Charlie Chaplin

Walworth

Born in East Lane in Walworth in 1889, Chaplin made his stage debut aged five. Charles Chaplin senior was a baritone on the London music hall scene who left the family when his son was aged two and died an alcoholic ten years later at the age of 38. By the time Charlie was seven, poverty forced the family into Lambeth Workhouse. Charlie and his brother Sydney were sent to a school for destitute children and their mother suffered a mental breakdown, later entering an asylum.

Aged 11, Charlie appeared as a comic cat in Cinderella at the Hippodrome and in the following 12 years achieved success in a string of variety shows. He made his first trip to the US on tour with the Fred Karno Fun Factory troupe, based in Camberwell, which travelled across the country entertaining the masses with their new brand of slapstick comedy.

His film break came in 1914 and during his first year at Keystone Studios in California, he appeared in 35 films. Charlie spent more than 30 years making mainly silent films in the US. He was twice awarded an Oscar, in 1929 and 44 years later in 1973, and was knighted in 1975.

His suspected communist leanings and criticism of the US government led him to move to Switzerland in 1947 where he died in 1977.

What our voters think

"Charlie Chaplin lives well beyond his natural life span by conjuring up an image of tentative modernity and plucky resilience in the minds all who hear his name, no matter what nationality, ethnicity or religious conviction... The Little Tramp is still the child and the idealist in all of us. A blue plaque to remind us of that from time to time would be a welcome thing indeed." 

Dr Lisa Stein
Ohio University
USA