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Hannah Chaplin
(1865-1928)
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Charlie Chaplin’s Mother
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Charlie Chaplin always cited his own mother as a great inspiration on both his performance techniques and his outlook on life. Hannah was a singer and character comedienne in the British music halls with the stage name of Lilly Harley, and she did enjoy some success. Sadly her career was blighted on and off by ill health, and it was when her voice failed during one particular performance that the young Charlie Chaplin, at the age of five, got his first taste of performing - he went on as an impromptu replacement. Her health continued to decline and she found herself making a poor living as a seamstress and was eventually put into a mental hospital. She would suffer from mental illness for the rest of her life.
Even during her poverty-stricken days, Hannah Chaplin was remembered to have brought endless gaiety and pleasures to her children. She would bring them small treats, sing and dance her old music hall numbers and act out plays to them. Charlie Chaplin attributed his own success as a pantomimist to his mother’s gifts for mimicry and observation.
In 1921, Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sydney brought their mother over to live with them in the United States. Charlie bought Hannah a seaside house in Hollywood and hired trained care givers to look after her for the last seven years of her life. It was also during her days in Hollywood that she was at last reunited with her other son, Wheeler Dryden, who was separated from her at the age of six months. She died on August 28, 1928.
Did you know that Charlie Chaplin named the leading female character (played by Paulette Goddard) in The Great Dictator after his mother, Hannah Chaplin?
Did you know that Geraldine Chaplin, Hannah’s own granddaughter played the role of Hannah Chaplin in the 1992 biopic Chaplin? |
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Charles Chaplin
(1863-1901)
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Charlie Chaplin’s Father
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The senior Charles Chaplin married Hannah in 1885 and took to the stage professionally a year later. He was well known as a comic singer, and had a number of songs made famous by him, such as “Oui! Tray Bong!”, “Eh! Boys?” and - written by himself – “The Girl Was Young and Pretty”. His marriage to Hannah did not last long, and they separated when Charlie was only about one year old. Charlie Chaplin had little contact with his father, except for a short period when he and Sydney stayed with Charles Chaplin Sr. during their mother’s stay at hospital. Drinking was a professional problem amongst many music hall stars of the period, and it was alcoholism that eventually killed Charles Chaplin Sr. at the young age of 37, when Charlie Chaplin was 12 years old.
Did you know that Charles Chaplin Sr. toured the U.S. and performed in New York in 1890? |
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