Sydney Earl Chaplin (March 30, 1926 – March 3, 2009) was an American actor. He was the second son of
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
and
Lita Grey
Lita Grey (born Lillita Louise MacMurray, April 15, 1908 – December 29, 1995), who was known for most of her life as Lita Grey Chaplin, was an American actress and the second wife of Charlie Chaplin.
Background
She was born in Hollywood, Cali ...
. One of his major roles was in his father's film ''
Limelight
Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)James R. Smith (2004). ''San Francisco's Lost Landmarks'', Quill Driver Books. is a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when ...
'' (1952). In theater, Chaplin won the
Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical
This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. The award has been given since 1947, but the nominees who did not win have only been publicly announced since 1956.
Winner and ...
for his 1957 performance in ''
Bells Are Ringing''.
Early years
Born in 1926 in Beverly Hills, California,
Chaplin was the second son of
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...
and
Lita Grey
Lita Grey (born Lillita Louise MacMurray, April 15, 1908 – December 29, 1995), who was known for most of her life as Lita Grey Chaplin, was an American actress and the second wife of Charlie Chaplin.
Background
She was born in Hollywood, Cali ...
. His parents had married in November 1924 when Lita became pregnant with Sydney's elder brother
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
. Sydney was born five weeks prematurely, 10 months after the birth of his older brother. He was named for his father's half-brother,
Sydney Chaplin
Sydney John Chaplin (; 16 March 1885 – 16 April 1965) was an English actor. Chaplin was the elder half-brother of actor and director Charlie Chaplin and served as his business manager in later life.
Through their mother Hannah, they were o ...
. His parents divorced a year after his birth. The boys later had eight half-siblings from their father's fourth marriage to
Oona O'Neill
Oona O'Neill, Lady Chaplin (14 May 1925 – 27 September 1991) was an actress who was the daughter of Irish-American playwright Eugene O'Neill and English-born writer Agnes Boulton, and the fourth and last wife of English actor and film-maker Ch ...
.
His mother insisted on calling him "Tommy" due to her distaste for his namesake uncle. Sydney and his older brother were brought up mostly by their maternal grandmother, while his mother attempted to advance her career as a singer. The family spent most of one year in
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
, where the boys became fluent in French.
Chaplin was educated at the boarding schools
Black-Foxe Military Institute The Black-Foxe Military Institute was a private school in Hollywood, California, USA. It was located adjacent to the Wilshire Country Club to the west and south and the Los Angeles Tennis Club to the east.
Black-Foxe was founded in 1928 by Charles ...
and
Lawrenceville School
The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Schoo ...
in New Jersey, as well as the public
North Hollywood High School
North Hollywood High School (NHHS) is a public high school in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is located in the San Fernando Valley and enrolls approximately 2,500 students. Several neighborhoods, inc ...
.
Career
After serving in the United States Army during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in Europe, Chaplin returned to California, where he became involved in acting both on stage and in films. He gained early acting experience in The Circle Theater, now known as
El Centro Theatre
El Centro Theatre is a Hollywood theater. It was founded in 1946 and is located at 804 N. El Centro Ave. Hollywood, California 90038.
History
In 1946, students from UCLA, including William Schallert, Jerry Epstein, Kathleen Freeman, Sid Rushako ...
, including acting in three plays directed by his father.
[ ]
He also appeared in several
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
productions, including ''
Bells Are Ringing'' opposite
Judy Holliday
Judy Holliday (born Judith Tuvim, June 21, 1921 – June 7, 1965) was an American actress, comedian and singer.Obituary ''Variety'', June 9, 1965, p. 71.
She began her career as part of a nightclub act before working in Broadway plays and music ...
in 1957, for which he won a
. In 1959, he costarred with
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...
in
George Axelrod's comedy ''
Goodbye Charlie
''Goodbye Charlie'' is a 1964 American comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Tony Curtis, Debbie Reynolds and Pat Boone. The film is about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from George Axelrod's 1959 p ...
'' and headlined
Jule Styne's 1961 musical ''
Subways Are for Sleeping
''Subways Are for Sleeping'' is a musical produced by David Merrick with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne. The original Broadway production played in 1961–62.
The musical was inspired by an article about ...
''. He played in ''
Funny Girl'' opposite
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...
in 1964, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Chaplin also had supporting roles in two of his father's films, ''
Limelight
Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)James R. Smith (2004). ''San Francisco's Lost Landmarks'', Quill Driver Books. is a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when ...
'' (1952) and ''
A Countess from Hong Kong
''A Countess from Hong Kong'' is a 1967 British romantic comedy film scored, written, and directed by Charlie Chaplin, and the final film directed, written, produced and scored by him. Based on the life of a former Russian aristocrat as he calls ...
'' (1967).
Chaplin retired from acting in the 1970s. In the 1980s, he owned and managed a restaurant, Chaplin's, in
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...
.
Following his retirement from acting, Chaplin seldom made public appearances. Exceptions included his attendance at Cinecon in Los Angeles in 1998, and at the Cineteca di Bologna 2002 festival (Il Cinema Ritrovato), which mounted a fiftieth-anniversary screening of ''Limelight.'' He appeared also at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2004, where he spoke after screenings of his father's film ''The Circus'' to promote film historian
Jeffrey Vance
Jeffrey Vance (born May 21, 1970) is an American film historian and author who has published books on movie stars including Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
Career
While working as an archivist for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists he met E ...
's Chaplin books.
Personal life
In 1960 Chaplin married French dancer and actress Noëlle Adam, by whom he had one son, Stephan (born 1960). In 1985 this marriage ended in divorce.
He became involved with Margaret Beebe in 1984. They married in 1998, and remained married until Chaplin's death.
Book
Chaplin helped complete and publish his mother's 1998 autobiography, ''Wife of the Life of the Party''. He also wrote the book's foreword, where he shared some of his own history and private thoughts on his parents.
Death
On March 3, 2009, Chaplin died at his home in
Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal (part-time) population can exceed 20,000. Incorporated in 1973 and located ...
, of a
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
, at the age of 82, just 4 weeks short of his 83rd birthday.
Filmography
References
Further reading
*Grey, Lita. ''My Life With Chaplin'', Grove Press. 1966.
*Chaplin, Lita Grey; Vance, Jeffrey. ''Wife of the Life of the Party''. Foreword by Sydney Chaplin. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998 pg. ix-xi-3. .
Guardian obituary
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaplin, Sydney Earl
1926 births
2009 deaths
20th-century American male actors
United States Army personnel of World War II
Military personnel from California
Male actors from Beverly Hills, California
American male film actors
American male musical theatre actors
American male stage actors
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
People from Greater Los Angeles
Tony Award winners