Charlie Chaplin

Both parents worked the London music halls and both of them broke. Charles Chaplin Sr. left the household around 1891 and drank himself to death at 38. Hannah Chaplin, who sang as Lily Harley, lost her voice and then her mind: the workhouse took her son at seven, and in September 1898 she was committed to the Cane Hill asylum, the first of three admissions, the last of them permanent. Between the Lambeth workhouse, the district school at Hanwell and his mother's wards, the boy learned the only trade in the family. He clog-danced with the Eight Lancashire Lads at 10, played a newsboy in the West End at 14, and in February 1908 signed with Fred Karno, whose troupe carried him across America twice.

Keystone hired him in September 1913 at 150 dollars a week. Within four weeks of arriving he had put on the bowler, the cane and the outsized shoes, and by February 1914 the Tramp was on screens. The money then moved faster than anything in the history of the business: 1,250 dollars a week from Essanay in December 1914, a Mutual contract in December 1915 worth 670,000 dollars a year to a man of 26, a million from First National for eight pictures, and in January 1919 his own distribution company, United Artists, founded with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith. He then spent 20 years making very few films very slowly. City Lights took 21 months. The Great Dictator, his first talking picture, took two years to write.

He married four times, and three of the brides were teenagers. Mildred Harris was 16 and said she was pregnant. Lita Grey was 16 and was: he was 35, the marriage was arranged quickly in Mexico in November 1924 because California called the alternative statutory rape, and the divorce cost him 600,000 dollars and a nervous breakdown. Oona O'Neill was 18 to his 54, and that one held for 34 years and eight children. In between came Joan Barry, who sued him for paternity in 1944. A blood test excluded him, the court would not admit it, and he paid support for a child who was not his. The federal government tried him under the Mann Act in the same season and lost, on April 4, 1944.

The FBI kept working. On September 19, 1952, the day after he sailed for the Limelight premiere in London, Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked his re-entry permit. He settled above Lake Geneva and stayed away 20 years. Files released in the 1980s showed there had been no evidence to keep him out. In 1972 the Academy gave him an honorary award and the room stood for 12 minutes, its longest ovation ever. Britain knighted him in 1975, having twice vetoed it over his politics. He died in his sleep of a stroke on Christmas Day 1977. Ten weeks later two men dug up his coffin for ransom. It was found in a field and reburied under concrete.

Charlie Chaplin's life against the full span of the corpus.

• United Artists company
  Founded with Pickford, Fairbanks and Griffith so the actors owned the distribution 1919
• The Kid film
  His first feature, made with a four-year-old Jackie Coogan 1921
• The Gold Rush film
  Fifteen months and nearly a million dollars. He called it his best 1925
• City Lights film
  Silent, four years into the sound era, and his own favorite 1931
• Modern Times film
  The Tramp's only voice on film is a song in invented gibberish 1936
• The Great Dictator film
  His first talking picture, released while the United States was still neutral 1940

• September 1898 aged 9 His mother is committed to the Cane Hill asylum He had already been sent to the Lambeth workhouse at seven.
• February 1908 aged 18 Signs with the Fred Karno comedy company after a two-week trial Karno first thought him a pale, puny, sullen-looking youngster.
• February 7, 1914 aged 24 The Tramp reaches audiences in Kid Auto Races at Venice Mabel's Strange Predicament was shot first but released a few days later.
• January 1919 aged 29 Founds United Artists with Pickford, Fairbanks and Griffith
• November 25, 1924 aged 35 Marries the pregnant 16-year-old Lita Grey in Mexico He was 35. Under California law the alternative was a statutory rape charge.
• April 4, 1944 aged 54 Acquitted at his Mann Act trial in Los Angeles He had faced 23 years. A separate paternity case went against him despite a blood test.
• September 19, 1952 aged 63 The Attorney General revokes his re-entry permit while he is mid-Atlantic
• 1972 aged ~83 Returns to the United States and gets a 12-minute ovation at the Academy Awards It was his first visit in 20 years and the longest standing ovation in the ceremony's history.
• March 1, 1978 aged 88 His coffin is stolen from the Corsier cemetery and held for ransom Police found it in a field at Noville in May. It was reburied in a reinforced concrete vault.

• Buster Keaton 1895–1966
  Silent-film comedian and director whose visual precision, stunts, and deadpan style became foundational to screen comedy. cast him in Limelight
• J. Edgar Hoover 1895–1972
  Longtime FBI director who built a powerful national police institution while conducting extensive political surveillance and abuses. investigated him
• Orson Welles 1915–1985
  Director, actor, and broadcaster whose innovations in film, radio, and theater reshaped American visual and dramatic storytelling. sold him the idea for Monsieur Verdoux
• Marlon Brando 1924–2004
  Actor whose method acting revolutionized film performance and influenced generations of actors. directed him in his last film
• Walt Disney 1901–1966
  Animator and business magnate who created Mickey Mouse and built the world's largest entertainment empire. rival owner-showman of the era