Charlie Chaplin
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| Charlie Chaplin |
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the silent era. Chaplin became a worldwide icon through his screen persona "the Tramp" and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry.His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. As his father was absent and his mother struggled financially, he was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19 he was signed to the prestigious Fred Karno company, which took him to America. Chaplin was scouted for the film industry, and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and formed a large fan base. Chaplin directed his own films from an early stage, and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the best known figures in the world.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. Chaplin became increasingly political, and his next film, The Great Dictator (1940), satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were a decade marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, while his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women caused scandal. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. In 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work, Chaplin received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on industry lists of the greatest films of all time.
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (born Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Hill) and Charles Chaplin, Sr. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London.His mother and father had married four years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal carer of Hannah's illegitimate son, Sydney John Hill.At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers. Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker,had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name Lily Harley,while Charles Sr., a butcher's son, was a popular singer.Although they never divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891.The following year, Hannah gave birth to a third son – George Wheeler Dryden – fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for 30 years.
Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David Robinson.Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support.As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin was sent to a workhouse when he was seven years old.The council housed him at the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence".He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another institution for destitute children.
In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum – she had developed a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition.For the two months she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young boys scarcely knew.Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.Chaplin's father died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver.
Hannah entered a period of remission,but in May 1903 became ill again. Chaplin, then 14, had the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill.He lived alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydney – who had enrolled in the Navy two years earlier – returned.Hannah was released from the asylum eight months later,but in March 1905 her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could do but accept poor mother's fate", Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in 1928.
Young performer
Between his time in the poor schools and his mother succumbing to mental illness, Chaplin began to perform on stage. He later recalled making his first amateur appearance at five years old, when he took over from Hannah one night in Aldershot.This was an isolated occurrence, but by the time he was nine Chaplin had, with his mother's encouragement, grown interested in performing. He later wrote: "imbued me with the feeling that I had some sort of talent".Through his father's connections,Chaplin became a member of the Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing troupe, with whom he toured English music halls throughout 1899 and 1900.Chaplin worked hard, and the act was popular with audiences, but he was not satisfied with dancing and wished to form a comedy act.
In the years Chaplin was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads, his mother ensured that he still attended school,but by age 13 he had abandoned education.He supported himself with a range of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor.At 14, shortly after his mother's relapse, he registered with a theatrical agency in London's West End. The manager sensed potential in Chaplin, who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in H. A. Saintsbury's Jim, a Romance of Cockayne.It opened in July 1903, but the show was unsuccessful and closed after two weeks. Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews.
Saintsbury secured a role for Chaplin in Charles Frohman's production of Sherlock Holmes, where he played Billy the pageboy in three nationwide tours.His performance was so well received that he was called to London to play the role alongside William Gillette, the original Holmes."It was like tidings from heaven", Chaplin recalled.At 16 years old, Chaplin starred in the play's West End production at the Duke of York's Theatre from October to December 1905.He completed one final tour of Sherlock Holmes in early 1906, before leaving the play after more than two-and-a-half years.
Entering films (1914–1917)
Six months into the second American tour, Chaplin was invited to join the New York Motion Picture Company. A representative who had seen his performances thought he could replace Fred Mace, a star of their Keystone Studios who intended to leave.Chaplin thought the Keystone comedies "a crude mélange of rough and rumble", but liked the idea of working in films and rationalised: "Besides, it would mean a new life."He met with the company, and signed a $150-per-week ($3,591 in 2015 dollars)contract in September 1913.
Making a Living screenshot
Chaplin arrived in Los Angeles, home of the Keystone studio, in early December 1913.His boss was Mack Sennett, who initially expressed concern that the 24-year-old looked too young.He was not used in a picture until late January, during which time Chaplin attempted to learn the processes of filmmaking.The one-reeler Making a Living marked his film acting debut, and was released on 2 February 1914. Chaplin strongly disliked the picture, but one review picked him out as "a comedian of the first water".For his second appearance in front of the camera, Chaplin selected the costume with which he became identified. He described the process in his autobiography:
"I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large ... I added a small moustache, which, I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression. I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born."
The film was Mabel's Strange Predicament, but "the Tramp" character, as it became known, debuted to audiences in Kid Auto Races at Venice – shot later than Mabel's Strange Predicament but released two days earlier.Chaplin adopted the character as his screen persona, and attempted to make suggestions for the films he appeared in. These ideas were dismissed by his directors.During the filming of his eleventh picture, Mabel at the Wheel, he clashed with director Mabel Normand and was almost released from his contract. Sennett kept him on, however, when he received orders from exhibitors for more Chaplin films. Sennett also allowed Chaplin to direct his next film himself, after Chaplin promised to pay $1,500 ($35,914 in 2015 dollars) if the film was unsuccessful.
Caught in the Rain, issued 4 May 1914, was Chaplin's directorial debut and was highly successful.Thereafter he directed almost every short film in which he appeared for Keystone,at the rate of approximately one per week,a period which he later remembered as the most exciting time of his career.Chaplin's films introduced a slower form of comedy than the typical Keystone farce,and he developed a large fan base.In November 1914, he had a supporting role in the first feature length comedy film, Tillie's Punctured Romance, directed by Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, which was a commercial success and increased his popularity.When Chaplin's contract came up for renewal at the end of the year, he asked for $1,000 a week ($23,943 in 2015 dollars) – an amount Sennett refused as too large.
Essanay
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company sent Chaplin an offer of $1,250 a week with a signing bonus of $10,000. He joined the studio in late December 1914, where he began forming a stock company of regular players, including Leo White, Bud Jamison, Paddy McGuire and Billy Armstrong. He soon recruited a leading lady – Edna Purviance, whom Chaplin met in a cafe and hired on account of her beauty. She went on to appear in 35 films with Chaplin over eight years;the pair also formed a romantic relationship that lasted into 1917.
Chaplin asserted a high level of control over his pictures, and started to put more time and care into each film.There was a month-long interval between the release of his second production, A Night Out, and his third, The Champion. The final seven of Chaplin's 14 Essanay films were all produced at this slower pace. Chaplin also began to alter his screen persona, which had attracted some criticism at Keystone for its "mean, crude, and brutish" nature. The character became more gentle and romantic; The Tramp (April 1915) was considered a particular turning point in his development.The use of pathos was developed further with The Bank, in which Chaplin created a sad ending. Robinson notes that this was an innovation in comedy films, and marked the time when serious critics began to appreciate Chaplin's work. At Essanay, writes film scholar Simon Louvish, Chaplin "found the themes and the settings that would define the Tramp's world."
During 1915, Chaplin became a cultural phenomenon. Shops were stocked with Chaplin merchandise, he was featured in cartoons and comic strips, and several songs were written about him.In July, a journalist for Motion Picture Magazine wrote that "Chaplinitis" had spread across America.As his fame grew worldwide, he became the film industry's first international star.When the Essanay contract ended in December 1915,Chaplin – fully aware of his popularity – requested a $150,000 signing bonus from his next studio. He received several offers, including Universal, Fox, and Vitagraph, the best of which came from the Mutual Film Corporation at $10,000 a week.
Lita Grey and The Circus
While making The Gold Rush, Chaplin married for the second time. Mirroring the circumstances of his first union, Lita Grey was a teenage actress, originally set to star in the film, whose surprise announcement of pregnancy forced Chaplin into marriage. She was 16 and he was 35, meaning Chaplin could have been charged with statutory rape under California law.He therefore arranged a discreet marriage in Mexico on 25 November 1924.Their first son, Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr., was born on 5 May 1925, followed by Sydney Earl Chaplin on 30 March 1926.
It was an unhappy marriage, and Chaplin spent long hours at the studio to avoid seeing his wife.In November 1926, Grey took the children and left the family home.A bitter divorce followed, in which Grey's application – accusing Chaplin of infidelity, abuse, and of harbouring "perverted sexual desires" – was leaked to the press.Chaplin was reported to be in the state of a nervous breakdown, as the story became headline news and groups formed across America calling for his films to be banned.Eager to end the case without further scandal, Chaplin's lawyers agreed to a cash settlement of $600,000 – the largest awarded by American courts at that time.His fanbase was strong enough to survive the incident, and it was soon forgotten, but Chaplin was deeply affected by it.
Before the divorce suit was filed, Chaplin had begun work on a new film, The Circus.He built a story around the idea of walking a tightrope while besieged by monkeys, and turned the Tramp into the accidental star of a circus.Filming was suspended for 10 months while he dealt with the divorce scandal,and it was generally a trouble-ridden production.Finally completed in October 1927, The Circus was released in January 1928 to a positive reception.At the 1st Academy Awards, Chaplin was given a special trophy "For versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing and producing The Circus.Despite its success, he permanently associated the film with the stress of its production; Chaplin omitted The Circus from his autobiography, and struggled to work on it when he recorded the score in his later years. By the time The Circus was released, Hollywood had witnessed the introduction of sound films. Chaplin was cynical about this new medium and the technical shortcomings it presented, believing that "talkies" lacked the artistry of silent films.He was also hesitant to change the formula that had brought him such success,and feared that giving the Tramp a voice would limit his international appeal.He therefore rejected the new Hollywood craze and began work on a new silent film. Chaplin was nonetheless anxious about this decision, and remained so throughout the film's production.
City Lights (1931), regarded as one of Chaplin's finest works
When filming began at the end of 1928, Chaplin had been working on the story for almost a year.City Lights followed the Tramp's love for a blind flower girl (played by Virginia Cherrill) and his efforts to raise money for her sight-saving operation. It was a challenging production that lasted 21 months,with Chaplin later confessing that he "had worked himself into a neurotic state of wanting perfection". One advantage Chaplin found in sound technology was the opportunity to record a musical score for the film, which he composed himself.
Chaplin finished editing City Lights in December 1930, by which time silent films were an anachronism.A preview before an unsuspecting public audience was not a success,but a showing for the press produced positive reviews. One journalist wrote, "Nobody in the world but Charlie Chaplin could have done it. He is the only person that has that peculiar something called 'audience appeal' in sufficient quality to defy the popular penchant for movies that talk."Given its general release in January 1931, City Lights proved to be a popular and financial success – eventually grossing over $3 million.The British Film Institute cites it as Chaplin's finest accomplishment, and the critic James Agee hails the closing scene as "the greatest piece of acting and the highest moment in movies".City Lights became Chaplin's personal favourite of his films and remained so throughout his life.
Controversies and fading popularity (1939–1952)
The 1940s saw Chaplin face a series of controversies, both in his work and in his personal life, which changed his fortunes and severely affected his popularity in the United States. The first of these was a new boldness in expressing his political beliefs. Deeply disturbed by the surge of militaristic nationalism in 1930s world politics,Chaplin found that he could not keep these issues out of his work.Parallels between himself and Adolf Hitler had been widely noted: the pair were born four days apart, both had risen from poverty to world prominence, and the German dictator wore the same toothbrush moustache as the Tramp. It was this physical resemblance that supplied the plot for Chaplin's next film, The Great Dictator, which directly satirised Hitler and attacked fascism.
Chaplin spent two years developing the script,and began filming in September 1939 – six days after Britain declared war on Germany.He had submitted to using spoken dialogue, partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice, but also because he recognised it as a better method for delivering a political message.Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin's financial independence allowed him to take the risk."I was determined to go ahead," he later wrote, "for Hitler must be laughed at."Chaplin replaced the Tramp (while wearing similar attire) with "A Jewish Barber", a reference to the Nazi party's belief that he was Jewish.In a dual performance he also played the dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", who parodied Hitler.
The Great Dictator spent a year in production, and was released in October 1940.The film generated a vast amount of publicity, with a critic for The New York Times calling it "the most eagerly awaited picture of the year", and it was one of the biggest money-makers of the era.The ending was unpopular, however, and generated controversy.Chaplin concluded the film with a five-minute speech in which he abandoned his barber character, looked directly into the camera, and pleaded against war and fascism.Charles J. Maland has identified this overt preaching as triggering a decline in Chaplin's popularity, and writes, "Henceforth, no movie fan would ever be able to separate the dimension of politics from star image".The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Final works and renewed appreciation
In the last two decades of his career, Chaplin concentrated on re-editing and scoring his old films for re-release, along with securing their ownership and distribution rights.In an interview he granted in 1959, the year of his 70th birthday, Chaplin stated that there was still "room for the Little Man in the atomic age".The first of these re-releases was The Chaplin Revue (1959), which included new versions of A Dog's Life, Shoulder Arms, and The Pilgrim.
In America, the political atmosphere began to change and attention was once again directed to Chaplin's films instead of his views.In July 1962, The New York Times published an editorial stating that "we do not believe the Republic would be in danger if yesterday's unforgotten little tramp were allowed to amble down the gangplank of a steamer or plane in an American port".The same month, Chaplin was invested with the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the universities of Oxford and Durham.In November 1963, the Plaza Theater in New York started a year-long series of Chaplin's films, including Monsieur Verdoux and Limelight, which gained excellent reviews from American critics.September 1964 saw the release of Chaplin's memoirs, My Autobiography, which he had been working on since 1957.The 500-page book, which focused on his early years and personal life, became a worldwide best-seller, despite criticism over the lack of information on his film career.
Shortly after the publication of his memoirs, Chaplin began work on A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), a romantic comedy based on a script he had written for Paulette Goddard in the 1930s.Set on an ocean liner, it starred Marlon Brando as an American ambassador and Sophia Loren as a stowaway found in his cabin.The film differed from Chaplin's earlier productions in several aspects. It was his first to use Technicolor and the widescreen format, while he concentrated on directing and appeared on-screen only in a cameo role as a seasick steward.He also signed a deal with Universal Pictures and appointed his assistant, Jerome Epstein, as the producer.Chaplin was paid $600,000 director's fee as well as a percentage of the gross receipts.A Countess from Hong Kong premiered in January 1967, to unfavourable reviews, and was a box-office failure.Chaplin was deeply hurt by the negative reaction to the film, which turned out to be his last. Chaplin suffered a series of minor strokes in the late 1960s, which marked the beginning of a slow decline in his health.Despite the setbacks, he was soon writing a new film script, The Freak, a story of a winged girl found in South America, which he intended as a starring vehicle for his daughter Victoria.His fragile health prevented the project from being realised.In the early 1970s, Chaplin concentrated on re-releasing his old films, including The Kid and The Circus.In 1971, he was made a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour at the Cannes Film Festival.The following year, he was honoured with a special award by the Venice Film Festival.
In 1972, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an Honorary Award, which Robinson sees as a sign that America "wanted to make amends". Chaplin was initially hesitant about accepting, but decided to return to the US for the first time in 20 years.The visit attracted a large amount of press coverage, and at the Academy Awards gala he was given a twelve-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's history.Visibly emotional, Chaplin accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century". Although Chaplin still had plans for future film projects, by the mid-1970s he was very frail.He experienced several further strokes, which made it difficult for him to communicate, and he had to use a wheelchair.His final projects were compiling a pictorial autobiography, My Life in Pictures (1974) and scoring A Woman of Paris for re-release in 1976.He also appeared in a documentary about his life, The Gentleman Tramp (1975), directed by Richard Patterson.In the 1975 New Year Honours, Chaplin was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.
Filmmaking
Chaplin believed his first influence to be his mother, who entertained him as a child by sitting at the window and mimicking passers-by: "it was through watching her that I learned not only how to express emotions with my hands and face, but also how to observe and study people."Chaplin's early years in music hall allowed him to see stage comedians at work; he also attended the Christmas pantomimes at Drury Lane, where he studied the art of clowning through performers like Dan Leno.Chaplin's years with the Fred Karno company had a formative effect on him as an actor and filmmaker. Simon Louvish writes that the company was his "training ground",and it was here that Chaplin learnt to vary the pace of his comedy.The concept of mixing pathos with slapstick was learnt from Karno,who also used elements of absurdity that became familiar in Chaplin's gags.From the film industry, Chaplin drew upon the work of the French comedian Max Linder, whose films he greatly admired.In developing the Tramp costume and persona, he was likely inspired by the American vaudeville scene, where tramp characters were common.
Style and themes
While Chaplin's comedic style is broadly defined as slapstick,it is considered restrained and intelligent,with the film historian Philip Kemp describing his work as a mix of "deft, balletic physical comedy and thoughtful, situation-based gags".Chaplin diverged from conventional slapstick by slowing the pace and exhausting each scene of its comic potential, with more focus on developing the viewer's relationship to the characters.Unlike conventional slapstick comedies, Robinson states that the comic moments in Chaplin's films centre on the Tramp's attitude to the things happening to him: the humour does not come from the Tramp bumping into a tree, but from his lifting his hat to the tree in apology.Dan Kamin writes that Chaplin's "quirky mannerisms" and "serious demeanour in the midst of slapstick action" are other key aspects of his comedy,while the surreal transformation of objects and the employment of in-camera trickery are also common features.
Chaplin's silent films typically follow the Tramp's efforts to survive in a hostile world.The character lives in poverty and is frequently treated badly, but remains kind and upbeat;defying his social position, he strives to be seen as a gentleman.As Chaplin said in 1925, "The whole point of the Little Fellow is that no matter how down on his ass he is, no matter how well the jackals succeed in tearing him apart, he's still a man of dignity."The Tramp defies authority figures and "gives as good as he gets",leading Robinson and Louvish to see him as a representative for the underprivileged – an "everyman turned heroic saviour".Hansmeyer notes that several of Chaplin's films end with "the homeless and lonely Tramp optimistically into the sunset to continue his journey".
The infusion of pathos is a well-known aspect of Chaplin's work,and Larcher notes his reputation for "laughter and tears".Sentimentality in his films come from a variety of sources, with Louvish pinpointing "personal failure, society's strictures, economic disaster, and the elements."Chaplin sometimes drew on tragic events when creating his films, as in the case of The Gold Rush (1925), which was inspired by the fate of the Donner Party.Constance B. Kuriyama has identified serious underlying themes in the early comedies, such as greed (The Gold Rush) and loss (The Kid).Chaplin also touched on controversial issues: immigration (The Immigrant, 1917); illegitimacy (The Kid, 1921); and drug use (Easy Street, 1917).He often explored these topics ironically, making comedy out of suffering.
Social commentary was a feature of Chaplin's films from early in his career, as he portrayed the underdog in a sympathetic light and highlighted the difficulties of the poor.Later, as he developed a keen interest in economics and felt obliged to publicise his views,[391] Chaplin began incorporating overtly political messages into his films.Modern Times (1936) depicted factory workers in dismal conditions, The Great Dictator (1940) parodied Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and ended in a speech against nationalism, Monsieur Verdoux (1947) criticised war and capitalism, and A King in New York (1957) attacked McCarthyism. Several of Chaplin's films incorporate autobiographical elements, and the psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that Chaplin "always plays only himself as he was in his dismal youth".The Kid is thought to reflect Chaplin's childhood trauma of being sent into an orphanage,the main characters in Limelight (1952) contain elements from the lives of his parents,and A King in New York references Chaplin's experiences of being shunned by the United States.Many of his sets, especially in street scenes, bear a strong similarity to Kennington, where he grew up. Stephen M. Weissman has argued that Chaplin's problematic relationship with his mentally ill mother was often reflected in his female characters and the Tramp's desire to save them.
Regarding the structure of Chaplin's films, the scholar Gerald Mast sees them as consisting of sketches tied together by the same theme and setting, rather than having a tightly unified storyline.Visually, his films are simple and economic,with scenes portrayed as if set on a stage.His approach to filming was described by the art director Eugène Lourié: "Chaplin did not think in 'artistic' images when he was shooting. He believed that action is the main thing. The camera is there to photograph the actors".In his autobiography, Chaplin wrote, "Simplicity is best ... pompous effects slow up action, are boring and unpleasant ... The camera should not intrude."This approach has prompted criticism, since the 1940s, for being "old fashioned",while the film scholar Donald McCaffrey sees it as an indication that Chaplin never completely understood film as a medium.Kamin, however, comments that Chaplin's comedic talent would not be enough to remain funny on screen if he did not have an "ability to conceive and direct scenes specifically for the film medium".
Awards and recognition
Chaplin received many awards and honours, especially later in life. In the 1975 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.He was also awarded honorary Doctor of Letters degrees by the University of Oxford and the University of Durham in 1962.In 1965 he and Ingmar Bergman were joint winners of the Erasmus Prize and in 1971 he was appointed a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the French government.
From the film industry, Chaplin received a special Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1972,and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lincoln Center Film Society the same year. The latter has since been presented annually to filmmakers as The Chaplin Award.Chaplin was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1972, having been previously excluded because of his political beliefs.
Chaplin received three Academy Awards: an Honorary Award for "versatility and genius in acting, writing, directing, and producing The Circus" in 1929,a second Honorary Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972,and a Best Score award in 1973 for Limelight (shared with Ray Rasch and Larry Russell).He was further nominated in the Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (as producer) categories for The Great Dictator, and received another Best Original Screenplay nomination for Monsieur Verdoux. Six of Chaplin's films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress: The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
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