Remembering Charlie Chaplin (April 16, 1889 - Dec 25, 1977)

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin was an English Comic Actor, Film Director and Composer best known for his work in the United States during the 'Silent Film Era' who became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I.

Charlie 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.

Charlie Chaplin's most famous role was that of ''The Tramp'', which he first played in the Keystone Comedy 'Kid Auto Races at Venice' in 1914

Charlie Chaplin was writing and directing most of his films, from  ''Twenty Minutes of Love'' (April 1914) and by 1916 he was also producing them, and from 1918 he was even composing the music for them.

Charlie Chaplin Co-founded United Artists in 1919 alongwith -

Mary Pickford
Douglas Fairbanks and
D W Griffith

Charlie Chaplin's 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.

Recognition and Awards

• Received the 1st Academy Award in 1929 - Special Award "for versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing ''The Circus''

• Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he [Chaplin] has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972

 

• Received the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1973, for ''Limelight'' . Although the film had originally been released in 1952, due to Chaplin's political difficulties at the time, it did not play for one week in Los Angeles, and thus did not meet the criterion for nomination until it was re-released in 1972

• The American Film Institute in 1999 ranked Charlie Chaplin the 10th -greatest Male Screen Legend of All-time 

• Charlie Chaplin's Films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry

            Six of Charlie Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation are -

                                 The Immigrant (1917)

                                 The Kid (1921)

                                 The Gold Rush (1925)

                                 City Lights (1931)

                                 Modern Times (1936)and

                                 The Great Dictator (1940)

                                                                     

• George Bernard Shaw called Charlie Chaplin "the only genius to come out of the movie industry  

         Statue of Chaplin as the Tramp in Leicester Square, London