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This is Charlie Chaplin with his wife, Lita, and son, Spencer.
This is Charlie Chaplin, and his first wife, Mildred Harris.
This is Charlie and his wife, Paulette Goddard.
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Early Years
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born into a poor London family in 1889. His parents, Hannah Chaplin and Charles Chaplin Sr., were music hall entertainers, but were not as successful as they had hoped to be. Even at a young age, Chaplin had a passion for performing, making his first stage debut in 1894 at the age of five. His childhood years were spent with his mother, who was struggling to find an income, and his brother, Sydney, in Kennington, near London. Charlie even ended up working in a workhouse, at the age of seven, to help support his family because his father refused to help take care of them. Chaplin spent his early years going in and out of the workhouse as well as going to charitable schools to get whatever education he could. In 1898, his mother was committed to a mental asylum due to a psychosis caused by syphilis and malnutrition. She remained in the asylum until she passed away in 1928. This left the young Charles and his brother Sydney with no mother or father. From this point on they were on their own. Although they were by themselves, they managed to survive, working in the workhouses and sleeping wherever they could. Later Years At the age of twenty-one, Chaplin moved to New York to pursue his career. However, not long after, Chaplin's first controversy occurred. His loyalty to England was called into question as he now lived in the US. Many British citizens called him a coward and a slacker. In 1918, he married Mildred Harris with whom he had son, named Norman Spencer Chaplin, who lived for only three short days. The couple divorced in 1920. A few years later, Chaplin married Lita Grey, with whom he had two sons, Charles and Sydney. They were divorced by 1927. This was followed by a brief marriage to Paulette Goodard between 1936 and 1942. Chaplin later married Oona O'neill, who would be his fourth and final wife. He had eight children with Oona and was the father of twelve children. Last Minutes In 1977, he died in Switzerland, at the age of eighty-eight, from natural causes. Shortly after his body was buried, two men stole it from his grave and demanded $600,000 for its return. Eleven weeks later, police found the men and arrested them and Chaplin's body was returned to the family. |