" It was like tidings from heaven ", Chaplin recalled.

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.

His nephew recalled Uncle Eric laughing louder than anyone in the cinema at a Charlie Chaplin film.

Berle recalled, " There were even trips out to Hollywood — the studios paid — where I got parts in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, with Mary Pickford ; The Mark of Zorro, with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Tillie's Punctured Romance, with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler.

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.

Chaplin, 71, who met K. when the Soviet boss visited England in 1956, confided that he hopes to visit Russia some time this summer because `` I have marveled at your grandiose experiment and I believe in your future ''.

* 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 is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London.

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 ).

Because of this poverty, Chaplin was sent to a workhouse at seven years old.

The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as " a forlorn existence ".

It was an isolated performance, but at nine years old Chaplin became interested in the theatre.

Chaplin starred in the West End production at the Duke of York's Theatre from 17 October to 2 December 1905.

A contract was negotiated with Mutual that amounted to $ 670, 000 a year, making Chaplin — at 26 years old — one of the highest paid people in the world.

When their son, Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr, was born on 5 May 1925, Chaplin sent Grey and the child into hiding: it was seen as too close to their wedding, so a fake birth announcement was made to the press at the end of June.

Chaplin was markedly unhappy with the marriage, and spent long hours at the studio to avoid seeing his wife.

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

Chaplin concluded the film with a six-minute speech in which he looked straight at the camera and professed his personal beliefs.

According to Avedon, Chaplin telephoned him at his studio in New York while on a layover before the final leg of his travel to England.

Although Chaplin was known for limiting visitors to his film sets, due to Universal's involvement, he allowed several journalists to follow the shooting at Pinewood Studios.

Chaplin died in his sleep from the complications of a stroke in the early morning of 25 December 1977 at his home in Switzerland.

Chaplin believed his first influence to be his mother, who would entertain him as a child by sitting at the window and mimicking passers-by.

This is one reason why Chaplin took so much longer to complete his films than most other filmmakers at the time.

This combination of story improvisation and relentless perfectionism — which resulted in days of effort and thousands of feet of film being wasted, all at enormous expense — often proved very taxing for Chaplin, who in frustration would often lash out at his actors and crew, keep them waiting idly for hours or, in extreme cases, shutting down production altogether.

In London, a statue of him as the Tramp was unveiled in Leicester Square in 1981 and a permanent exhibition on his life and career, Charlie Chaplin – The Great Londoner, opened at the London Film Museum in 2010.

Retrospectives of his work were presented that year at The National Film Theatre in London, the Munich Stadtmuseum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which also dedicated a gallery exhibition, Chaplin: A Centennial Celebration, to him.

Chaplin was reported to be in the state of a nervous breakdown, as the story became headline news and pirated copies of the document were read by the public.

* Ralph Chaplin, " Why I Wrote Solidarity Forever ," American West, vol.

Late in his life, after he had become a voice opposing ( State ) Communists in the labor movement, Chaplin wrote an article, “ Why I wrote Solidarity Forever ,” in which he denounced the “ not-so-needy, not-so-worthy, so-called ‘ industrial unions ’ spawned by an era of compulsory unionism .” He wrote that among Wobblies “ there is no one who does not look with a rather jaundiced eye upon the ‘ success ’ of ‘ Solidarity Forever .’" " I didn't write ' Solidarity Forever ' for ambitious politicians or for job-hungry labor fakirs seeking a ride on the gravy train.

* Ralph Chaplin, " Why I Wrote Solidarity Forever ," American West, vol.

" 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, 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.

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.

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.