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Charlie Chaplin was born Charles Spencer Chaplin in London, England in 1889. His parents were music hall entertainers, but they separated when Charlie was only three, and his mother had mental problems and was in and out of asylums, and his father died when he was 12.

Charlie had an older half-brother Syd, and they pretty much raised themselves, working in music halls from when they were very young. In 1910, Charlie joined a traveling troupe that went to the U.S., and returned in 1912.

In 1913, he was seen by Mack Sennett, who hired him for his Keystone Comedies. His first movie was Making a Living in 1914, and it was not a success, but in his second movie, Kid Auto Races at Venice, he invented his famous character, The Tramp. This was a huge success, and Chaplin started directing and writing many of his movies, most with his Tramp persona.

He became Keystone's greatest star. In 1916, the Mutual Company paid Chaplin $670 to create 12 two-reel comedies, and some of these were among his very best movies, like Easy Street, and One A.M. These movies made him so popular that his older movies were constantly being shown throughout the late 1910s.

In 1918, he signed an 8 movie million dollar contract with First National. He had complete control over these movies. In 1919, he co-founded United Artists with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith, but he couldn't make movies for UA until he had satisfied his First National contract, which he did with The Kid, A Dog's Life, and others.

At United Artists, he was finally absolutely in control of his movies, and he started taking longer and longer to make each one, because he had no one to answer to. In 1925, he made The Gold Rush for United Artists, considered by most to be his masterpiece.

When sound came to movies, Chaplin resisted, and he made City Lights in 1931 as a silent movie with a musical soundtrack, and his Modern Times in 1936 had mostly only sound effects and next-to-no dialog.

In 1940, Chaplin made The Great Dictator (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), a black comic attack on Nazism, with Chaplin playing a crazed Hitler-like character. It was quite daring for its day, and is a wonderful movie. His next movie was not until 1947 and it was the ultrablack comedy, Monsieur Verdoux, and while it was not successful on its first release many people (including myself) think it is a wonderful movie.

Chaplin made three more movies, and passed away in 1977 at the age of 88. He had many wives, underage girlfriends, and children, and was involved in many scandals. But he was surely the most influential person in the history of the movies, and was a master actor, director and writer, and we will never see his like again! AND Paulette Goddard was an actress from the 1930s to the 1970s (she had 14 bit parts between 1929 and 1935, but she really started in movies with "Modern Times" in 1936). Some of her movies include: Modern Times, The Great Dictator, The Women, So Proudly We Hail (nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for this film), and The Cat and the Canary. She was discovered by Charlie Chaplin, whom she was married to for 6 years. Goddard passed away in 1990 at the age of 79. AND Jackie Cooper was a famous juvenile actor in the 1920s and 1930s, who moved into directing and producing, and also did much TV in the 1950s. In later years, he resurfaced as an actor in the Superman movies as Perry White! Some of his movies include: Superman, Skippy (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), and Treasure Island, The Navy Comes Through. He also starred in the TV series "The People's Choice" in the 1950s. He passed away in 2011 at the age of 88.

Important Added Info: Note that this news photo, which measures 6 1/2" x 8 1/2" [17 x 22 cm], was taken at the premiere of Jackie Cooper's latest movie, The Bowery, and he posed for a photo between Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard!

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