Trivia

Most people (now and during his lifetime) believe that Chaplin had brown eyes because they had only seen him in black and white with black eye makeup on. It fact they were very blue. Chaplin remarked in his autobiography that people meeting him for the first time were always struck by his blue eyes. And his future wife Oona Chaplin wrote "Just met Charlie Chaplin. What blue eyes he has!" to a girlhood friend in 1942.

A much-repeated story claims that he once entered a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest and finished third! In some versions of the story, he came in second.

Long after becoming a millionaire, he continued to live in a shabby hotel room, and kept his studio checks in a trunk for months.

As of 2021, he is the only person to receive a 12-minute standing ovation at the Academy Awards when he appeared to accept an honorary award "for the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century." It is the longest in the history of the Academy Awards up to 2021.

He was 54 years old when he wed Oona O'Neill (Oona Chaplin) in 1943; Oona was age 18 at the time, which deeply disappointed her father Eugene O'Neill, who disowned his daughter as a result of his disappointment. Charlie's marriage to Oona became the longest of his four marriages by far, lasting until his own death.

He and Buster Keaton had an interesting relationship. Long considered rivals but always having avoided commenting about each other in the press, Chaplin hired Keaton for a part in Limelight (1952). Keaton, who was flat broke at the time, went into a career decline after having been signed by MGM in 1928, as the studio would not let him improvise in any of his films nor allow him any writing or directorial input, and he was eventually reduced to writing gags--often uncredited--for other comedians' films. Chaplin, at this point, felt sorry for Keaton due to his hard luck, but Keaton recognized that, despite Charlie's better fortune and far greater wealth, he was (strangely) the more depressed of the two. In one scene in "Limelight", Chaplin's character was dying. While the camera was fading away, Keaton was muttering to Chaplin without moving his lips, "That's it, good, wait, don't move, wait, good, we're through." In his autobiography Keaton called Chaplin "the greatest silent comedian of all time".

Was 73 years old when his youngest son, Christopher Chaplin, was born.

He remained in remarkably good physical and mental shape for most of his life, still playing tennis regularly well into his 70s and working constantly. However, after the completion of what turned out to be his last film, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), his health began to visibly deteriorate.

After his body was recovered from grave robbers, it was reburied in a vault surrounded by cement.

According to his daughter Geraldine Chaplin, in the last years of his life, Chaplin began to worry that he might not be remembered after his death. This was a major reason why he allowed his trademark character, the Little Tramp to appear on several commercial products in the 1970s and 1980s, most notably 1970s commercials for Ford Motor Company, and 1980s commercials and print ads for International Business Machines (IBM), officially the "IBM Tramp".

When both Stan Laurel and Chaplin moved to America they shared a room in a boarding house.

In all his years of living and working in the United States, he never became a citizen.

As a child, he was confined to a bed for weeks due to a serious illness. At night, his mother would sit at the window and act out what was going on outside. This was a major reason Chaplin became a comedian.

Once worked as a butler in England, a job he enjoyed. He was fired after he was caught playing a trumpet he had found in his employer's attic.

Composed about 500 melodies, including "Smile" and "This Is My Song".

The fact that neither City Lights (1931) nor Modern Times (1936), two of Chaplin's most beloved and acclaimed movies, were nominated for a single Academy Award has puzzled many. One explanation could be that Chaplin expressed disdain for the Academy Awards early on; according to his son Charles Chaplin Jr., for a time Chaplin even used the Honorary Award he won in 1929 as a doorstop. However, apparently, his view on the Awards changed with time, as he accepted and seemed touched by his second Honorary Award in 1972.

While visiting Winston Churchill in England in 1937, Chaplin found him studying newspapers and looking worried. When Chaplin asked what was disturbing him, Churchill replied, "Germany". Chaplin made some airy remark to try to dismiss the subject, but Churchill replied, "No, no, it's quite serious".

On July 6, 1925, he became the first actor to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

His father, with whom he lived for only a brief period of time in his childhood while his mother was committed to a mental asylum, died as the result of alcohol abuse at age 37, when Charlie was age 12.

Founder of United Artists along with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith.

Although Chaplin was naturally unable to compose synchronized musical scores to his films until the advent of sound films (beginning with City Lights (1931), he is said to have provided several prominent film theaters with sheets of self-composed music to be played by orchestras to his films at least as far back as 1921, beginning with The Kid (1921).

Marlon Brando played the starring role in Chaplin's last movie A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) in 1966. While Brando had always greatly admired Chaplin's work and looked upon him as "probably the most talented man the [movie] medium has ever produced", the two superstars did not get along during the shooting. In his autobiography, Brando described Chaplin as "probably the most sadistic man I'd ever met." Chaplin, on his side, said that working with Brando simply was "impossible".

On March 3, 1978, his dead body was stolen from the Corsier-Sur-Vevey cemetery. It took until May 18 when the police found the dead body.

His Beverly Hills residence was known as "Breakaway House". Designed by Chaplin himself and built by studio carpenters, it began falling to bits over the years, much to the amusement of visitors. Built on Summit Drive in the Pickfair neighborhood, the house boasted a pipe organ Chaplin continually used to entertain his guests in the great hall; he also screened his films there. His tennis court was a hive of activity; even the elusive Greta Garbo was a frequent player. He seems to have been an inspiring host; many of his guests joined in with his antics, and reflected that they had never been so funny before or since--it was the influence of Chaplin.

One of the last movies he saw (and very much enjoyed) was Rocky (1976).

Cooking was not allowed in the boarding house where Stan Laurel and Chaplin stayed, so he would play the violin to cover up the sound of Laurel frying up food on a hot plate.

He was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in September 1947, but his appearance was postponed three times, and he never appeared. He sent HUAC a telegram stating "I am not a Communist, neither have I ever joined any political party or organization in my life." Subsequently, HUAC determined that it was no longer needed for him to appear.

He was the first, and to date, the last artist to have regular and complete control over every aspect of the filmmaking process of almost all of his films. He acted in, wrote, directed, produced, edited, cast, and composed the music for his movies. Chaplin literally paid for this authority by financing his films and studio overhead entirely with his own money.

His handprints, footprints and signature were immortalized in cement at Grauman's (now Mann's) Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, but after his fall from grace with the Americans because of his political views, the section of cement was removed from public view. It cannot be located and is now feared lost.

Was an accomplished musician who, in his later years, often reissued his silent films with scores he had composed himself.

His mother was so poor, she was once forced to pawn her son's spare clothes. She was also in and out of mental hospitals throughout her life.

His film The Great Dictator (1940) was banned in Germany.

Stan Laurel was his understudy on the English stage.

At the Golden Camera Awards 2005 in Berlin, Geraldine Chaplin told in a moving speech honoring Jerry Lewis about the last time she saw her father alive. He watched a movie of Lewis on television screaming "He's funny, that bastard!".

Cinematic genius that he was, he never won an Academy Award in an acting category, his only non-honorary, competitive category Oscar victory being in the capacity of composer.

Uncle of Spencer Dryden, drummer for the 1960s rock band Jefferson Airplane.

When Chaplin arrived in the United States with the Fred Karno troupe on October 2, 1912, in his second trip to America, according to Ellis Island immigration records, he had $45 in his pocket. He listed his half-brother Syd Chaplin, as his next of kin. Though his mother was still alive, she was in a mental hospital. Sailing with him was fellow Karno troupe member Arthur Stanley Jefferson--later to be known as Stan Laurel.

Invented his tramp costume with the help of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's pants. Arbuckle's father-in-law's derby, Chester Conklin's cutaway, Ford Sterling's size-14 shoes, the diminutive Charles Avery's jacket, and some crepe paper belonging to Mack Swain (which became the tramp's mustache). The only item that actually belonged to Chaplin was the whangee cane.

When Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle was unable to find work after his infamous trial, Chaplin supported him out of his own pocket.

Pictured (as Charlie Chaplin) on one of ten 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen, issued 27 April 1994. Designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, this set of stamps also honored Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, Theda Bara, Buster Keaton and the Keystone Kops.

His trademark character The Tramp appeared in about 70 movies, shorts and features, during a period of 26 years, from the one-reeler Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914) to his triumphant feature The Great Dictator (1940).

He was awarded the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1975 Queen's New Year Honours List for his services to the film industry.

Up until his last few movies, he never shot with a working script. He would start with a story in his mind and constantly retool it, often shooting hours.of scenes that wouldn't make the final cut until he was satisfied. He spent his nights during filming, critiquing the rushes with his assistant directors. Consequently compared to the major studio's films, he spent months/years and excessive amounts of money on his productions. He often said though he would not release any of his films until he was 100% satisfied with the result.

First actor to be nominated for a single Academy Award (Best Actor) for a film in which he was credited as portraying two different characters. In The Great Dictator (1940), he played a Jewish barber--a variation of his Little Tramp character--and Adenoid Hynkel, his version of Adolf Hitler.

His bowler and cane was sold for $150,000 in 1987.

Although Adolf Hitler was not at all a huge fan--in fact, he had been misinformed that Charlie was Jewish, and therefore despised him--he was also well aware of how beloved Charlie was throughout the world at that time, and that was the reason he grew the Chaplin mustache: he thought it would endear him to the people.

Chaplin was naturally left-handed. (In many of his movies he can be seen playing the violin and throwing rocks left-handed.) However, like most left-handed people who grew up before the invention of the ballpoint pen, he was trained to write with his right hand. He can be seen in the film clip documenting the creation of United Artists signing his contract right-handed.

He was nominated for writing, acting, directing, and producing The Circus (1928), in the first Academy Awards. However, the Academy Board of Governors chose to remove him from competition, thereby giving him a special award for "acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus." And they wrote a letter to Chaplin stating that he merited a placement "in a class" by himself.

He was also the first actor to have a comic strip about him; Ed Carey's 1916 strip, "Pa's Imported Son-in-Law", detailed the adventures of Chaplin.

Coming home after a hard day's work at the studio, Chaplin's favorite way to unwind was with a 45-minute steam bath in his private sauna. He often found this refreshing enough to put on an evening suit and go out for dinner. On nights when he was feeling too tired, he would head straight to his bedroom and have his domestic staff serve him a meal there.