Charles Chaplin , page # 2

Chaplin played villains in his first film, 1913s Making a Living, and in Tillies Punctured Romance (1914), the first feature-length comedy. During his year with Sennett, he developed the character that would make him a legend, The Little Tramp, introduced in his second short , Kid Auto Races at Venice.

After a year, Chaplin left Sennett to star on his own, first in shorts, then in feature films, starting with The Kid in 1921. From then on, he would play The Little Tramp almost exclusively. Through such classics as The Pilgrim (1923) and The Gold Rush (1925), he refined his comic technique, developing a grace and emotional responsiveness rarely seen in other silent clowns. As a director, he pioneered in the symbolic use of objects to convey emotional states and comment on the action.

Chaplin was a notorious hold-out from talking pictures, preferring to remain silent in 1928s The Circus and 1931s City Lights. He finally incorporated sound effects in Modern Times (1936), in which he sang a short nonsense song, the first time film audiences heard his voice. For his first talking picture, The Great Dictator (1940), he roused controversy by satirizing Adolph Hitler. The film brought him the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor. With his 1947 black comedy, Monsieur Verdoux, Chaplin found himself vilified for his supposedly anti-American ideas. This, coupled with resentment of the fact that he had maintained his British citizenship through his profitable years in Hollywood and a series of scandals involving his predilection for young girls, led to vehement anti-Chaplin sentiments among conservative groups. He was on his way to the London premiere of Limelight in 1952 when the U.S. government informed him that he would not be allowed back into the country.

Chaplin spent the rest of his life in Switzerland. With the renewed popularity of his silent comedies, he got the chance to direct one final film, A Countess From Hong Kong, starring Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando and featuring Chaplin and his daughter Geraldine in cameo roles. He finally returned to the U.S. in 1972 to accept a special Academy Award. Chaplin passed away in 1977.