Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, popularly known as Charlie Chaplin was born this day in 1889. His prolific acting and filmmaking skills helped him rise to stardom in the silent film era in the early twentieth century. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, The Tramp, and is considered one of the key figures in Hollywood’s history. His career as actor, filmmaker, composer spanned over 75 years, from childhood till the day he breathed his last.
Charlie Chaplin believed his first influence towards performing arts to be his mother, who entertained him as a child by sitting at the window and mimicking passers-by. About this he said: “it was through watching her that I learned not only how to express emotions with my hands and face, but also how to observe and study people.”
From the film industry, he drew upon the work of the French comedian Max Linder, whose films he greatly admired. In developing the Tramp costume and persona, he took an inspiration from the American vaudeville scene, where tramp characters were commonly seen.
For his second appearance in front of the camera, Chaplin selected the costume with which he became identified. He described the process in his autobiography: “I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large ... I added a small moustache, which, I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born.”
Charlie Chaplin began performing live at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. He was signed by the prestigious Fred Karno company, which took him to America when was 19 years old. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in films in 1914. By 1915, Chaplin became a cultural phenomenon. He was featured in cartoons and comic strips, and several songs were written about him while shops would be overflowing with Chaplin merchandise. This fame and fanfare was termed ‘Chaplinitis’ which had by then spread across America. By 1918, he was one of the best-known figures in the world.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists which gave him full control over his films. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). Even with the dawn of sound in the talkies, he refused to move to sound and instead produced City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. His political views started seeing the light of day by this time and his next film The Great Dictator (1940) was a satire on the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
From a life led by example and huge inspiration for everyone from several walks of life, Charlie Chaplin was a larger-than-life artist. On his 130th birth anniversary today, here are some of his quotable quotes for constant motivation in life especially on days you feel blue.
* We think too much and feel too little.
* A day without laughter is a day wasted.
* Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
* Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles.
* Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.
* We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery.
* Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.
* I suppose that’s one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.
* You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down.
* Life is a beautiful magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish.
* As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is authenticity.
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First Published: Apr 16, 2019 17:26 IST
