Charlie ChaplinThe Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin

The Only Genius To Come Out Of The Movie Industry

Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplin,  (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor and film director of the silent film era. He became one of the best-known film stars in the world before the end of the First World War. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. From the April 1914 one-reeler Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he wrote and directed most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing, and from 1918 composed the music. With Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919.

Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the Music Hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private life encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin’s identification with the left ultimately forced him to resettle in Europe during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s.

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Chaplin the 10th greatest male screen legend of all time. In 2008, Martin Sieff, in a review of the book Chaplin: A Life, wrote: “Chaplin was not just ‘big’, he was gigantic. In 1915, he burst onto a war-torn world bringing it the gift of comedy, laughter and relief while it was tearing itself apart through World War I. Over the next 25 years, through the Great Depression and the rise of Adolf Hitler, he stayed on the job. … It is doubtful any individual has ever given more entertainment, pleasure and relief to so many human beings when they needed it the most”. George Bernard Shaw called Chaplin “the only genius to come out of the movie industry”. (Source: Wikipedia.com)

Movies

Vintage Film Strip

  • Unknown Chaplin: The Master at Work (1986)
    The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin This post is part of a featured series on this website. [More...] With bowler hat, mustache and cane, Charlie Chaplin became one of the twentieth century's most recognized and beloved icons. But for decades, the secrets to his timeless film magic were presumed lost forever to [More...]

  • On DVD: Chaplin Mutual Comedies – Restored Edition (1916)
    The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin This post is part of a featured series on this website. [More...] Twelve films directed and written by Charlie Chaplin, with new orchestral scores composed and conducted by Carl Davis! Restored from premier quality original 35mm film! This edition of The Chaplin Mutual Comedies has been [More...]

  • The Kid (2 Disc Special Edition) (1921) with Charles Chaplin and Edna Purviance
    The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin This post is part of a featured series on this website. [More...] For the first time as a filmmaker, Chaplin stepped into feature-length storytelling with this tale of the down- but-never-out Tramp (Chaplin) and the adorable ragamuffin (6-year-old Jackie Coogan) who, rescued as a foundling and [More...]

  • DVD: Chaplin (15th Anniversary Edition) (1992) Robert Downey Jr.
    The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin This post is part of a featured series on this website. [More...] ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. captures the essence of comic genius Charlie Chaplin in a compelling, nuanced performance that earned him Oscar(r) and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor. Director Richard Attenborough's well-crafted portrait traces Chaplin's [More...]

  • Modern Times (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (1905)
    The Knighted Comedian: Charles Spencer Chaplin This post is part of a featured series on this website. [More...] Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp, puts the iconic character to work as a giddily inept factory employee who becomes smitten with a gorgeous gamine (Paulette Goddard). With its barrage [More...]

Literature
 
Go To Top »