বাংলায় পড়ুন
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin rose to fame in an era when silent films were in vogue. Later he turned out to be a worldwide icon with the help of his screen persona ‘The Tramp’. Chaplin’s career spanned 75 years in the history of the film industry. The man, who married a teenage girl and ended up fathering 11 children, had the most outspoken political views and his Hollywood legacy is still dynamic.
Let us look at a few less known facts from his life:
Do you know the rare thing he did? He collaborated with a female filmmaker, Mabel Normand, who was a producer, director and writer as well.
He founded a movie studio along with filmmakers Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith and the first film from their studio was His Majesty, the American.
He became a member of ‘Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing’ troupe with the help of his father. He toured the music hall of Great Britain also.
Chaplin’s mother was sent to Cane Hill mental asylum. After that, he started living with their father who was an alcoholic.
In the film ‘The Immigrant’ in the year 1917, he was found doing an anti-Americanism act and he was finally forced to leave the US in the 1950s.
He quietly married 17-year-old actor Mildred Harris in September 1918 in order to avoid controversy as he came to know of her pregnancy.
He was tangled in a paternity lawsuit filed in the year1940 by Joan Barry with whom he was once involved. He was asked to pay for the child maintenance until Carole Ann turned 21 years.
He married Lita Grey in Mexico on November 25, 1924, as he came to know of her gestation. He could have been charged that time under rape under California law just because she was under 16 at that point of time.
In the year 1975, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Chaplin a knighthood.
Chaplin died at home from cardiac arrest in his sleep on 25th December 1977. However, do you know that on 1st March 1978, his coffin was dug up and it was stolen for ransom? It was re-interred with reinforced concrete in the Corsier cemetery.
