Charles Chaplin was born in London on April 16, 1889. His parents were music hall actors. The Chaplin family were very poor, and life was difficult in London. Charlie, as he was called, used to do his mother's job in the theatre when she was ill.
When he was only 17 years old, Chaplin got his first real job as an actor. What he did was to do silly things to make people laugh in the theatre. Seven years later he went to the USA. And over the next four years, he formed his own way of art. He developed the character(角色) of a homeless gentleman which became very popular.
From the 1920s to the 1950s, Chaplin made his most famous films. The filmModern Times(1936) shows his care about the modern industry workers. Many of his films describe the poor life and hard time of the working people during that period.
Although Charlie Chaplin was British, he lived in the USA until 1953. But he never got US nationality. Then Chaplin, his wife and his five children had to move to Switzerland where he lived until he died. When he was 83 years old, he won his only Oscar for the music he wrote for the filmLimelight. He was named Sir Charles Chaplin at the age of 85. Charlie Chaplin died in Switzerland on December 25th, 1977.