Chaplin , Sir Charles Spencer
1889 – 1977
British actor and director
Chaplin was a legendary figure in is own lifetime. Aged 35 in his first year in Hollywood, he evolved the tramp character as he went along. The funny walk, the bowler hat, the cane and moustache. The baggy plants. In 1920, The Kid was an enormous box office smash, and he became an international star. Having co-founded United Arists in 1919, Chaplin resisted sound as long as he could. City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) are essentially silent movies. Though there are great moments in later movies, the use of sound revealed flaws, chiefly a tendency to become excessively sentimental. He was criticized for not to become fighting in World War I , his left wing politics, his refusal to become an American citizen, and his alleged fondness for teenage girls. He and his family were forced to move to Switzerland to during the McCarthy era, but in 1971 he returned to the United States to receive a special Academy Award.
