I had a chat with Charlie Chaplin the other day and told him my dad was a great fan of his.
He had me in fits of laughter and I shed a few tears too. What a multi-talented man.
I met up with him at Chaplin's World in Vevey, Switzerland, an exceptional museum that introduced me to the actor, his private life and the fascinating world of silent movies.
The many representations of Charlie in his multifarious guises were so uncannily life-like, I found myself believing they were real.
I loved watching excerpts of his old movies especially The Kid based on his childhood in London. Charlie's parents were music hall entertainers and his father was an alcoholic who abandoned the family, and died when Charlie was 12 years old. He lived with his mother, Hannah, and elder brother, Sydney, in a tiny attic room in East St. Hannah worked long hours, struggling to support her two sons, and when Charlie was 14, she was committed to a mental asylum. The brothers were in and out of workhouses as children and to earn money, they performed on the street.
When Charlie was just 9 years of age, he went on tour with a troupe of dancers and acrobats, and at 19, he was signed by the prestigious Fred Karno company. He went to America where he developed 'The Tramp' persona and gathered a large fan base. This was the start of a creative career that spanned 75 years. He was an actor, mime artist, producer, screenwriter, writer and composer, and directed and starred in countless movies.