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PersonalityCharlie Chaplin- The Eternal TrampOversized shoes, baggy trousers, bowler hat, moustache and cane thecharacter of a bumbling but well-mannered vagrant made CharlieChaplin immortal.Exactly 30 years ago the comedy giant died aged 88 in Vevey, westernSwitzerland, where he had lived since 1952.As the Tramp, he bewitched women, protected the weak, got one overon the authorities, fought tyranny and created cinema history.The creator of this inimitable figure was born Charles Spencer Chaplinin London on April 16, 1889. His parents, both music hall entertainers,separated before he was three. His father died from alcohol abuse in1901 and his mentally ill mother put him and his brother into a home.Chaplin made his stage debut at the age of five and at 12 he got his firstlead role, with tours following.On a 1913 tour of the United States, Chaplin was spotted by filmproducer Mack Sennett, who hired him for his studio, the Keystone FilmCompany.AmbitionThe original plan was for the slight Englishman to build up a little-andlargeslapstick routine with Fatty Arbuckle, but instead Chaplindeveloped his tramp character and quickly learned the art and craft offilmmaking.His success was astonishing: his first salary under Sennett was $150 aweek, two years later he was on $1,250, the following year $10,000,and by 1918 he was being paid a million dollars a year and was themost popular comedian in the world.In 1919 Chaplin co-founded the United Artists film distributioncompany with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and DW Griffith, all ofwhom were seeking to escape the growing power consolidation of filmdistributors and financiers in the developing Hollywood studio system.Ambitious full-length films followed, and Chaplin's perfectionism andcourage ensured that films such as The Kid (1921), Gold Rush (1925),City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) became cinema classics.Witch huntChaplin's silent films made before the Great Depression in 1929 did notusually contain overt political themes ormessages, apart from the Tramp's plightin poverty and his run-ins with the law,but his later films were more openlypolitical.Modern Times depicts workers and poorpeople in dismal conditions. The finaldramatic speech in The Great Dictator(1940) was critical of following patriotic20INDO-SWISS BUSINESS + JAN-FEB 2008