這幾週我們高中班正在練習寫傳記，這篇是由劉孟婷同學還有陳亞竺同學所共同完成的「查理卓别林 – 從貧名窟的一介貧童縱身成為喜劇代名詞的傳奇人生」。 (在此我必須說PEI的同學每位都是文采斐然, 英俊美麗又有型! 有照片為證!!!) 在此也要謝謝她們的老師 Mr. Daniel Bo and Ms. Lucy Gunn.

The Legendary Silent Film Career of Charlie Chaplin
How a poor little performer from London went from nobody to a genre icon
Have you ever heard of your grandparents talking about one film producer in the early 20th century, who gave them humorous surprises through his unique physical comedy? Without a doubt, it was Charlie Chaplin, the master of silent comedy movies.
He produced all together 82 movies during his lifetime, and 67 of them were finished before the age of 30. People may be curious about what made him the greatest silent movie producer, and this had to be traced back to his early age.

Charlie Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889. Although Chaplin believed he was born on East Street, Walworth, in South London, there was no official record of it. His father, Charles Chaplin and his mother Hannah Chaplin were both music hall entertainers. Chaplin’s childhood in London was defined by poverty and hardship.

At a very young age, Charlie was sent to a workhouse twice as his father was nowhere to be found, and his mother was struggling financially. During his time at schools, Chaplin began to perform on stage at the age of 14. Later, he abandoned education and supported himself with a wide range of jobs.

Chaplin soon joined Fred Karno’s famous comedy company with his brother, who was also pursuing an acting career. Initially, Karno considered Chaplin to be much too shy to do any good in the theatre. But the teenager made an impact on his first night in the London Coliseum, and he was quickly offered a contract. Chaplin began by playing a series of minor parts, eventually progressing to starring roles in 1909. In April 1910, he was given the lead in a new sketch comedy, Jimmy the Fearless. It was a big success, and Chaplin received considerable press attention.

The 1940s was a decade marked by endless controversy for the comedy master, and his popularity started to wane. He became involved in politic scene in his next movie, The Great Dictator (1940), in which he depicted the most notorious dictator of all time, Adolf Hitler. He was accused of being a communist sympathy, so the FBI started to investigate him, which made him expelled from the United States and settled in Switzerland. Maybe it was maybe a blessing in disguise, he started embark on a tour around the world for 5 years and met some of the luminaries like Pablo Picasso, Elizabeth II, Charles de Gaulle, Nikita Khrushchev, and other renown contemporary heavyweights along his path.

In the early morning of December 25, 1977, at the age of 88, Chaplin died at his home after suffering a stroke in his sleep, leaving his legendary career with endless mourning from fans all over the world in silence.