Trivia

1. Chaplin is believed to have been born on April 16, 1889 in East Street, Walworth, south London. The British secret services MI5, however, searched through files in London for his birth certificate but could not find anything.

1. The MI5 agents were also asked to see if Chaplin was using an alias and that his real name was Israel Thornstein. They found nothing. "It's very unusual, particularly after investigation by MI5, for the date and place of birth for such a well-known celebrity as Charlie Chaplin to remain so mysterious," said Christopher Andrew, the official historian of MI5.
Source / More (Web)

2. In 1943 he was accused of fathering the child of the 22-year-old Joan Barry. the papers made much of the scandal, but blood tests proved in a court trial that he was not the father. Still he was ordered to pay $75 a week until the child turned 21.
--Source: Chaplin and American Culture, Page 206

3. In 1947 representative John E. Rankin demanded Chaplin's deportation, asserting that the film actor's Hollywood life was “detrimental to the moral fabric of America”.
--Source: Charlie Chaplin, Page 285

4. Public reaction against Chaplin was so rabid that A king in New York (1957), a gentle satire on American consumerism and political paranoia, remained unreleased in the United States until 1973.
--Source: The Hollywood Social Problem Film: Madness, Despair, and Politics from the Depression to the Fifties, Page 295

5. Marlon Brando worked with Chaplin for A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) and didn`t like it. “While we were making it I discovered that Chaplin was probably the most sadistic man I`d ever met. He was an egotistical tyrant and a penny-pincher.”
--Source: Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, Page 100

Chaplin was a perfectionist, so for some scenes he took many shots. For A woman in Paris actor Adolphe Menjou had to kiss Edna Purviance. The two had to go through about a hundred kisses before Chaplin was satisfied.
--Source: It Took Nine Tailors, Page 0

Charlie’s handprints, footprints and signature were immortalized in cement 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.

Charles has got a star on Hollywood Boulevard. It’s located between Las Palmas and Highland avenues.

Chaplin was the subject of Richard Attenborough’s biographical film, Chaplin (1992).

Stan Laurel and Chaplin came to the U.S. (from England) on the same boat, played for the Karno Company the same roles and shared a room on tour.

Britain postponed knighting Chaplin for nearly 20 years because of his romantic escapades and his politics. Chaplin was initially put forward for the honor in 1956 but did not receive it until 1975.

Sigmund Freud about Chaplin:“Certainly he always portrays one and the same figure; only the weakly poor, helpless, clumsy youngster for whom, however, things turn out well in the end. Now do you think for this role he has to forget about his own ego? On the contrary, he always plays only himself as he was in his dismal youth. He cannot get away from those impressions and humiliations of that past period of his life. He is, so to speak, an exceptionally simple and transparent case. The idea that the achievements of artists are intimately bound up with their childhood memories, impressions, repressions and disappointments, has already brought in much enlightenment and has, for that reason, become very precious to us”