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Date of Birth
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in London, England. -
Beginning of his career
Charlie started a career as a comedian in vaudeville as a featured player with the Fred Karno Repertoire Company -
First motion picture contract
When the Fred Karno troupe returned to the United States in the fall of 1912 for a repeat tour, Chaplin was offered a motion picture contract -
Comedies
Charlie was even more in demand and signed with the Mutual Film Corporation for a much larger sum to make 12 two-reel comedies. -
Gaining independence
When his contract with Mutual expired, Chaplin decided to become an independent producer in a desire for more freedom and greater leisure in making his movies. To that end, he busied himself with the construction of his own studios. -
First independent film
His first film under this new deal was "A Dog’s Life" -
United Artists Corporation
Chaplin joined with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith to found the United Artists Corporation -
The Kid (1921)
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The first Academy Award
"The Circus" won Charles Chaplin his first Academy Award – it was still not yet called the ‘Oscar’ – he was given it at the first presentations ceremony, in 1929. -
Modern Times
Chaplin was acutely preoccupied with the social and economic problems of this new age. -
The Great Dictator
In the film Chaplin plays a dual role –a Jewish barber who lost his memory in a plane accident in the first war, and Hynkel, the dictator leader of Ptomania -
Monsieur Verdoux
The idea was originally suggested by Orson Welles, as a project for a dramatised documentary on the career of the legendary French murder Henri Désiré Landru – who was executed in 1922, having murdered at least ten women, two dogs and one boy. -
Limelight
Limelight's story of a once famous music hall artist whom nobody finds amusing any longer may well have been similarly autobiographical as a sort of nightmare scenario -
The last film
In 1966 he produced his last picture, “A Countess from Hong Kong” for Universal Pictures, his only film in colour, starring Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando. -
Date of death
He died on Christmas day 1977, survived by eight children from his last marriage with Oona O’Neill, and one son from his short marriage to Lita Grey.