Chaplin

The sight of this man is all too familiar. He is wearing baggy, oversized pants, shoes on the wrong feet, a bowler hat, sports a carefully trimmed moustache, and carries a cane wherever he goes. His awkward actions amused us, enthralled us, and captivated us. Most of his movies are considered classics which deserve to be viewed by everyone at least once. Formally, he is known as Sir Charles Chaplin, but to all of us, he is simply Charlie Chaplin.

Chaplin was born Charles Spencer Chaplin on the 16th of April, 1889 in London. His parents, Charles Chaplin, Sr. and Hannah Hill, were both music hall entertainers, so it was not surprising that he was taught to sing before he could even talk. His childhood was not all wine and roses, though. The first fourteen years of his life was marked by wretched poverty, hunger, cruelty and loneliness. His father died of alcoholism in 1901 and subsequently, his mother became a chronically psychotic woman constantly in and out of mental institutions. It was during this period that Charlie and his brother, Sidney, were placed in a charity home.

His escape from gruelling poverty was through the theater. After all, he was told at a very young age that he would be the most pamous person in the world. If anyone were to live up to that billing, it would be young Charlie. At five, he sang for his mother on stage after she became ill. The audience absolutely loved him, and threw their money on stage. From then on he would enrol in dancing acts and become one of the most popular chold actors in England.

As the years passed, his voice changed, and he realised that he could not remain a child actor in the legimate theater. He was forced back into Vaudeville where he discovered his gift for comic pantomime. In between, he found time to earn extra money. His places of employment included a barbershop, a stationery store, a doctor's office, a glass factory and a printing plant. He remained a few more years in Vaudeville before he came to the United States as a top comedian. He was barely twenty years old.

Charlie made his first tour of the United States in 1910 with the Karno Pantomime Troupe. Then, film producer Mark Sennett saw the abundant talent and charisma in Charlie and signed him to his Keystone Films company for $150 a week. Charlie made his first film in 1914, "Making A Living". In the same year, he made "Kid Auto Races At Venice" and "Mabel's Strange Predicament", where he first emerged as the "Tramp" character, donning his signature costume, a costume in which he would be remembered by for years and years to come.

With his immediate fame, he signed on to Essanay Films in November 1914 for a whopping $1,250 a week. Within a year, Charlie had revolutionised film comedy, transforming it into an art form by introducing characterisation, mime and slapstick. He had become a household word. Cartoons, poems and comic strips about Charlie appeared in newspapers. Even Chaplin dolls and toys were manufactured.

His immense fame was such that by the early 1920's no studio could afford his talents. He held his own by being an independent filmmaker, where he directed, produced and starred in his own films. This led him to form United Artists with fellow stars Douglad Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, along with director D.W. Griffith. They formed United Artists to distribute their films independently without studio interference.

Under United Artists, he released his most famous films which brought both admiration and controversy. They include "The Kid" (1920), "The Gold Rush" (1925), "City Lights" (1931), "Modern Times" (1936), "The Great Dictator" (1940), "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947) and "Limelight" (1952). He was already internationally regarded as the most famous person in the world.

By the late 1930's, "talkies" started coming out, which ultimately disgusted Charlie. The king of silent cinema remarked that "talkies" are spoiling the art of pantomime, ruining the great beauty of silence, and defeating the meaning of the screen. Before commenting on that his life had been relatively quiet and scandal-free.

Then, in 1953, Charlie was accused of being a communist, and had his re-entry permit to the United States revoked. The FBI carried out a thorough investigation on him. It did not help much that Charlie's reputation was never good with the FBI. To deter him, the FBI bugged telephones and hotel rooms with devices they called "Microphone Technicals", and put stops on border posts to prevent Charlie's leaving the country if he had been so inclined. It was during this troublesome period that he suffered a serious nervous breakdown and was plagued by a fear of failure. Finally, the FBI admitted that they had no evidence to support the beliefs that Charlie was a communist.

Amidst all the false accusations, he made his final film in 1967, "A Countess From Hong Kong", which, sadly, was totally out of place in a cinematic era where "Bonnie And Clyde" and "The Graduate" became classic films. The film did not justify his amazing career that spanned over 50 years.

Tired of filmmaking and feeling shunned by the Americans, he made his new home in Switzerland. He felt the happiest there, far away from fame and misfortune, in the company of his wife, Oona, and children. Charlie felt happy for the first time in a long while.

In 1972, he made his final return to the United States, where he was honoured at the Academy Awards as a wonderful comedian, actor and loving person. Strangely enough, he had not won an Oscar before that. The huge crowd of people, fellow actors, producers and directors loved him still, and gave him a standing ovation.

The final feather on his cap came in 1975 when Charlie was knighted by the queen of England for his outstanding contributions to the entertainment industry. Even when receiving this tremendous honour he remained a modest and caring man who never forgot who helped him to the top.

On Christmas day of an already eventful year of 1977, Charlie Chaplin passed away of natural causes in his home in Switzerland. He was 88 years old. The world mourned the loss of the greatest entertainer of all time. But even so, most people tried to look at the brighter side of things. They found comfort in knowing that although he had passed away, his legacy will live on for generations to come.

In 1992, as a tribute of sorts, an autobiographical film was released to chronicle the life of Charlie, cimply entitled "Chaplin". Young actor Robert Downey, Jr. portrayed the legend himself with outright conviction, and for his efforts, he received an Academy Award nomination for best actor, something which eluded even Charlie himself.

Recently, film critic Andrew Sarris called Chaplin "the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer, and probably still its most universal icon." Suffice to say, Charlie had an impact on everyone's life. If laughter is indeed medicine, he gave us an overdose. He put a lot of colour in everyone's lives although his movies were in black and white. And all he wanted to do when he first started out was to make us smile.

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