He was perhaps the most famous star of the silent movie era, whose on-screen buffoonery and slapstick antics sent a generation of cinema goers into uproarious laughter.
Now, a new film is set give a voice to Charlie Chaplin’s much whispered private life, as four of his children with final wife Oona O’Neill share their thoughts on their father’s checkered history.
The Real Charlie Chaplin, released in cinemas today, tells the hidden story of the world’s first superstar comedian, who was married four times and is alleged to have slept with over 2,000 women.
Intimate home videos depict an elderly gentleman laughing and at ease with his family with O’Neill who was 36 years his junior, The Mirror reports.
But son Michael, 75, tells viewers: ‘I was kind of frightened of my father. He was so powerful, you couldn’t argue with him, because he couldn’t be wrong.’
Chaplin is pictured with his children in the documentary, The Real Charlie Chaplin, released in cinemas today
Born in Lambeth, south London in 1889, Chaplin was a penniless music hall actor when he travelled to the US aged 24. Five years on, he contracted his first marriage with 16-year-old vaudeville actress Mildred Harris in Los Angeles in 1918 after a false pregnancy alarm
His sister Geraldine, 77, added: ‘My father wasn’t Charlie Chaplin. I knew they were the same person but they looked nothing alike – except when he had an audience, he would become Charlie Chaplin, that other man.’
Born in Lambeth, south London in 1889, Chaplin was a penniless music hall actor when he travelled to the US aged 24. Five years on, he contracted his first marriage with 16-year-old vaudeville actress Mildred Harris in Los Angeles in 1918 after a false pregnancy alarm.
The pair had a baby son called Norman the following year, but he died just three days after birth and Chaplin quickly left Harris. When they divorced in 1920, she cited his ‘mental cruelty’ among the reasons for their split.
By this stage, Chaplin’s star was on the rise and he became a huge hit with audiences with films The Kid and The Gold Rush, attracting vast crowds to his public appearances.
In 1920, he spotted 12-year-old Lillita Louis MacMurray on the set of The Kid and set about modelling her into an actress. He changed her name to Lita Grey and is thought to have seduced her in 1924, when she was 15 and he was 35, which could have led to a charge for statutory rape even then
He met 22-year-old former child model Paulette Goddard in 1932, although she claimed to be just 17. They were married from 1936 to 1942, after which Goddard received a settlement and kept quiet about their union
This quickly led to a growing reputation for young girls, which seems to have been deemed acceptable to his acquaintances. In 1920, he spotted 12-year-old Lillita Louis MacMurray on the set of The Kid and set about modelling her into an actress.
He changed her name to Lita Grey and is thought to have seduced her in 1924, when she was 15 and he was 35, which could have led to a charge for statutory rape even then.
The pair’s brief marriage ended with an acrimonious divorce in 1927 and a settlement of £625,000 – believed to be worth around £38million today and the most expensive split in Hollywood history at the time.
Grey filed for custody of their two children and alleged cruelty and forced sex acts in her petition, while Chaplin referred to her as a ‘blackmailer, gold-digger and little whore’.
Within a year of divorce, he moved on to his fourth and final wife Oona O’Neill, who bore him eight children and stayed with him until his death in 1977
In her 1966 memoir My Life with Chaplin, Grey wrote: ‘We were married in Mexico because Charlie didn’t want much said about the marriage. On the way back on the train he was quite nasty.
‘We were standing out on the platform between cars while the train was travelling and he said, ‘We could just end this whole situation if you just jump’.’
He met 22-year-old former child model Paulette Goddard in 1932, although she claimed to be just 17. They were married from 1936 to 1942, after which Goddard received a settlement and kept quiet about their union.
Within a year of divorce, he moved on to his fourth and final wife Oona O’Neill, who bore him eight children and stayed with him until his death in 1977.
Their daughter Jane, 64, describes her difficult relationship with him. ‘He was inaccessible. ‘Your father is working, don’t disturb him, he’ll lose his inspiration’ – our world revolved around my father’s wellbeing,’ she recalls.
‘He spoke about having huge amounts of doubt, he said he had had doubts all his life.
‘He accomplished his life’s dream but I don’t think he ever really got over his doubts. Does one ever really get over where you come from? I don’t think it ever leaves you.’
