British actor, director, producer, and composer (won an Oscar for Best Dramatic Score, in fact). Born in London in 1889. Moved to America in December 1913. Worked for Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios in NewYork until November 1914, when he switched to Essanay Studios in Chicago. Left Chicago to settle permanently in LosAngeles in 1916. Worked for Mutual Films and First National before co-founding United Artists in 1919. Accused of being a communist after World War II; he had his United States reentry permit revoked in 1952 while travelling abroad. He never moved back to the US, although he finally visited again in 1972, settling rather in Switzerland. He died on Christmas Day, 1977.

Married four times, and was somewhat of a womanizer. He was on WilliamRandolphHearst's yacht in 1924, when Thomas Ince died in mysterious circumstances. In 1943, Joan Barry filed a paternity suit against him, which was a huge scandal. (He was not the father.)

His portrayal of a hobo inspired JackKerouac to go on the road. In our chronology, he and GloriaSwanson stole the Oneiros from Chicago circa 1916.

In the coincidence department, concerning an author named HamlinGarland: "Fuller and the Spanish explorer Coronado, Garland wrote, led him across the desert to find 16 more crosses, and helped him discover that the crosses were from the pre-Christian Indians of South America... He [Garland] spent his last years in Hollywood, living across from Charlie Chaplin, but his remains are buried by the homestead."

Links

• http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/chaplin/intro.html
• http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/profile/chaplin.html
• Chaplin's FBI file: http://www.fadetoblack.com/foi/charliechaplin/