Charlie Chaplin: Career, Movies, Height, Hit Movies, Roles

A man who  had not  said a lot yet, made us feel a lot. Charlie Chaplin was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars since its beginning. He played a big role in Hollywood movies during the silent era of the film industry.  My favorites happen to be the best movies of Charlie Chaplin! 

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin is one of the most, if not the most, recognized faces from that era of Hollywood. With his alter ego character of the Tramp, he became an icon.

Spanning a career of over seven decades, Chaplin’s life is full of scandals, controversies, and admiration. So, without wasting any more time, let’s get into it.   

Personal Biography

Before we know the man behind his Tramp persona, let’s get some details about his life. 

Early Life Of Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was born to two music hall performers, Hannah Harriet Pedlingham and Charles Chaplin. After his parents separated, his mother tried to pursue her music career, but her voice occasionally broke at critical moments. That is when the stage producer saw little five-year-old Chaplin singing popular songs. 

Both Charlie and his half-brother Syd Chaplin had a tough childhood as they had to live in charity homes while dealing with their mother’s insanity. In 1903, their mother was put in Cane Hill Asylum till the year 1921, which is when Charlie moved her and took her to California.   

Charlie dealt with poverty, hardship, and challenges his whole childhood. He was sent to Central London District School, and then he and his brother were sent to Norwood School for needy children.   

In his childhood, Chaplin said, “I was hardly aware of the crisis because we lived in continual crisis; and, being a boy, I dismissed our troubles with gracious forgetfulness.”

While in school, Charlie used his talents of singing and dancing to good use and was a part of the Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing team. With them, he toured several English music halls from 1899 to 1900. At 14, he left school and tried to become an actor.   

He was first seen in a production of Sherlock Holmes by Charles Frohman. Critics well appreciated his role. Then he started appearing in more plays for more than two years.  Who knew that soon the world would know the best movies of Charlie Chaplin? 

Career: Filmography Of Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin’s career began when he found new companies approaching him, and he pursued these opportunities with his brother. The acting was for a comedy play, Repairs.   

Later, Chaplin joined a circus, where he created popular burlesque choreographies. By the time he became 18, he was already an established comic performer. Due to his pale and shy appearance, he quickly signed a contract with Karno. There, Chaplin played the role of Jimmy the Fearless. This also became one of the best movies of Charlie Chaplin.  

Chaplin slowly entered the film industry with Key Studios from comic plays like these. With them, his debut film was Making a Living; although Chaplin didn’t like the film, critics praised it. But for the movie Mabel’s Strange Predicament, Chaplin debuted his most popular and iconic persona of the Tramp.   

The actor was facing issues with the director of his 11th movie, which almost cost him the movie. However, two options were in front of him: direct the next film or pay $1,500 if this one flops.  

However, his directorial debut was a huge hit! This would soon be added to the list of best movies of Charlie Chaplin.  

From then on, he appeared in films like Tillie’s Punctured Romance.  After this, he left Keystone and Joined Essanay Film Manufacturing Company; he did movies like A Night Out, The Champion, and The Bank with them. By 1915, Chaplin became a cultural icon with his persona, the Tramp.  

Merchandise and comic strips were sold with his persona.   

Fame & Popularity: Best Movies Of Charlie Chaplin

“Chaplinitis had spread across America,” said a journalist in Motion Picture Magazine. He started getting offers from Vitagraph and Universal Fox, but the best offer came from Mutual Film. With $270,000 a year, “Chaplin at 26 years old- one of the highest paid people in the world.”  

With producers Eric Campbell and Albert Austin, he made movies like The Fireman, The Floorwalker, The Count, The Vagabond, and One A.M. Then again, he did The Rink, The Pawnshop, Behind the Screen, Easy Street, The Immigrant, The Adventurer, and the Cure.  

After his contract with Mutual ended, he signed a new contract with First National Exhibitor’s Circuit. With them, his first movie was A Dog’s Life, playing the character of a sad clown, then Shoulder Arms. He then created his own production company, United Artists, feeling unhappy with First Nationals.   

For United Artists, his first movie was Sunnyside, and then came his longest movie to date, The Kid, at 68 minutes. The latter was one of the best movies of Charlie Chaplin. Then came his movie The Idle Class; finally, he released The Pilgrim and Pay Day to complete the contract with First Nationals.   

Some of the best movies of Charlie Chaplin are irreplaceable to date! For instance, A Woman of Paris, The Gold Rush, The Circus, and City Lights. Chaplin was great at making films based on real events, just like during the Industrial Revolution in America.  

He made Modern Times, and The Great Dictator came during the Second World War. 

Personal Life

Chaplin’s personal life was nothing less than dramatic, dealing with one controversy after another. The first record is of his marriage to Mildred Harris, who was only 16 years old. This was after the young girl was falsely claiming she was bearing his child.  

Subsequently, Chaplin discovered the falsehood and was unhappy with the union. Eventually, the couple became pregnant. However, the baby’s life was only three days short.  

That union ended with a divorce. During the shooting of The Gold Rush, Chaplin met Lita Grey, and they got into a relationship. However, shortly after the relationship, marriage was on the cards for the couple after the actress’ pregnancy.  

At the time, she was only 16 years old, and Chaplin was 35. The possibility of a rape case against Chaplin was very high. However, they marry, with his family growing up with two sons.  

Even after marriage, Chaplin had affairs, which resulted in his divorce, which was the costliest one at that time. Theirs was a bitter divorce and highly publicized.   

Chaplin met his third wife, Paulette Goddard, when she was 21. But their marriage didn’t last long, and the couple soon divorced. During the 1940s, actress Joan Barry accused Chaplin that she was carrying his child and filed a suit against him for paternity.   

A display of obsessive behavior towards Chaplin already got her behind bars twice. Subsequently, an FBI investigation against him resembled a smear campaign. After giving birth to the child, the results of a paternity test found Chaplin to be the father.   

Controversies tripled when Charlie secretly married Oona O’Neil, his 18-year-old protegee. At the time, she said meeting Chaplin was “the happiest event of my life.” At the time, Charlie Chaplin was 54 years old. The couple had eight children together and stayed married till his death.  

Wrapping Up!

Charlie Chaplin was controversial and scandalous, yet we can’t dismiss his impact on the film industry. He truly was an icon then and is still an icon with his amazing on-screen persona, The Tramp.  

Which one do you think are  the best movies of Charlie Chaplin? Comment below! 

Film critic Andres Sarris said, “Chaplin arguably the single most important artist produced by the cinema, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon.”

No wonder he is the “10th Greatest Male Star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.” 

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