Sunday, September 7, 2014

THE CHILDREN OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN


Doing research on comedians, I discovered that a lot of them adopted their children like Jack Benny, George Burns, and Bob Hope. However, I was always amazed at how many children Charlie Chaplin had. He had 11 children between 1919 and 1962. It was an amazing record, and knowing how much of a genius Chaplin was at everything else, it only goes to show he was a genius at having children as well. Here is a run down of his children:

Norman Spencer Chaplin was born July 7th, 1919. Sadly the baby died three days later. The mother was his first wife Mildred Harris. Harris and Chaplin divorced in 1921.

Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr. was born May 5, 1925. Charlie's Jr. was in Limelight (1952) as one of the clowns with his father. As young children, he and his brother were used as pawns in their mother's bitter divorce from Charlie Chaplin, during which a lot of the couple's "dirty linen" was aired in sensational—and very public—divorce hearings. Following the divorce, the young brothers were raised by their mother and maternal grandmother until the mid-1930s, when they began to make frequent visits to their father. He is burried next to his maternal grandmother Lillian Grey (1889-1985).

Sydney Earle Chaplin was born March 30th, 1926. Sydney played with his father in Limelight in the role as Neville. In 1957 he won Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Bells Are Ringing, opposite Judy Holliday, and received a Tony nomination for his performance as Nicky Arnstein, the gambling first husband of Fanny Brice, opposite Barbra Streisand, in the Broadway musical Funny Girl in 1964.Until he died, he still attended Chaplin events held for his father and can be seen in many film interviews about Charlie. Sydney died March 3, 2009.

Geraldine Leigh Chaplin was born August 1, 1944. Geraldine was an actress known for many roles, but first recognized for her work in Dr. Zhivago. She also played her own grandmother in the 1992 Richard Attenborough film of Chaplin. Her first film appearance was in Limelight with brother Michael and sister Josephine at the beginning of the film.

Michael John Chaplin was born March 7, 1946 He appeared in Limelight with his sisters in the beginning and played the boy 'Rupert Macabee' in King of New York.



Josephine Hannah Chaplin was born March 28, 1949. She has been in a number of films, including her father's Limelight and A Countess from Hong Kong, and Pasolini´s Canterbury Tales. She had a son Julien Ronet (born 1980) by Maurice Ronet, with whom she lived until his death.

Victoria Chaplin was born May 19, 1951. Chaplin was born in the United States but grew up in Switzerland. As a teenager, she appeared as an extra in her father's last film, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). Her father also wanted her to star in the main role of a winged girl found from the Amazonian rainforest in his next planned film, The Freak, in 1969. However, the project was never filmed because of his declining health and because Chaplin eloped with the French actor Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée.

Eugene Anthony Chaplin was born August 23, 1953. He is a Swiss recording engineer and documentary filmmaker. He is the president of the International Comedy Film Festival of Vevey, Switzerland. He directed the documentary film Charlie Chaplin: A Family Tribute produced by Jarl Ale de Basseville and created the musical "Smile", which is a narration of Charlie Chaplin's life through his music. As a recording engineer, he worked with The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and Queen.



Jane Cecil Chaplin was born May 23, 1957 and married film producer Ilya Salkind. She has two children.

Annette Emily Chaplin was born December 3, 1959 and is the most private of all of the Chaplin children.

Christopher James Chaplin was born July 6 1962 in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. Christopher is a composer and actor. He is the youngest son of film comedian Charlie Chaplin and his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill.

What also is so remarkable is that the Chaplin children did not seem to fall into the pitfalls that the children of other legends have. They all are talented and seemingly well adjusted children. His children may be Charlie Chaplin's most remarkable body of work...


19 comments:

  1. I have never seen a photo of Charlie, Oona and ALL EIGHT CHILDREN!

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    1. I'm sure the author means the eight by Oona. As we know, his first son died in infancy and the two by Lita Grey were so far removed that they may never have been photographed with their half-siblings.

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  2. I found a picture of all of them simply by googling it.

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  3. I only see six of the eight children in that photo

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  4. He seem to like young girls compard to older woman. Yet , they were very young , age 16 to 18 years old and he was way older.

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  5. They were all 16 to 18 years old,that is young but one was in her twenty's. He was alot older. How could anyone let a man old enough to be his daughter marry a young thst is 16 to 18 years of age.

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    1. Absolutely NONE of your business.

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    2. You are right, it is not anybody's business.

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    3. Mary Pickford said of Chaplin that he enjoyed being the first man in a young woman’s life. That’s not verbatim but can be read in her autobiography.

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  6. My husband was watching one of his movie now and got interested about his life and family. Thanks for the info...Good to know that all the hardship of Mr. Charles Chaplin was rewarded for having good children...

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  7. ilove chaplin movies
    and are there still some of the chaplin grand children who do act like there father

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  8. I have the utmost respect for the Chaplin family, and enjoy watching Geraldine and her daughter, Oona, (she was on Thrones). Geraldine inherited her mother's beauty. Oona is a combo of grandpa and grandma, and is beautiful as well. More importantly, this family has class. Btw, Charlie wrote the music for "Smile" and the lyrics were added in 1954 by 2 lyricists.

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  9. I find it fabulous that Oona's father was the famous Nobel and Pulitzer-Prize-winning American playwright Eugene O'Neill. IIRC, Chaplin and her met when she was 18, and Chaplin was in his early 50's. Her father (absent in her childhood)disowned her because of the relationship w/ Chaplin. Not sure if they eventually reconciled.

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  10. How did Charlie feel about African Americans during his time. I heard he had to pay child support for a child that was not biological his. What happened to that daughter?

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  11. I am writing this from Sweden. An actor teacher I toke lesson for 10 years ago worked at the same time as an director for a play in Italy and Christoffer Chaplin wrote the music. She told med that Christoffer do not want to speak about his father. But he said that he and all his siblings try to meet once every year. And once a month he and his sister Victoria are on a meeting in Paris to discuss all finacial things that has to do with Charlie Chaplin. When the Italy project started Christoffer was in Sweden and during a walk from the car to the meeting he passed a resturant that had a doll of his father in the window. And then Christoffer said.

    - They have not paid me for this!

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  12. I WAS TOLD THAT MY GRANDMOTHER NORANANCY CHAPLIN WAS CHARLIE CHAPLINS SISTER AND LIVED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND WAS MARRIED TO FLOYDCLYD ADAMS AND HE (CHARLIE CHAPLIN) BROUGHT MY MOTHER JOANNE ELIZABETH ADAMS A STRATAVARIUOS VIOLIN WHICH I SAW & GOT TO HOLD & IT WAS TRULY A STRATAVARIUOS BECAUSE IT HAD THE EMBLEM INSIDE THE VIOLIN ! I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF ANYONE COULD VERIFY THE FACT THAT MY GRANDMOTHER IS TRULY A SISTER OF CHARLIE CHAPLIN ?

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  13. My goodness, all alive and thriving in mid- 2021. Simply an amazing gene pool.

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