April 16th: Birth of Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16th 1889. Here are 10 facts about Charlie Chaplin:

1. Showbusiness was in his blood. Both his parents were accomplished actors and singers, although the family was poor and Chaplin's childhood went from one crisis to another, including two stays in a workhouse before the age of nine, his parents splitting up, his mother's mental illness and early death.
2. His first acting role was at the age of twelve, when he played "Billy" the page boy, with William Gillette in Sherlock Holmes.
3. His older brother, Sydney, helped start Charlie Chaplin off in his comedy career. Sydney had joined Fred Karno's comedy company and was doing very well, and was able to get Charlie a trial with the company. It almost didn't happen, as Karno's initial impresson of Charlie was "a pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster who looked much too shy to do any good in the theatre." Charlie, however, soon proved him wrong.
4. He got into films while touring with Karno in the US - he was as popular there as in London, and was approached by the New York Motion Picture Company who thought he would be perfect for their Keystone comedies. Although Chaplin wasn't overly impressed with the Keystone comedies, the chance to start a new life and work in the fledgling media of film was too good to pass up. His first film was a short called Making a Living. Chaplin hated the film, but it got him noticed by reviewers.
5. His famous "Tramp" character first appeared in a film called Kid Auto Races at Venice, although it wasn't the first film Chaplin made starring the character. Another film, Mabel's Strange Predicament was made earlier, but released later.
6. In 1923, after starring in 70 comedy films, he tried his hand at directing a serious film called A Woman of Paris. He appeared in an uncredited cameo role as a railway porter.
7. The advent of the "talkies" was not welcomed by Chaplin. He felt that his "tramp" character would not be as popular worldwide as non-English speaking audiences would no longer relate to him. He chose to make the 1931 film City Lights as a silent film and simply ignore the new sound technology. Although the film was a success, Chaplin didn't think he could continue making silent films in the face of the new trend, so he took 16 months off and went travelling, and considered retiring to China.
8. Chaplin won three Academy Awards. His first was in 1929 for a film called The Circus, for "Versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing". However, the award didn't make up for the difficulties he'd experienced in making the film, and in his autobiography, he chose not to mention it at all. It coincided with a messy divorce from Lita Grey. Lita's lawyers were doing all they could to saboutage Chaplin's career, which meant smuggling the film to a safe hiding place to stop the lawyers from seizing it. Sets destroyed by high winds and fire, shots ruined by lab mistakes, and students stealing the circus wagons added to the stress.
9. Charlie Chaplin was an accomplished musician and composer as well as an actor. He wrote and published songs, played the violin and cello left handed, and composed the scores for some of his films. He had never trained as a musician, though - he could not read music and needed help from professional composers when composing film scores.
10. He was a writer, too, and wrote at least four autobiographical books about his life and travels. He also wrote the scripts to all his films.