Charlie Chaplin Biography

Fast Facts

• Both of his parents were music-hall entertainers
• First went on stage at age 5 when his mother's voice failed her during a performance
• Lived in a series of workhouses and an orphanage as a young child
• Desperate poverty and deprivation in his childhood inspired his character The Little Tramp
• Co-founded United Artists in 1919 with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D
• W
• Griffith
• Lost a paternity suit brought against him by actress Joan Barry in 1943 despite the fact that blood tests proved that Barry's child wasn't his
• Fourth wife Oona O'Neill was the daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill; her father disinherited her after her marriage to Chaplin
• Published My Autobiography in 1964
• Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975
• Portrayed by Robert Downey Jr
• in the 1992 biopic Chaplin