Charles spencer chaplin

CHARLES SPENCER CHAPLIN ONE OF THE BIGGEST STARS OF THE 20TH CENTURY'S SILENT-FILM ERA.

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER • Born Charles Spencer Chaplin in London, England, on April 16, 1889, Charlie Chaplin's rise to fame is a true rags-to-riches story.

• His father, a notorious drinker, abandoned Chaplin, his mother and his older half-brother, Sydney, not long after Chaplin's birth.

• That left Chaplin and his brother in the hands of their mother, a vaudevillian and music hall singer who went by the stage name Lily Harley.

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER • Chaplin's mother, who would later suffer severe mental issues and have to be committed to an asylum, was able to support her family for a few years. • But in a performance that would introduce her youngest boy to the spotlight, Hannah inexplicably lost her voice in the middle of a show, prompting the production manager to push the five-year-old Chaplin, whom he'd heard sing, onto the stage to replace her.

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER • Chaplin lit up the audience, wowing them with his natural presence and comedic angle (at one point he imitated his mother's cracking voice).

• But the episode meant the end for Hannah. Her singing voice never returned, and she eventually ran out of money.

• For a time, Charlie and Sydney had to make a new, temporary home for themselves in London's tough workhouses.

THE KID (1921)

Cast

Complete credited cast:

Carl Miller

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The Man

Edna Purviance

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The Woman

Jackie Coogan

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The Child (as Jack Coogan)

Charles Chaplin

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A Tramp (as Charlie Chaplin)

THE KID

THE KID • Storyline • The opening title reads: "A comedy with a smile-and perhaps a tear". As she leaves the charity hospital and passes a church wedding, Edna deposits her new baby with a pleading note in a limousine and goes off to commit suicide.

• The limo is stolen by thieves who dump the baby by a garbage can. Charlie the Tramp finds the baby and makes a home for him.

THE KID • Five years later Edna has become an opera star but does charity work for slum youngsters in hope of finding her boy. A doctor called by Edna discovers the note with the truth about the Kid and reports it to the authorities who come to take him away from Charlie. • Before he arrives at the Orphan Asylum Charlie steals him back and takes him to a flophouse. The proprietor reads of a reward for the Kid and takes him to Edna. Charlie is later awakened by a kind policeman who reunites him with the Kid at Edna's mansion.