Charles Chaplin: Hollywood Renegade
Charles Chaplin Charlie Chaplin Charley Chaplain Little tramp film writers pantomime silent comedy silent movies movie clowns film directors independent producers independent filmmakers John Barrymore Orson Welles Hollywood silent films film history SIMPP Hollywood Renegades Archive Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers J. A. Aberdeen cinema history
Charlie Chaplin, the richly-talented writer, actor and director, also a notable independent producer and founder of SIMPP. From the HOLLYWOOD RENEGADES ARCHIVE. . . .
Charles Chaplin

Hollywood Renegade & Founding Member of The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers

As writer, director and principle actor, Charlie Chaplin demonstrated an unparalleled degree of cinematic control that allowed him to infuse his movies with inventive dramatic structure and inimitable comedic signature. Chaplin is without equal among other writer-director-actors in terms of longevity and success.

As one of the movies' most richly talented filmmakers and creator of one of film's most indelible images, Chaplin is perhaps the most biographied figure in Hollywood history. Praise for his comic genius, however, obscures his cunning as film producerthe role which enabled him to sustain his versatile talents and cement the cultural endurance of his on-screen Tramp persona. Chaplin's influence as comedic force and cultural icon have overshadowed one of his most triumphant roles as independent filmmaker.

As counterpoint to the whimsy of the Little Tramp, Chaplin served as his own financer and studio owner in charge of not only his filmmaking, but marketing and distribution. The unlikely combination of business skill and creative vision, in many ways, made Chaplin the forbearer of the creative Hollywood producer. Chaplin identifies both sides of his personality as a product of his childhood.

"When I was a little boy, the last thing I dreamed of was being a comedian," he said of his predilection for finances, "The only thing I really dreamed about was being rich. We were so poor that wealth seemed to me the summit."

Of his acting talent, he concluded later in his life, "I have never studied acting, but as a boy I was fortunate in living in an era of great actors, and I acquired an extension of their knowledge and experience." Chaplin's acting ability, far more expansive than the slapstick that made him a household name, was venerated by the illustrious John Barrymore in a well-known, albeit undocumented, Hollywood anecdote. When a movie director praised Barrymore as the world's greatest actor, Barrymore who died shortly thereafter in 1942 deflected the honor: "There are only two great actorsCharles Chaplin and Orson Welles."

MORE:

Charlie Chaplin: Biography--Independent Profile

Charles Chaplin: The SIMPP Years

The Charlie Chaplin Music Publishing Company

Charlie Chaplin's Title Registration Problem: "The Dictator"

The Charlie Chaplin Studio: History of the Legendary Lot

SOURCES:

"When I was a little boy": McCabe, Charlie Chaplin, p. 15.

"I have never studied acting": Chaplin, My Autobiography, p. 259.

"There are only two great actors--Charles Chaplin and Orson Welles." The statement is attributed to John Barrymore (who himself was frequently recognized as his generation's greatest film actor). Welles and Bogdanovich, This Is Orson Welles, p. 35.