for Assistance to Russia in the War" invited Chaplin to speak at the rally. Chaplin began his speech with the address "Comrades!" and called for the opening of a second front as soon as possible. After this speech (because of the spoken word "comrades"), Chaplin began to be considered a communist.

During the filming of The Great Dictator, Chaplin was warned that the film would be in trouble with the censorship. Chaplin was asked to abandon the production of the film, assuring that it will never be shown either in England or in the United States so as not to harm the neutral relations between the United States and Germany. After the German attack on the USSR, the pressure "from above" ceased, but letters from the audience with threats began to arrive. In some of them, they threatened that they would throw suffocating gas bombs and shoot at the screen in cinemas, where the Dictator would be shown.

After the release of "The Dictator" on the screens, Nazi propaganda began to call Chaplin a Jew. The Commission of Inquiry on Anti-American Activities began an investigation into Chaplin's activities, one of the points of the investigation was his nationality.

According to the documentary "The Tramp and the Dictator" (2001), the film "The Great Dictator" was sent to Hitler, and Hitler watched this film (this fact is confirmed by witnesses).

During the filming of Chaplin's films, there was only one accident. Chaplin himself was injured on the set of Silent Street.

Chaplin had a soft spot for teenage girls, for example:

He married Mildred Harris when she was 16, he was 28.

He was 35 when he married Lita Gray, she was 16. Chaplin's biographer Joyce Milton wrote that Chaplin's relationship with Lita Gray became the basis of Nabokov's novel Lolita.

He was 44 when he married Paulette Goddard, she was 19.

He was 54 when he married Una O'Neill, she was 18. In addition, he had 8 children from his marriage to Una. Una gave birth to her last child when the great comedian was 72 years old.

Chaplin was also a good composer. He wrote the music for many of his films himself.

Chaplin once, incognito, took part in a competition of doubles of himself (the image of the Tramp). According to one version, he took second place in the competition, according to another version - third.

Chaplin was married four times and had 11 children.

Geraldine, the eldest of the daughters of Chaplin and Oona, is the most famous of all the children of the great artist. She also managed to add her own success to the famous surname. Becoming an outstanding actress, she played several interesting roles. First appeared in her father's film "Ramp Lights". The real big debut took place in David Lean's film Doctor Zhivago. In 1992 she starred in the biographical film Chaplin.

In 1928, Chaplin was awarded a special Oscar for the genius of the script, acting, directing and producing for the film "Circus".

In 1954, Chaplin was awarded the Soviet International Peace Prize.

In 1975, Chaplin was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Chaplin's favorite comedian in the last years of his life was Briton Benny Hill. When Hill visited the Chaplin family in 1991, he was shown a large collection of Benny Hill videos that Chaplin had put together.

Chaplin was named # 79 among the "100 Greatest Stars of All Time" by Empire Magazine (UK).

Chaplin made his last film, The Countess from Hong Kong, in 1967, 10 years before his death. The main roles in the film were played by Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando. Chaplin himself appears in the film in the cameo role of the old steward.