Victoria Agnes Thierrée-Chaplin (born May 19, 1951) is a British-American circus performer. She is the daughter of film actor and comedian

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 conside ...

from his fourth wife,

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 ...

, and the granddaughter of playwright

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...

. Chaplin was born at

Saint John's Health Center Providence Saint John's Health Center, formerly St. Johns Hospital and Health Center, is a private not-for-profit, Roman Catholic hospital in Santa Monica, California, United States. The hospital was founded in 1942 by the Sisters of Charity of ...

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

, but grew up in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. As a teenager, she appeared as an extra in her father's last film, '' A Countess from Hong Kong'' (1966). Her father also wanted her to star in the main role of a winged girl found from the Amazonian rainforest in his next planned film, '' The Freak'', in 1969. However, the project was never filmed because of his declining health and because Victoria eloped with the French actor

Jean-Baptiste Thierrée Jean-Baptiste Thierrée (born 2 May 1937) is a French actor and circus performer. He is married to Victoria Chaplin and is the father of Aurélia Thierrée and James Thierrée. In theatre, Thierrée appeared on stage in ''Les Coréens'', directe ...

.Interview with James Thiérrée, The New Yorker, 7 January 2008
Retrieved 10 March 2009. Chaplin and Thierrée had first come into contact after he read about Chaplin's aspiration of becoming a circus clown in a magazine article of her father, and asked her to form a new type of circus with him. Soon after their elopement, they briefly appeared as two clowns in

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most ...

's '' The Clowns'' (1970), and the next year performed for the first time with the

contemporary circus Contemporary circus (also known as new circus, and ''nouveau cirque'' and ''cirque contemporain'' in French-speaking countries) is a genre of performing arts developed in the late 20th century in which a story or theme is conveyed through traditio ...

''Le Cirque Bonjour'', which they had founded together, at

Festival d'Avignon The ''Festival d'Avignon'', or Avignon Festival, is an annual arts festival held in the French city of Avignon every summer in July in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes as well as in other locations of the city. Founded in 1947 by Jean Vila ...

.Le Cirque Invisible, Theatre du Rond Point
Retrieved 20 June 2012. In 1974, they founded a new, smaller circus ''Le Cirque Imaginaire'', which centered only on their, and occasionally their children's, performances, and from 1990 onward have performed under the name ''Le Cirque Invisible''. Chaplin and Thierrée have two children,

Aurélia Thierrée Aurélia Clementine Oona Moorine Hannah Madeleine Thierrée (born 24 September 1971 in Montpellier, France) is a French actress and dancer. Biography Thierrée is the daughter of Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptiste Thierrée and the sister of Ja ...

(born 24 September 1971), and James Thierrée (born 2 May 1974), who are performing artists. In addition to performing in ''Le Cirque Invisible'', Chaplin also helped in creating her children's shows, and in 2006, was awarded the

Molière Award The Molière Award recognises achievement in live French theatre and is the national theatre award of France. The awards are presented and decided by the ''Association professionnelle et artistique du théâtre'' (APAT) and supported by the Mi ...

, the French national theatre prize, for designing the costumes for her son's show, ''The Junebug Symphony''.Lauréats 2006, Les Molières
. Retrieved 20 June 2012.

References

Inline citations

References

* * *

External links

Official website for ''Le Cirque Invisible''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaplin, Victoria Acrobats British emigrants to Switzerland British performance artists 20th-century circus performers 1951 births Living people

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

American people of British descent American people of English descent American people of Irish descent American emigrants to Switzerland 21st-century circus performers