Charles Spencer Chaplin Sr. was an English music hall entertainer. He achieved considerable success in the 1890s, and was the father of the actor and filmmaker Sir Charlie Chaplin.
Chaplin c. 1885
Sheet music cover for one of Chaplin's popular songs
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. 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 in the early 1920s
Seven-year-old Chaplin (centre, head slightly cocked) at the Central London District School for paupers, 1897
A teenage Chaplin in the play Sherlock Holmes
Advertisement from Chaplin's American tour with the Fred Karno comedy company, 1913