Charlie Chaplin, a French? Urban Flat In Paris investigates for you!
Charlie Chaplin was a famous actor, director, scriptwriter, producer and British composer who became an icon of silent movies thanks to his character of Charlot. During his long career of 65 years, he played in more than 80 movies in which he many times staged the French capital like in « Shoulder Arms » in 1918 or in « A Women Of Paris » in 1923 where we can see Chaplin going to the Folies-Bergères and also testing the Latin Quarter atmosphere.
But did you know that in the 50s, the British secret services MI5, and the Americans, suspected Charlie Chaplin to sympathize with the communists and thus decided to check his background. No birth certificate was found even if Charlie Chaplin always asserted that he was born in London in 1889.
After many researches, they only found a french passport dating from 1920. For the Americans and Scotland Yard, Charlie Chaplin is for sure French and he would have been born at Fontainebleau.
Moreover, in a memo of the MI5 we can read that: « There may or may not be some truth in this, but in view of the fact that no documentary proof has been obtained that Chaplin was born in the United Kingdom, it may well be that he was in fact born in France. »
Frenchman or not Charlie Chaplin will remain an icon of the silent movies which deserves its own set!
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