Charlie Chaplin

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 in London and grew up in poverty, including time in workhouses after his father’s death and his mother’s illness. He joined Fred Karno’s music-hall troupe, toured the United States, and in 1914 began making films for Keystone. There he shaped the Tramp: cane, bowler, tight jacket, and baggy trousers. He directed for Essanay and Mutual, then founded United Artists in 1919 with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith so he could own his work.

The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), and Modern Times (1936) kept the Tramp at the center of silent and near-silent comedy after sound arrived. The Great Dictator (1940) satirized fascism; later features include Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight. In the 1950s he left the United States during a political campaign against him and settled in Switzerland. He returned in 1972 to receive an honorary Academy Award. He died in Corsier-sur-Vevey on 25 December 1977. The site’s cycle places 16 April 1889 as Ox/Aries.

The portrait here was published in Photoplay in 1922 and is public domain in the United States because it appeared before 1930.