Sir Charles Spencer " Charlie " Chaplin, KBE ( 16 April 188925 December 1977 ) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era.

Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era.

Chaplin was identified with left-wing politics during the McCarthy era and he was ultimately forced to resettle in Europe from 1952.

In 2008, Martin Sieff, in a review of the book Chaplin: A Life, wrote: " Chaplin was not just ' big ', he was gigantic.

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin ( née Hill, 1865 – 1928 ) and Charles Chaplin Sr. ( 1863 – 1901 ).

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

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

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.

" For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother were sent to live with their father, whom the young boy scarcely knew.

Charles Chaplin Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life with the man was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

" There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate ", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928.

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

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

Chaplin worked hard and the act was popular with audiences, but dancing did not satisfy the child and he dreamt of forming a comedy act.

The manager sensed potential in Chaplin and he was soon on the stage.

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

Chaplin quickly began work in another role, touring with his brother — who was also pursuing an acting career — in a comedy sketch called Repairs.

It was popular with audiences and Chaplin became the star of the show.

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

Unlike some of his contemporaries, and along with other British actors such as Basil Rathbone and Charlie Chaplin, Bruce maintained his British citizenship, despite long residence in the United States.

In the late 1940s, Chaplin moved to MGM to work on a long string of films including On the Town ( 1949 ), Kiss Me Kate ( 1953 ), High Society ( 1956 ) and Merry Andrew ( 1958 ).

After clashing with Von Sternberg, White left his employment to work for Charlie Chaplin, who decided before long to place her in front of the camera.

A & M Records long occupied a studio off Sunset Boulevard built by Charlie Chaplin ( who wrote the music for his own films ).

Based on the life of comedian Charles Chaplin and named after his most famous character, it opens at the 1971 Academy Awards ceremony at which the aging star, long exiled from the United States, is about to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

His professional record was 58-17-1 with 48 knockouts, defeating Gerrie Coetzee, Jimmy Young, James " Quick " Tillis, Renaldo Snipes, George Chaplin twice, Larry Alexander, Stan Ward, Alfredo Evangelista, Scott LeDoux, James Broad, James " Bonecrusher " Smith, and Tim Witherspoon in an exceptionally long career, and was a regular sparring partner for Mike Tyson, famously knocking the champ down in a 1990 session.

Henry Bergman ( February 23, 1868 – October 22, 1946 ) was an American actor of stage and film, known for his long association with Charlie Chaplin.

" Such hyperbole is somewhat disingenuous ; in 1915, Chaplin had begun work on Life, his first feature-length comedy, but the studio had stepped in and stopped the production as Chaplin was taking too long — what they really needed was one-reel subjects to fill then voracious public demand for Chaplin's work.

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 ''.

* 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s.

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin the 10th greatest male screen legend of all time.

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 ).

Chaplin proceeded to direct every short film in which he appeared for Keystone, approximately one per week, which he remembered as the most exciting time of his career.

Chaplin asserted a high level of control over his pictures, and started to put more time and care into each film.

With the new year, however, Chaplin began to demand more time.

It was around this time that Chaplin began to conceive the Tramp as " a sort of Pierrot ", or sad clown.

The star's primary concern in finding a new distributor was independence ; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press: " Charlie be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing the way he wants ...

Following its September 1921 release, Chaplin chose to return to England for the first time in almost a decade.

While making The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time.

David Robinson notes that the film provided " a welcome distraction " from the " wretchedness " of his home life ; Grey was pregnant for a second time, frustrating Chaplin and exacerbating difficulties between the pair.

Chaplin finished editing the picture in December 1930, by which time silent films were an anachronism.

Some time later, Chaplin revealed that they married in Canton during this trip.

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.

In order to promote the re-releases, Chaplin travelled to the US in 1972 for the first time in twenty years to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Lincoln Center Film Society and an Academy Honorary Award for " the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century ".

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

For the first time in many years, German audiences had free access to cinema from around the world and in this period the films of Charlie Chaplin remained popular, as were melodramas from the United States.

Eisenstein and his entourage spent considerable time with Charlie Chaplin, who recommended that Eisenstein meet with a sympathetic benefactor in the person of American socialist author Upton Sinclair.

According to Mills, " It ’ s time for the Academy to recognize this genius ," adding that " We applauded when the great Chaplin finally had his hour.

The breakaway group felt that his work was no longer relevant, while having appreciated it " in its own time ," and asserted their belief " that the most urgent expression of freedom is the destruction of idols, especially when they claim to represent freedom ," in this case, filmmaker Charlie Chaplin.

Chaplin first thought of the film's famous final scene where the newly cured blind girl sees the Little Tramp for the first time.

As a filmmaker, Chaplin was known for being a perfectionist ; he was notable for doing many more " takes " than other directors at the time.

Filming the scene continued until February 1929 and again for ten days in early April before Chaplin put the scene aside to be filmed at a later time.

This time the scene was completed in six days and Chaplin was happy with Cherrill's performance.