The Immigrant (1917 film)
The Immigrant is a 1917 American silent romantic comedy short. The film stars Charlie Chaplin's Tramp character as an immigrant coming to the United States who is accused of theft on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and falls in love with a beautiful young woman along the way. It also stars Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell.
Theatrical poster for The Immigrant (1917)
Chaplin and Purviance in the memorable restaurant scene
The huge waiter (played by Eric Campbell) glowers at the immigrant (Charlie Chaplin). To his right are Edna Purviance playing another immigrant and Henry Bergman as a bearded artist.
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