Four teenage wives and 12 children: what else we didn't know about Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin is known throughout the world; his career as a silent film actor lasted 75 years, ending with his death. Chaplin seems funny, even touching, and few people know how many scandals he was the hero of. So, what don't we know about comedian Charlie Chaplin?
According to one version, Chaplin was born in a gypsy camp - this was stated in a letter hidden in Chaplin's house. The letter was discovered by the actor's family in 1991, 15 years after his death. The addressee of the letter was a man named Jack Hill, who wrote that Chaplin was born in “a gypsy camp belonging to a gypsy queen,” who was his aunt.
According to Hill, Chaplin was born in the town of Smethwick, near Birmingham. Charlie Chaplin's birth certificate was never found, but the actor's biographers were previously sure that he was born in London into the family of music hall artists Charles Spencer Chaplin and Hannah Chaplin.
Chaplin met his first wife, Mildred Harris, when he was 30 and she was only 16. They got married because Mildred was sure she was pregnant. Although the alarm turned out to be false, very soon Mildred really found herself pregnant and gave birth to a son, who lived only three days. The couple's family life did not work out, and after just two years the couple divorced.
However, Chaplin did not remain alone for long. At 35, he met his future wife, Lita Gray, who was only 12 years old at that time. The actor even asked his friend to paint a portrait of the girl. Their relationship began when Lita turned fifteen and signed a contract to star in a film. Lita quickly became pregnant. Chaplin suggested she have an abortion, but the girl refused.
Then he offered to find her a husband and give her “compensation” - $20 thousand, but this option was also rejected. Chaplin could well have gone to prison for having sex with a minor. Gray insisted on the wedding, although she admitted that she did not love Chaplin.
It was decided to get married in Mexico City, in the utmost secrecy. On the way back to California, as Lita stood on the platform of the large windowed carriage, Chaplin approached her and said, “This is a great time to put an end to your disgusting act—why don’t you jump?”
However, this marriage did not last long. Three years later, the couple separated. Gray accused Chaplin of constant infidelity and perversion, and also of pointing a gun at her, insisting on an abortion. At the trial, Lita's lawyer threatened Chaplin to reveal the names of six actresses with whom the comedian slept during his marriage. Gray received $625 thousand after the divorce, as well as $200 thousand for the account of her children.
Chaplin met his third wife a few years later. Most likely, their romance would not have begun if Paulette Goddard had not lied that she was only 17 years old (in fact, she was 22 years old). Very soon she moved in with Chaplin, and they began working on a new film, and soon after the premiere they divorced.
Chaplin sought to control life in everything, while Paulette preferred freedom. Although she left the actor, the former spouses remained friends until his death.
At 54, Charlie Chaplin found himself a fourth wife, 18-year-old Oona O'Neill. As happens in a creative environment, she came for a screen test. Although Chaplin thought she was too young for his film, he signed her to a contract and began giving her private acting lessons.
The lessons brought him down the aisle again in 1943. Perhaps he has finally found his soulmate, because the couple lived together for 34 years and raised eight children.
Once Marlon Brando was 15 minutes late on the set of “A Countess from Hong Kong,” director Charlie Chaplin cursed Brando in front of everyone, saying that he “had no sense of professional ethics” and that he was a “disgrace” to the profession.
In his autobiography, Brando also alleged that Chaplin abused and publicly humiliated his children. Brando declared Chaplin "perhaps the greatest sadist I have ever met."
Chaplin also had a difficult relationship with the authorities. The FBI began an investigation into Chaplin back in the 1930s, after the release of Modern Times. During the filming of The Great Dictator, Chaplin was warned that the film would have problems with censorship - in the 40s, anti-fascist films were not allowed to be released so as not to harm the neutral relations between the United States and Germany.
During the editing of the film Monsieur Verdoux, Chaplin was summoned to Washington for a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee, but the summons was later canceled. Then 19 people were invited from Hollywood. Those who insisted on their civil rights were jailed for a year for contempt of the commission.
According to one version, voiced by Chaplin in a conversation with reporters to ridicule the House Un-American Activities Committee, he intended to appear at the hearings in his Tramp costume; for this reason, the Commission reversed its challenge.
Chaplin lived a long and controversial life, but he died as many probably dream of dying - in his bed, at the age of 89, in his sleep.