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On This Day: Charlie Chaplin’s homecoming paralyses British streets

He was greeted by thousands of fans who adored his moustachioed, cane-swirling, shuffling, comic character that made the actor and director a 20th century icon

On This Day: Charlie Chaplin’s homecoming paralyses British streets

SEPTEMBER 19, 1921: Silent film legend Charlie Chaplin paralysed London’s streets on this day in 1921 after returning to his birthplace for the first time after 14 years in America.

He was greeted by thousands of fans who adored his moustachioed, cane-swirling, shuffling, comic character that made the actor and director a 20th century icon.

But they may have been surprised to see him clean-shaven and wearing a smart suit as his ship docked at Southampton in a scene captured in a British Pathé newsreel.

Chaplin was also filmed having his car mobbed by swarms of fans desperate to catch a glimpse of the rags-to-riches star as he drove through the streets of London.

The appropriately silent footage also showed police holding the crowd back as their idol got out and waved before walking into a building.

Earlier that year he had made one of his most famous movies, The Kid, which was a tale of poverty based on his own incredibly humble childhood.

Born in Walworth, south London in 1889, Chaplin was abandoned by his father and forced into a workhouse at age seven after his mother was sent to a mental asylum.

Yet in spite of their minimal presence in his life, his parents – who had both been music hall performers – inspired him to act and he later began a comedy tour.

In what his official biographer David Robinson described as 'the most dramatic of all the rags to riches stories ever told', Chaplin travelled to the U.S. in 1910.

In 1914, he appeared in his first film, Making a Living, in which he played a swindler after signing a contract paying him $150 a week – the equivalent of £4,000 today.

Weeks later he debuted his iconic Little Tramp character in Kid Auto Races at Venice - and one of the greatest Hollywood stars was born.

Describing his decision to dress the way he did, he later wrote: 'I wanted everything to be a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large.

'I added a small moustache, which, I reasoned, would add age without hiding my expression.

'I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was.

'I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born.'

Chaplin went on to make his inimitable mark on the world with a total of 80 films, including favourites The Gold Rush and City Lights.

The four-times married star’s fortunes began to wane during World War II due to his left-wing political views amid deep-rooted American fears of communism.

In 1940, before America entered the war, he made the Great Dictator, a satirical attack on fascism in which he played 'Adenoid Hynkel' and made his views public.

Adolf Hitler had banned his movies in Germany due to the false belief that Chaplin was a Jew, so he also played one and said: 'I did this film for the Jews of the world.'

Chaplin also faced criticism over a 1943 paternity dispute and – when aged 54 – he married 18-year-old Oona O’Neill, his fourth wife who bore him eight children.

Chaplin, who had a total of 11 children, was also attacked for refusing to become an American citizen and give up his British nationality.

In Limelight, his most serious, autobiographical film and the last he made in America, he described an ex-music hall star who is forced to deal with his loss of popularity.

Since it prominently featured the city of his youth, the 'talkie' movie – which was eventually subject to a large U.S. boycott – was premiered in London in 1952.

While Chaplin was in Britain, American authorities revoked his re-entry visa due to his political views.

He decided not to contest the decision and instead sent his wife to sell their American possessions while he found somewhere to live in Switzerland.

He kept quiet so that he did not jeopardise the sale.

But he later admitted: 'I would like to have told them that the sooner I was rid of that hate-beleaguered atmosphere the better, that I was fed up of America's insults and moral pomposity.'

It was later revealed that the British government held off giving Chaplin a knighthood in 1956 over fears about his communist sympathies.

But he was eventually accorded the honour in 1975.

He died aged 88 on Christmas Day 1977 at his Swiss manor in Corsier-sur-Vevey with his wife Oona and seven of their children by his side.

Three months later grave robbers stole his body in a bid to extort money from the Chaplin family, but his remains were retuned to the Swiss cemetery in May 1978.