Biography: 1889-1913: Early Years

Biography
1889–1913: Early years

Background and childhood hardship
Seven-year-old Chaplin (middle centre, leaning slightly) at the Central London District School for paupers, 1897
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 to Hannah Chaplin (born Hannah Harriet
Pedlingham Hill) and Charles Chaplin Sr. There is no official record of his birth, although Chaplin
believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, in South London.[1][a] His parents had married four
years previously, at which time Charles Sr. became the legal guardian of Hannah's illegitimate
son, Sydney John Hill.[5][b] At the time of his birth, Chaplin's parents were both music hall entertainers.
Hannah, the daughter of a shoemaker, [6] had a brief and unsuccessful career under the stage name
Lily Harley,[7] while Charles Sr., a butcher's son,[8] was a popular singer.[9] Although they never
divorced, Chaplin's parents were estranged by around 1891. [10] The following year, Hannah gave
birth to a third son, George Wheeler Dryden, fathered by the music hall entertainer Leo Dryden. The
child was taken by Dryden at six months old, and did not re-enter Chaplin's life for thirty years. [11]
Chaplin's childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship, making his eventual trajectory "the most
dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told" according to his authorised biographer David
Robinson.[12] Chaplin's early years were spent with his mother and brother Sydney in the London
district of Kennington; Hannah had no means of income, other than occasional nursing and
dressmaking, and Chaplin Sr. provided no financial support. [13] As the situation deteriorated, Chaplin
was sent to Lambeth Workhouse when he was seven years old.[c] The council housed him at
the Central London District School for paupers, which Chaplin remembered as "a forlorn existence".
[15]
He was briefly reunited with his mother 18 months later, before Hannah was forced to readmit her
family to the workhouse in July 1898. The boys were promptly sent to Norwood Schools, another
institution for destitute children.[16]
I was hardly aware of a crisis because we lived in a continual crisis; and, being a boy, I dismissed
our troubles with gracious forgetfulness.
— Charlie Chaplin, on his childhood[17]

In September 1898, Hannah was committed to Cane Hill mental asylum; she had developed
a psychosis seemingly brought on by an infection of syphilis and malnutrition.[18] For the two months
she was there, Chaplin and his brother Sydney were sent to live with their father, whom the young
boys scarcely knew.[19] Charles Sr. was by then a severe alcoholic, and life there was bad enough to
provoke a visit from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.[20] Chaplin's father
died two years later, at 38 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver.[21]
Hannah entered a period of remission but, in May 1903, became ill again. [20] Chaplin, then 14, had
the task of taking his mother to the infirmary, from where she was sent back to Cane Hill. [22] He lived
alone for several days, searching for food and occasionally sleeping rough, until Sydney – who had
joined the Navy two years earlier – returned.[23] Hannah was released from the asylum eight months
later,[24] but in March 1905, her illness returned, this time permanently. "There was nothing we could
do but accept poor mother's fate," Chaplin later wrote, and she remained in care until her death in
1928.[25]
Young performer
A teenage Chaplin in the play Sherlock Holmes
Between his time in the poor schools and his mother succumbing to mental illness, Chaplin began to
perform on stage. He later recalled making his first amateur appearance at the age of five years,
when he took over from Hannah one night in Aldershot.[d] This was an isolated occurrence, but by the
time he was nine Chaplin had, with his mother's encouragement, grown interested in performing. He
later wrote: "[she] imbued me with the feeling that I had some sort of talent". [27] Through his father's
connections,[28] Chaplin became a member of the Eight Lancashire Lads clog-dancing troupe, with
whom he toured English music halls throughout 1899 and 1900. [e] Chaplin worked hard, and the act
was popular with audiences, but he was not satisfied with dancing and wished to form a comedy act.
[30]
In the years Chaplin was touring with the Eight Lancashire Lads, his mother ensured that he still
attended school but, by age 13, he had abandoned education. [31][32] He supported himself with a range
of jobs, while nursing his ambition to become an actor. [33] At 14, shortly after his mother's relapse, he
registered with a theatrical agency in London's West End. The manager sensed potential in Chaplin,
who was promptly given his first role as a newsboy in Harry Arthur Saintsbury's Jim, a Romance of
Cockayne.[34] It opened in July 1903, but the show was unsuccessful and closed after two weeks.
Chaplin's comic performance, however, was singled out for praise in many of the reviews. [35]
Saintsbury secured a role for Chaplin in Charles Frohman's production of Sherlock Holmes, where
he played Billy the pageboy in three nationwide tours.[36] His performance was so well received that
he was called to London to play the role alongside William Gillette, the original Holmes.[f] "It was like
tidings from heaven," Chaplin recalled. [38] At 16 years old, Chaplin starred in the play's West End
production at the Duke of York's Theatre from October to December 1905.[39] He completed one final
tour of Sherlock Holmes in early 1906, before leaving the play after more than two-and-a-half years.
[40]

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Biography

1889–1913: Early years

— Charlie Chaplin, on his childhood[17]

A teenage Chaplin in the play Sherlock Holmes

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