Charles Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplin (London 1889 – Vevey, Switzerland 1977) was one of the most famous film stars in the world before the 1920s.

Chaplin was also a writer, composer, producer and film director. His most popular role is Charlot, the main character in the silent film The Tramp and possibly the most imitated character in history. Charlot is a vagrant (vagabundo) who tries very hard to behave ( comportarse)  with the manners and the dignity of a gentleman despite  (a pesar de  )   his actual social status.

Chaplin continued to play Charlot in dozens of short and full-length films, including the masterpiece Modern

Times, the first film where Chaplin’s voice is heard. Modern Times sees Charlot trying to survive in a modern, industrialized world, a comment on life in the United States during the Great Depression, a time when millions of people were unemployed and living under the line of poverty. The film was deemed (considerada)  “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress (the National Library of the United States) in 1989.

Chaplin wrote, directed, and starred in dozens of feature films and short subjects. Highlights include The Immigrant (1917), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931) and The Great Dictator (1940). Chaplin received three Academy Awards in his lifetime, was knighted ( fué nombrado caballero)  in 1975 at the age of 85 by Queen Elizabeth II and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1970.

The  Great Dictator  , final speech (English subtitles).