The “Little Tramp” adopted the toothbrush ‘tache in 1915 for his silent slapstick films, believing it was comical and “would add age without hiding my expression”. There’s speculation that Adolf Hitler copied it, thinking it would endear him to the people. (The pair were born in the same week.) Chaplin played on their similarities to parody the Führer in his first talkie, The Great Dictator, about a leader named Adenoid Hynkel. Richard Herring tried to “reclaim the toothbrush moustache for comedy”, in a 2009 fringe show. He couldn’t, but it made for a controversial, politically charged tour Photograph: Allstar
The Mexican painter is best known for self-portraits and usually depicted herself with both moustache and monobrow. Rejecting conventional standards of beauty, she not only refused to pluck but groomed them and even pencilled them darker. Recent decades have seen her become a cult figure, with Madonna an avid collector, her work fetching record prices at auction, retrospectives, biopics and Kahlo becoming the first Hispanic woman to appear on a US postage stamp. The proliferation of merchandise bearing her image led her to be dubbed “the female Che Guevara” - with ’tache to match Photograph: Nickolas Muray/George Eastman House
Homer Simpson’s devout Christian next-diddly-door neighbourino beat off cartoon competition from Yosemite Sam and Super Mario to make our list. The Flanders family refer to Ned’s moustache by cutesy nicknames including Nose Neighbour, Mr Tickles, the Soup Strainer and Dr Fuzzenstein. He once shaved it off after Homer implied that people were mocking it, and on another occasion had it pulled off with a vacuum cleaner by late wife Maude. Further Flanders factoids: his full first name is Nedward and his surname comes from Flanders Street in creator Matt Groening’s home town of Portland Photograph: PR
Pomp-rock band Queen boasted two trademark pieces of tonsorial topiary: guitarist Brian May’s massive poodle mane and frontman Freddie Mercury’s chevron moustache, first grown in 1980. He teamed it with a wardrobe of muscle vests and biker leathers, yet his sexuality seemed to go straight over the heads of most fans. Not even Freddie’s flamboyant stage persona or the group’s name gave the game away to a generation of air-punching dads. Mercury’s resemblance to a certain disappearing peer later led to his nickname in pop bible Smash Hits: all rise for “Lord Frederick of Lucan” Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features
The Spanish surrealist adopted his trademark waxed, pointy ’tache in his 20s in tribute to one of his major influences, 17th-century master Diego Velázquez. Dalí wrote: “Since I don’t smoke, I grew a moustache – it’s better for the health. However, I always carried a jewel-studded cigarette case in which were carefully placed several moustaches. I offered them politely to my friends: ‘Moustache? Moustache? Moustache?’ Nobody dared touch them.” In 1968, he filmed a TV ad in which he bit into a bar of Lanvin chocolate, causing him to turn cross-eyed and his moustache to swivel upwards Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features
In 1999, physicist Michael Faraday was dropped from the £20 note in favour of Elgar, on the grounds that Faraday’s face was too easy to forge and Elgar’s much less so. That was mainly due to the Edwardian composer’s magnificent moustache. Elgar’s godson, Wulstan Atkins, told BBC News at the time: “He liked his moustache very much and would be the first to appreciate that its complexity would be difficult to copy. It would have given him real pleasure to know that.” It’s a big, bushy beast that screams pomp and circumstance, just like its owner’s majestic marches Photograph: PA
Sportsmen don’t come more macho than the hulking Australian fast bowler, who sported a handlebar worthy of a walrus. It became so synonymous with “Big Merv” that he insured it for £200,000. Hughes was a crowd favourite thanks to his habit of glaring at batsmen and reputation for sledging. These led to his nickname, Fruitfly – ie the biggest Australian pest. He was part of an 80s generation of furry-lipped Aussie cricketers, including David Boon and Allan Border - rivalled only by England’s Ian Botham, Graham Gooch, Jack Russell and Allan Lamb. They should’ve played the Ashes of ’Taches Photograph: Getty Images/Getty Images
The pencil moustache was associated with dodgy spivs until Londoner Niven rose to celluloid stardom. He starred in A Matter of Life and Death, the Pink Panther series, won an Oscar for Separate Tables and was the original 007 in Bond comedy Casino Royale. This thin, neatly clipped style was also sported by leading men Clark Gable and Errol Flynn, Niven’s sometime housemate in the hard-drinking Hollywood bachelor pad nicknamed Cirrhosis by the Sea. Both distinguished and dandyish, it became de rigueur for silver-tongued screen cads such as Leslie Phillips and Terry-Thomas. Good show Photograph: Rex Features
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener’s commanding chops on 1914 recruiting posters proclaiming “Your country needs you” became one of the most recognisable (and parodied) images of the last century. It worked, too. One of the few top brass to foresee a long campaign, the secretary of state for war enlisted the largest volunteer army Britain had ever seen. Kitchener wore the sweeping handlebar with twizzled tips throughout his 45-year military career. Stephen Fry’s General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth - a caricature of Kitchener and fellow commander Haig - put a hairnet over his at night. Baaaah! Photograph: Hulton Getty
His comedy heroes were Chaplin and Richard Pryor, both noted moustache-wearers, so maybe it’s no surprise Eddie Murphy favours one too. As he calls it in his stand-up show Delirious, he “be havin’ a Billy Dee Williams look” – referencing the Blaxploitation star who found mainstream fame as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars films. In the 80s, aka Murphy’s “funny period”, he kept it simple with just a neatly trimmed ’tache. Since the 90s, he’s teamed it with a soul patch (that tuft of hair grown under the lip) while making ropey family movies. Perhaps the soul patch is draining his sense of humour Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features
