Trivia of Charlie Chaplin

 Charlie Chaplin (16 April 1889 - 25 December 1977)

*Both of Chaplin’s parents were music hall entertainers in London. In his autobiography, he described how, at age 5, his mother’s voice suddenly failed in front of a crowd of rowdy soldiers. His father who also was a stage manager ushered Charlie Chaplin onstage as a replacement.Chaplin first sang a popular song called “Jack Jones,” prompting the audience to shower him with coins. He purportedly drew big laughs by announcing that he would pick up the money before continuing. More laughter ensued when he began imitating his laryngitis-addled mother. A few years later, Chaplin made his professional debut as a member of a juvenile clog-dance troupe. He followed that up with a couple of theater roles, toured with vaudeville acts and did one disastrous night of stand-up comedy in which he was booed off the stage.

*During Chaplin’s second vaudeville tour of the United States in 1913, Keystone Studios hired him away for $150 a week. He made his first film appearance early the following year, playing an out-of-work swindler in “Making a Living (1914).” Wearing a handlebar mustache, top hat and monocle, he got in a few funny gags, particularly while fighting the story’s hero, a journalist who at one point interviews a man trapped under a car instead of helping him. Overall, though, Chaplin was appalled by his performance. “I was stiff,” he later said. “I took all the surprise out of the scenes by anticipating the next motion.” He also accused the director of cutting his best material out of jealousy.

*In 1915, Chaplin took part in the Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest. Unbelievably, the judges and audience didn’t realise that he was the real one! It is reported that, instead of winning, he took home third place.

*Becoming one of the most iconic representatives of silent cinema, Chaplin refused to adopt audio and dialogue for a long time, even though sound technology in the film industry was becoming increasingly popular. He continued with his own idea of cinema, convinced that sound would ruin the Little Tramp. However, he gradually introduced music and other sounds as a device in his later movies, including City Light (1931), Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940).

*Chaplin invited Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa to join him at the Los Angeles premier film City Lights (1931). When the house lights came up, Chaplin was surprised to see Einstein's eyes tearing at the final scene. Chaplin said in his autobiography that he had not known Einstein to be so "sentimental."

*Chaplin composed the music for many of his own movies, despite never having had proper music training. Chaplin actually won an Oscar for the music in Limelight (1952), which he helped compose.

*He and Buster Keaton had an interesting relationship. Long considered rivals but always having avoided commenting about each other in the press, Chaplin hired Keaton for a part in Limelight (1952). Keaton, who was flat broke at the time, went into a career decline after having been signed by MGM in 1928, as the studio would not let him improvise in any of his films nor allow him any writing or directorial input, and he was eventually reduced to writing gags--often uncredited--for other comedians' films. Chaplin, at this point, felt sorry for Keaton due to his hard luck, but Keaton recognized that, despite Charlie's better fortune and far greater wealth, he was (strangely) the more depressed of the two. In one scene in "Limelight", Chaplin's character was dying. While the camera was fading away, Keaton was muttering to Chaplin without moving his lips, "That's it, good, wait, don't move, wait, good, we're through." In his autobiography Keaton called Chaplin "the greatest silent comedian of all time".

*Marlon Brando played the starring role in Chaplin's last movie A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) in 1966. While Brando had always greatly admired Chaplin's work and looked upon him as "probably the most talented man the [movie] medium has ever produced", the two superstars did not get along during the shooting. In his autobiography, Brando described Chaplin as "probably the most sadistic man I'd ever met." Chaplin, on his side, said that working with Brando simply was "impossible".

*Just a few months after Chaplin’s death in 1978, two robbers stole his coffin from a Swiss cemetery and sent his wife a $600,000 ransom demand. When she refused to pay, they allegedly threatened her kids. The bungling robbers were soon caught, however, and the coffin was recovered. It was then reburied in a theft-proof concrete vault.