His mother and father had married four years previously, at which time Chaplin Sr. became the legal carer of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John ( 1885 – 1965 ).

" His early years were spent with his mother and brother in the London district of Kennington ; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no support for his sons.

In September 1898, Hannah Chaplin was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum — she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by malnutrition and an infection of syphilis.

Chaplin recalled his anguish at the news: " Why had she done this?

Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary.

Hannah had been booed off stage, and the manager chose Chaplin, who was standing in the wings, to go on as her replacement.

By age 13 Chaplin had fully abandoned education.

By 1908, Sydney Chaplin had become a star of Fred Karno's prestigious comedy company.

Chaplin recalled: " I had a disquieting feeling of sinking back into a depressing commonplaceness ", and was therefore " elated " when a new tour began in October.

A member of NYMPC had seen Chaplin perform ( accounts of whom and where vary ) and felt that he would make a good replacement for Fred Mace, outgoing star of their Keystone Studios.

Chaplin only had a supporting role, but the movie's success meant it was pivotal in advancing his career.

The court dismissed this claim since he had failed to fulfil his contract requirements, but Chaplin subsequently ensured that every contract he signed prohibited the alteration of his finished products.

The Mutual contract stipulated that Chaplin release a two-reel film every four weeks, which he had managed to meet.

Shortly before this, Chaplin and his wife had separated after 18 months of marriage — they were " irreconcilably mismated ", he remembered.

During production of the film Chaplin had been involved with the actress Pola Negri, a romantic pairing that received vast media interest.

At a cost of almost $ 1, 000, 000, Chaplin felt it was the best film he had made to that point.

Unwilling to allow his film to be drawn into the divorce proceedings, Chaplin announced that production on The Circus had been temporarily suspended.

When filming began at the end of 1928, Chaplin had been working on the story for almost a year.

It was a challenging production that lasted 21 months, with Chaplin later confessing that he " had worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection ".

City Lights had been a success, but Chaplin was unsure if he could make another picture without dialogue.

The trip had been a stimulating experience for Chaplin, including meetings with several prominent thinkers, and he became increasingly interested in world affairs.

In 1942, Chaplin had a brief affair with Joan Barry, whom he was considering for a starring role in a proposed film.

Chaplin's second wife, Lita Grey, later asserted that Chaplin had paid corrupt government officials to tamper with the blood test results.

In February 2012 an MI5 file on Chaplin was opened to the public which revealed that the FBI had contacted the British secret service to provide them with information which would enable them to ban Chaplin from the US.

Mirroring the circumstances of his first union, Lita Grey was a teenage actress — originally set to star in The Gold Rush — whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage.

After the success of The Circus, Chaplin had originally wanted to make a film about a circus clown who goes blind and has to conceal his handicap from his young daughter by pretending that his inability to see were pratfalls.

* includes Bars And Shadows: The Prison Poems Of Ralph Chaplin originally published in 1922 and then in 2004 as Project Gutenberg EBook.

The original story was written by Orson Welles, who originally wanted to direct the film with Chaplin in the title role.

The character of the Tramp was originally created by accident while Chaplin was working at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studio.

The parish Church, dedicated to Saint Vedast, also houses The Hamby Monument, a wall monument originally constructed around 1620, and later restored by their descendants, the Chaplin family.

Some early accounts describing the region state that the name " Old Wives Lake " was originally applied to both the lake that currently bears that name and to nearby Chaplin Lake.

The film also includes a scene in which Mrs Walker watches a parodic TV advertisement for the fictional product " Rex Baked Beans "; the costumes in this segment were originally made for the lavish masked ball sequence in Richard Lester's version of The Three Musketeers, and the dress worn by the Queen in the Rex ad is that worn by Geraldine Chaplin in the earlier film.

It featured a live version of the previously unreleased Chaplin / Fataar / Love collaboration " We Got Love ", which was originally intended to be released on the Holland album, but was considered too weak a song to be included at that time.

:* Often used as alternate title for the song " Eternally " by Charlie Chaplin, originally written for the 1952 film.

One of Nikita Khrushchev's most enthusiastic eulogizers, the U.S.S.R.'s daily Izvestia, enterprisingly interviewed Red-prone Comedian Charlie Chaplin at his Swiss villa, where he has been in self-exile since 1952.

* Borzoi can also been seen in cameo roles in the films Love at First Bite, Legends of the Fall (" Notchee Boy "), Excalibur, All Dogs Go to Heaven ( 1989 ), Bride of Frankenstein, Easter Parade, Wolfen, Ziegfeld Follies, Onegin ( 1999 ), Gangs of New York ( 2002 ), Chaplin, The Avengers ( TV series ), JAG, Maverick ( 1994 ), Sleepy Hollow, Last Action Hero, and A Knights Tale ( on the DVD deleted scenes ).

There has never been so instantaneous a hit as that of Chas Chaplin ".

She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with de facto rape under California law.

There were strong parallels between Chaplin and the German dictator, having been born four days apart and raised in similar circumstances.

Chaplin decided not to re-enter the United States, writing: " Since the end of the last world war, I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America's yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted.

Chaplin would sever the last of his professional ties to the United States in 1955, when he sold the remainder of his stock in the United Artists, which had been in financial difficulties for some time.

The first of the re-releases was The Chaplin Revue ( 1959 ), which included new versions of A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms and The Pilgrim, and How to Make Movies, a film he had made in 1918 to show his new studio and which had never before been released.

Due to his complete independence as a filmmaker, Chaplin has been identified by Andrew Sarris as one of the first auteur filmmakers.

Several memorials have been dedicated to Chaplin.

Since 2011 the town has also been host to the annual Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival, which was founded to celebrate Chaplin's legacy and to showcase new comic talent.

Chaplin has also been remembered in several other ways.

Chaplin has been portrayed in several films.

Chaplin has also been the subject of a musical, Limelight – The Story of Charlie Chaplin by Christopher Curtis and Thomas Meehan, which was performed at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2010.

When he briefly returned to the United States in 1972, the Lincoln Center Film Society honoured him with a gala and awarded him a lifetime achievement award, which has since been awarded annually to filmmakers as The Chaplin Award.

Chaplin was also given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1970, after having been excluded due to his political beliefs when the project was initially started in 1958.

Keller and Chaplin shared anti-capitalist views ; Keller and Twain were both considered radicals at the beginning of the 20th century, and as a consequence, their political views have been forgotten or glossed over in popular perception.