Sad but True: Five Stars Who Passed Away on Christmas Day | E! News Sad but True: Five Stars Who Passed Away on Christmas Day By SNAP/ZUMA Press.; GAB Archive/Redferns A music legend. A Rat Pack leader. One of Batman's slinkiest foes. They're among the film, TV and music greats whom audiences have said goodbye to on Christmases past: RELATED: A-list comics who died too young 1. James Brown: The 73-year-old Godfather of Soul was set to do his thing at B.B. King's Manhattan nightclub on New Year's Eve 2006 when he was hospitalized with pneumonia. On Christmas Day, his manager Charles Bobbit reported, "[Brown] was having pain, but then the pain went away, and he told me, 'I'm going away tonight.'" And he did . 2. Dean Martin: Three days after the swingin' star succumbed to respiratory failure on Christmas 1995 at age 78, the Sands, the now-bygone casino where Martin cavorted with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., joined other Las Vegas landmarks in dimming its lights in his memory . 3.

Eartha Kitt: In 1953, the nightclub star recorded "Santa Baby." Fifty-five years later, on Christmas Day 2008, the sexy yuletide crooner passed away . Kitt, who'd gone on to fame as Catwoman on TV's Batman, was 81. 4. Charlie Chaplin: The silent-film giant died in his sleep on Christmas Day 1977. He was 88. "You can say he died of old age," Chaplin's family doctor said simply. 5. Vic Chestnutt: The paralyzed singer-songwriter's singer-songwriter, whose works were covered by Madonna , R.E.M. and more, had endured a lifetime of pain when he overdosed on prescription muscle relaxants. After falling into a coma, Chestnutt died on Christmas Day 2009. He was 45. Also noted: TV writer/producer Aron Abrams (King of the Hill); actress Joan Blondell (Public Enemy, Grease); Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan; and actor Denver Pyle (Dukes of Hazzard). Brazil E! Is Everywhere This content is available customized for our international audience.

Would you like to view this in our US edition? E! Is Everywhere This content is available customized for our international audience. Would you like to view this in our Canadian edition? E! Is Everywhere This content is available customized for our international audience. Would you like to view this in our UK edition? E! Is Everywhere This content is available customized for our international audience. Would you like to view this in our Australian edition? E! ist überall Dieser Inhalt ist für internationale Besucher verfügbar. Möchtest du ihn in der deutschen Version anschauen? E! Is Everywhere This content is available customized for our international audience. Would you like to view this in our German edition? E! est partout Une version adaptée de ce contenu est disponible pour notre public international. Souhaitez-vous voir ça dans notre édition française ? E! Is Everywhere This content is available customized for our international audience. Would you like to view this in our French edition? Yes! BBC ON THIS DAY | 25 | 1977: Silent film legend Chaplin dies 1977: Silent film legend Chaplin dies Charles "Charlie" Spencer Chaplin, the comic genius of silent films, has died aged 88.

The "King of film"', knighted in 1975, died at 0400 today at his Swiss manor at Corsier-sur-Vevey. His wife Oona, daughter of the late playwright Eugene O'Neill, and seven of their eight children were present. The couple's eldest daughter, actress Geraldine, was abroad filming in Spain but his son Sidney, the eldest son by the second of his four marriages was at his bedside. It is understood Sir Charles slipped into a coma last night. A family spokesman said the actor would be buried in a private family ceremony in two days. As actor, writer, director, producer, composer and choreographer he left his indelible legacy on 80 films including favourites The Gold Rush, City Lights, and Limelight. Humble beginnings From his screen debut in 1914, to his last completed film in 1967, Sir Charles is considered to have helped found the modern film. He rose from humble beginnings to become one of the highest paid films stars. Born into poverty in London in 1889 his parents Charles Chaplin, senior, and Hannah Hill were music hall entertainers who separated shortly after his birth.

Sir Chaplin and his half-brother, Sydney, who later became his business manger, ended up in an institute for destitute children. Performing from the age of five he moved to America in 1910. There he introduced the world to one of his most revered characters - Little Tramp - in the 1914 film Kid's Auto Races. The shuffling, cane-twirling figure in over-sized trousers and a black moustache, was born. By 1920, at the height of his fame worldwide regular cinema attendance, dances, dolls, comic books and toys were created in his image. A colourful personal life combined with Left wing leanings during the Cold War led to him being virtually expelled from America in 1952. He was awarded a special Oscar 20 years later but lived out the rest of his life in Switzerland where he died. IMDb: Most Popular People With Date of Death in 1977 Most Popular People With Date of Death in 1977 1-50 of 1,330 names. Sort by: STARmeter▲ | A-Z | Height | Birth Date | Death Date 1.

Bing Crosby Actor, Going My Way Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby, Jr. in Tacoma, Washington, the fourth of seven children of Catherine Helen "Kate" (Harrigan) and Harry Lowe Crosby, a brewery bookkeeper. He was of English and Irish descent. Crosby studied law at Gonzaga University in Spokane but was more interested in playing the drums and singing with a local band... 2. Charles Chaplin Writer, Modern Times Charles Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the silent era. Chaplin became a worldwide icon through his screen persona "the Tramp" and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. His career spanned more than 75 years... 3. Joan Crawford Actress, Mildred Pierce Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1905, in San Antonio, Texas, to Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated, and by the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers.

It wasn't an easy life; Crawford worked a variety of menial jobs... 4. Elvis Presley Actor, Love Me Tender Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Presley (née Gladys Love Smith) and Vernon Presley (Vernon Elvis Presley). He had a twin brother who was stillborn. In September 1948, Elvis and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee where he attended Humes High School... 5. Sebastian Cabot Actor, Family Affair 7. Jean Hagen Actress, Singin' in the Rain Jean Shirley Verhagen (later shortened to Hagen) was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 3, 1923. Her father was a Dutch immigrant. Hagen and her family moved to Elkhart, Indiana when she was twelve; she subsequently graduated from Elkhart High School. Afterwards, she graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied drama and was a roommate of fellow actress Patricia Neal ... 8.

Burt Mustin Actor, Cat Ballou Burt Mustin was a salesman most of his life, but got his first taste of show business as the host of a weekly radio variety show on KDKA Pittsburgh in 1921. He appeared onstage in "Detective Story" at Sombrero Playhouse in Phoenix Arizona, and played the janitor in the movie version, ( Detective Story )... 9. Howard Hawks Director, The Big Sleep What do the classic films Scarface , Twentieth Century , Bringing Up Baby , Only Angels Have Wings , His Girl Friday , Sergeant York , To Have and Have Not , The Big Sleep , Red River Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Rio Bravo have in common? Aside from their displays of great craftsmanship, the answer is director Howard Hawks... 10. Stephen Boyd Actor, Ben-Hur Stephen Boyd was born William Millar on July 4, 1931, at Glengormley, Northern Ireland, one of nine children of Martha Boyd and Canadian truck driver James Alexander Millar, who worked for Fleming's on Tomb Street in Belfast. He attended Glengormley & Ballyrobert primary school and then moved on to Ballyclare High School and studied bookkeeping at Hughes Commercial Academy...

11. Groucho Marx Actor, Duck Soup The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers . With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed in any of his performances and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic. With a great love of music and singing ( The Marx Brothers started as a singing group)... 12. Peter Finch Actor, Network Despite being one of the finest actors of his generation, Peter Finch will be remembered as much for his reputation as a hard-drinking, hell-raising womanizer as for his performances on the screen. He was born in London in 1916 and went to live in Sydney, Australia, at the age of ten. There, he worked in a series of dead-end jobs before taking up acting... 13. Andy Devine Actor, Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok Rotund comic character actor of American films. Born Andrew Vabre Devine in Flagstaff, Arizona, the later-to-be Rotund comic character actor was raised in nearby Kingman, Arizona, the son of Irish-American hotel operator Thomas Devine and his wife Amy.

Devine was an able athlete as a student and actually played semi-pro football under a phony name (Jeremiah Schwartz... 14. Abner Biberman Director, The Virginian 15. Freddie Prinze Actor, Chico and the Man Freddie Prinze was born Frederick Karl Pruetzel in New York City, New York, to a Puerto Rican mother, Aurea Elena Ruiz, and a German immigrant father, Edward Karl Pruetzel. Freddie grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City. As a chubby child, he was often bullied, but was quite creative and bright in his extracurricular activities (he was known to have handmade a ham radio... 16. Alan Reed Actor, The Flintstones Character player Alan Reed was a strong, burly presence on film and TV but he would be better remembered in the long run for his equally strong, distinctive voice. He gave vocal life to the prehistoric cartoon character Fred Flintstone on the prime-time TV series The Flintstones in the 1960s, and it is this direct association that has kept his name alive long after his passing... 17.

Zero Mostel Actor, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Zero Mostel was born Samuel Joel Mostel on February 28, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York, one of eight children of an Orthodox Jewish family. Raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the young Zero, known as Sammy, developed his talent for painting and drawing at art classes provided by the Educational Alliance... 18. Diana Hyland Actress, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble Diana Hyland, a striking, knowing beauty with a confident air about her, was born Diane Gentner on January 25, 1936, in Ohio and appeared on stage in summer stock, as a teen, before graduating from Cleveland Heights High School. Moving to New York in 1955 to test her acting mettle, the slim-faced,... 19. Gertrude Astor Actress, The Strong Man The first actress to sign a contract with Universal in 1915, Gertrude Astor (born in Ohio as Gertrude Irene Astor) began her career playing trombone and saxophone on a riverboat.

Towering over most of her leading men at 5'11", she often played golddiggers, rich socialites or a leading lady's best friend in such one-reeled films and feature length silents as Polly Redhead ... 20. Roberto Rossellini Writer, Roma città aperta The master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, as one of the creators of neo-realism, is one of the most influential directors of all time. His neo-realist films influenced France's nouvelle vague movement in the 1950s and '60s that changed the face of international cinema. He also influenced American directors, including Martin Scorsese ... 21. Margaret Hayes Actress, Blackboard Jungle Margaret was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father was Jack Lewis Ottenheimer, musician, theatrical man and one of the first "gag" men in the entertainment field. He prepared much of the stage material for Thurston, the Magician. After graduating from Forrest Park High School, Margaret went to work for the May Company in Baltimore as a window dresser... 22. Robert Middleton Actor, Friendly Persuasion Despite the fact that hefty, beetle-browed character actor Robert Middleton (born Samuel G.

Messer) was known for most of his career as a mop-faced villain capable of the most vicious and contemptible of crimes, the man himself was quite a happy and hearty gent who loved to play practical jokes, particularly on his family... 23. Richard Carlson Actor, I Led 3 Lives The son of an attorney, Richard Carlson had an introspective quality to his performances and looked every inch the academic he first aspired to be. Following his graduation from the University of Minnesota with a Master's Degree in English, the tall, dark-haired youth had a brief stint as a drama teacher at his alma mater... 24. Allison Hayes Actress, General Hospital Anyone who loves B-movies of the 1950s appreciates this lovely actress Allison Hayes. She was born Mary Jane Hayes on March 6, 1930 in Charleston, West Virginia. The raven-haired beauty was the 1949 Washington, D.C. entry into the Miss America pageant. Shortly afterwards, Mary Jane adopted the familiar first name of Allison... 25. Willis Bouchey Actor, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance American character actor primarily of pompous or officious types, long a favorite supporting player for John Ford.

Bouchey was born in or near Vernon, Michigan but raised by his mother and stepfather in the state of Washington. He entered films in 1951 at the age of 44 and quickly became a familiar (if unnameable) fixture in movies and television. He died in 1977. 26. Stanley Adams Actor, Breakfast at Tiffany's Stocky character actor Stanley Adams had a relatively minor career in motion pictures, with the possible exception of his baby-faced millionaire Rusty Trawler of Breakfast at Tiffany's fame. Otherwise, he played innumerable minor ethnic villains, bartenders and avuncular, fast-talking characters, known in the credits only by their first names... 27. Gilchrist Stuart Actor, The Sound of Music 28. Henry Hull Actor, Lifeboat Henry Hull, the actor who created the role of Jeeter on Broadway in "Tobacco Road," was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 13, 1890, the son of a drama critic. Originally intending to become an engineer, Hull became an actor and made his Broadway debut in "Green Stockings" less than two weeks before his 21st birthday... 29.

Danny Lockin Actor, Hello, Dolly! Danny Lockin was born in Hawaii in 1943, and was raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He was an exceptional dancer who started dancing professionally at age eight. He appeared in the film Gypsy as Gerry. He appeared on Broadway in the 1964 revival of "West Side Story", and in other shows such as "The Sound of Music"... 30. Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson Actor, The Jack Benny Program The son of a minstrel and circus tightrope walker, Eddie Anderson developed a gravel voice early in life which would become his trademark to fame. He joined his older brother Cornelius as members of "The Three Black Aces" during his vaudeville years, singing for pennies in the hotel lobby. He eventually moved his way up to the Roxy and Apollo theaters in New York... 31. Geraldine Brooks Actress, Possessed A resolute, blue-eyed brunette with attractive, slightly pinched features, Geraldine Brooks was born to a Dutch couple on October 29, 1925, in New York City.

Her parents had a theater-based background -- father, James Stroock, owned a top costume company and mother, Bianca, was a costume designer and stylist... 32. Trevor Bardette Actor, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp Wavy-haired, articulate, quietly-spoken Bardette was one of Hollywood's archetypal villains of westerns and cliffhanger serials. He initially aspired to become a mechanical engineer after graduating from Oregon State University in June 1925. However, by the late 1920's, he had changed his name from Terva Gaston Hubbard to Trevor Bardette and embarked on a brief... 33. Jacques Tourneur Director, Out of the Past Born in Paris in 1904, Tourneur went to Hollywood with his father, director Maurice Tourneur around 1913. He started out as a script clerk and editor for his father, then graduated to such jobs as directing shorts (often with the pseudonym Jack Turner), both in France and America. He was hired to run the second unit for David O. Selznick 's A Tale of Two Cities ... 34.

Dorothy Christy Actress, Sons of the Desert Dorothy Christy was born Dorothea J. Seltzer in Reading Pennsylvania. She was an American actress who worked with film greats such as Will Rogers, Buster Keaton, the Marx brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and many others. She even worked with the singing cowboy himself, Gene Autry. She passed away of natural causes in Santa Monica, California. 35. Patricia Haines Actress, Blood Beast from Outer Space 36. Ethel Waters Actress, Beulah The child of a teenage rape victim, Ethel Waters grew up in the slums of Philadelphia and neighboring cities, seldom living anywhere for more than a few weeks at a time. "No one raised me, " she recollected, "I just ran wild." She excelled not only at looking after herself, but also at singing and dancing; she began performing at church functions... 37. William Castle Producer, House on Haunted Hill 39.

Henri-Georges Clouzot Writer, Diabolique Beginning his film career as a screenwriter, Henri-Georges Clouzot switched over to directing and in 1943 had the distinction of having his film The Raven banned by both the German forces occupying France and the Free French forces fighting them, but for different reasons. He shot to international fame with The Wages of Fear and consolidated that success with Diabolique ... 40. Delmer Daves Writer, Dark Passage Although Delmer Daves obtained a law degree at Stanford University, he never had the opportunity to use it; while still in college, he obtained a job as a prop boy on The Covered Wagon and after graduation was hired by several film companies as a technical advisor on films with a college background. Soon afterward he entered films as an actor... 41. Niall MacGinnis Actor, Hamlet Niall MacGinnis is not as well known outside of Europe, but he was a wonderful character actor whose variety of roles matched his great gift for characterization and the look beyond just makeup that he projected. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and Trinity College, Dublin. He obtained a basic... 42.

Cyril Ritchard Actor, The Hobbit Legendary for his preening, prancing, delightfully playful villain Captain Hook on the award-winning stage (as well as TV) opposite America's musical treasure Mary Martin, beloved musical star Cyril Ritchard had a vast career that would last six decades, but "Peter Pan" would become his prime legacy... 43. Edith Barrett Actress, I Walked with a Zombie 44. Leila Hyams Actress, Freaks Leila Hyams was born May 1, 1905, in New York City to vaudeville comedy performers John Hyams (1869-1940) and Leila McIntyre (1882-1953). Both her parents had careers in films, and can be seen together in The Housekeeper's Daughter . As soon as she could walk, Leila appeared onstage with her parents, and... 45. Nora Marlowe Actress, Westworld 46. Onslow Stevens Actor, Them! Son of character actor Houseley Stevenson , brother of designer Edward Stevenson and actor Houseley Stevenson Jr.

, Onslow Stevens was highly active from mid-1920s at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where his entire family worked frequently as performers, directors and teachers. he scored a major success on Broadway in "Stage Door" in 1936... 47. Maria Callas Soundtrack, Avengers: Age of Ultron This volatile opera diva was born in New York City to Greek émigrés in 1923. Her father set up a pharmacy and changed the family name from Kalogeropoulos to Callas. As a child Maria studied the piano. When her parents separated (she was 14 at the time), her mother returned to Athens with Maria and her sister... 48. Jim Boles Actor, A Big Hand for the Little Lady 49. Ricardo Cortez Actor, The Maltese Falcon Ricardo Cortez was born Jacob Krantz in New York City, New York, the son of Sarah (Lefkowitz) and Moses/Morris Krantz, Austrian Jewish immigrants who moved to NY just before he was born. His brother was cinematographer Stanley Cortez , who also changed his surname. Cortez worked a number of jobs while he trained as an actor... 50.

Charlie Chaplin Dead at 88; Made the Film an Art Form Charlie Chaplin Dead at 88; Made the Film an Art Form By BOSLEY CROWTHER harlie Chaplin, the poignant little tramp with the cane and comic walk who almost single-handedly elevated the novelty entertainment medium of motion pictures into art, died peacefully yesterday at his home in Switzerland. He was 88 years old. Sir Charles -- he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1975 -- died at 4 A.M., a few hours before his family's traditional Christmas celebration was to begin. His wife, Oona, daughter of the playwright Eugene O'Neill, and seven of their children were at the bedside when the comedian died. A daughter, the actress Geraldine Chaplin, was in Madrid making a film, but left immediately to join her family at the Chaplin home at Corsiersur-Vevey, a village near the eastern tip of the Lake of Geneva.

"All the presents were under the tree," Lady Chaplin told a caller, adding, "Charlie gave so much happiness and, although he had been ill for a long time, it is so sad that he should have passed away on Christmas day." "He died of old age," said Dr. Henri Perrier, the Chaplin family physician. "His death was peaceful and calm." A source close to the family said Sir Charles had been given oxygen because of breathing trouble in recent days. In a statement, Lady Chaplin said the funeral would be private and restricted to the immediate family. A family spokesman said the funeral might be held in England but that burial would probably be in Switzerland, Sir Charles's home since his self-imposed exile from the United States in 1952. Sir Charles had been in failing health for many years. He was confined to a wheelchair and his speech, hearing and sight were impaired. During the last year, he left his secluded 20-room villa only for an occasional drive into Vevey with his wife.

Local people caught an occasional glimpse of the famous actor waiting in his blue-and-silver Rolls- Royce while his wife, 35 year his junior, purchased English newspapers and magazines, which she read to him later. His last public appearance took place last fall when he attended a circus performance in Vevey. He wore a soft hat pulled down over his forehead and thick-lensed glasses that hid most of his face. He shook hands with one of the clowns at the end of the performance. No motion picture actor so captured and enthralled the world as did Charles Spencer Chaplin, a London ragamuffin who became an immortal artist for his deft and effective humanization of man's tragicomic conflicts with fate. In more than 80 movies from 1914 to 1967, he either portrayed or elaborated (he was a writer and director as well as an actor) the theme of the little fellow capriciously knocked about by life, but not so utterly battered that he did not pick himself up in the hope that the next encounter would turn out better. His harassed but gallant Everyman was the Little Tramp, part clown, part social outcast, part philosopher.

He was "forever seeking romance, but his feet won't let him," Chaplin once explained, indicating that romance connoted not so much courtship as the fulfillment of fancy. Stumble Chaplin's Everyman might, but he always managed to maintain his dignity and self-respect. Moreover, he sometimes felled a Goliath through superb agility, a little bit of luck and a touch of pluck. There was pathos to the Little Tramp, yet he really did not want to be pitied. The essence of Chaplin's humor was satire, sometimes subtle as in "The Kid" and "The Gold Rush," sometimes acerbic as in "The Great Dictator" and "Monsieur Verdoux." "The human race I prefer to think of as the underworld of the gods," he said. "When the gods go slumming they visit the earth." And what they saw mostly was uncelestial folly. In ridiculing that folly Chaplin displayed a basic affection for the human race. He was serious and funny at the same time, and it was this blend of attitudes that elevated his comedy beyond film slapstick into the realm of artistry.

Rebounding From Adversity A serious theme in "The Gold Rush," for example, is man's inhumanity to man. The comedy arises from the hero's adversity, illustrated by his boiling and eating of his shoe with the �clat of a gourmet. The element of contrast exemplified by that scene was at the root of Chaplin's comedy. This sense of comedy tickled the fancy of millions in the United States for half a century, despite some notoriety that came to Chaplin through marital and political misadventures. The Little Tramp, the comedy character that lifted its creator to enduring fame, was neatly accoutered in baggy trousers, outsize shoes, an undersize derby redolent of decayed gentility, a frayed short cutaway and a sport bamboo cane. A jet black mustache completed the costume. What made it all fit together was that it complemented Chaplin's slight stature-- he was 5 feet 4 inches tall -- and his slimness -- he weight about 130 in his prime years.

Although Chaplin often suggested that the costume was a studied contrivance, the fact seems to be that it was arrived at by accident in 1914 when he was breaking into films with Mack Sennett. Sennett, famous for his Keystone Kops and other comic shorts, sent Chaplin to Venice, Calif., to make a bit of film eventually called "Kid Auto Races at Venice." He was told to wear something funny, and he assembled, on a grab-bag basis from other members of the company, pants belonging to Fatty Arbuckle, size 14 shoes each placed on the wrong foot, a tight coat, a colleague's derby, a prop cane and a false mustache that he cut down to fit his face. The splayed shuffle was a touch made up on the spur of the moment. With a few exceptions Chaplin used the costume for about 25 years, and it was his symbol for a lifetime. The artistry with which it was employed, of course, evolved, so that the Little Tramp of "Modern Times" was a far more complex character than that in "Kid Auto Races at Venice." The explanation for this was the meticulousness with which Chaplin studied the structure of comedy.

Desiring to make audiences laugh, he analyzed the ingredients of his approach to comedy and each scene that went into the whole. 'Desperately Serious' "All my pictures are built around the idea of getting me into trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman," he wrote early in his Hollywood career, adding: "That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening by derby hat, and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head." One of Chaplin's basic routines had to do with dignity. "Even funnier than the man who has been made ridiculous is the man who, having had something funny happen to him, refuses to admit that anything out of the way has happened, and attempts to maintain his dignity," he wrote in 1918. He continued: "I am so sure of this point that I not only try to get myself into embarrassing situations, but I also incriminate the other characters in the picture. When I do this, I always aim for economy of means.

By that I mean that when one incident can get two big, separate laughs, it is much better than two individual incidents. Achieved Artistic Control "In 'The Adventurer' I accomplished this by first placing myself on a balcony, eating ice cream with a girl. On the floor directly underneath the balcony I put a stout, dignified, well-dressed woman at a table. Then, while eating the ice cream, I let a piece drop off my spoon, slip through my baggy trousers and drop from the balcony onto this woman's neck. "The first laugh came at my embarrassment over my own predicament. The second, and the much greater one, came when the ice cream landed on the woman's neck and she shrieked and started to dance around. Only one incident had been used, but it had got two people into trouble, and had also got two big laughs. "Simple as this tricks seems, there were two real points of human nature involved in it. One was the delight the average person takes in seeing wealth and luxury in trouble.

The other was the tendency of the human being to experience within himself the emotions he sees on the stage or screen." In his early days in Hollywood Chaplin had little to say about how his movies were constructed or filmed. Later, though, he achieved artistic control, and he took infinite pains in perfecting each scene, often shooting hundreds of feet of film for a few minutes of final screen action. "With only a rudimentary idea in his head he concocted the story as he went along," Theodore Huff wrote in "The Literature of Cinema." "Some pictures changed completely in the course of production. He improvised a scene or a series of gags, then discussed the results the next day in the projection room. A bit might be used or all of it might be reshot; or the whole project might be scrapped and some other idea substituted. . . . In 'City Lights' the meeting of the blind flower girl and the tramp took months before the variation that satisfied Chaplin was reached." A Train of Possibilities Some of Chaplin's best comic situations resulted from his keen-eyed observation of life around him. "I watch people inside a theater to see when they laugh, I watch them everywhere to get material which they can laugh at," he explained.

"I was passing a firehouse one day," he went on, "and heard a fire alarm ring. I watched the men sliding down a pole, climbing onto the engine and rushing off to a fire. "At once a train of comic possibilities occurred to me. I saw myself sleeping in bed, oblivious to the clanging of the fire bell. This point would have universal appeal, because everyone likes to sleep. I saw myself sliding down the pole, playing tricks with the fire horses, rescuing my heroine, falling off the fire engine as it turned a corner, and many other points along the same lines. "I stored these points away in my mind and some time later, when I made "'The Fireman,'" I used every one of them. "Another time, I went up and down a moving staircase in a department store. I got to thinking how this could be utilized for a picture, and I finally made it the basis for 'The Floorwalker.' "Watching a prize fight suggested 'The Champion,' in which I, the small man, knocked out a big bruiser by having a horseshoe concealed in my glove." Added to Chaplin's talent for perceiving the comic potential in everyday occurrences was his skill at using contrast.

"Contrast spells interest," he once remarked. "If I am being chased by a policeman, I always make the policeman seem heavy and clumsy while, by crawling through his legs, I appear light and acrobatic. If I am being treated harshly, it is always a big man who is doing it; so that, by the contrast between the big and the little, I get the sympathy of the audience, and always I try to contrast my seriousness of manner with the ridiculousness of the incident." Entering motion pictures in what was virtually the medium's infancy-- before the advent of feature-length films and, of course, sound-- Chaplin was obliged to rely on situational comedy and on pantomime, the use of mute gestures and facial expressions to convey motion. Transcending linguistic barriers, this form of body language permitted the actor to be readily understood by peoples everywhere. Affection and Adulation "I am known in parts of the world by people who have never heard of Jesus Christ," Chaplin said matter-of-factly early in his career. Indeed, after only two years on the screen, "he was unquestionably the top figure in the motion picture industry," according to Mr. Huff. Audience demand for his pictures was phenomenal.

For example, one New York theater played his films continuously from 1914 to 1923, stopping only because the building burned down. By 1917 world-renowned performers visited his studios-- Ignace Paderewski, Leopold Godowsky, Nellie Melba, Harry Lauder. When the Nijinsky ballet played Los Angeles, its dancers spotted Chaplin in the audience and halted the show for a half hour while they embraced him. His popularity at the box office won him a $1-million contract -- a stupendous sum in 1917 -- for eight pictures over 18 months. Some notion of the adulation of the actor may be inferred from the response to his bond tours in World War I-- crowds of 30,000 in New York, 65,000 in Washington, 40,000 in New Orleans. Going to Europe in 1921 -- "The Tramp," "Shoulder Arms" and other of his classics had, of course preceded him-- Chaplin was mobbed in London and Paris.

The latter city declared a public holiday for the premiere of "The Kid." Few men in this century in any field attained his stature with the public "Charlie," "Charlot," his first name in any language bespoke affection amounting to idolatry. At the same time, Chaplin widened his intellectual and social world, meeting and becoming friendly with Max Eastman, the radical writer; Upton Sinclair, the Socialist novelist, James M. Barrie, the British playwright; H.G. Wells, the British writer; Waldo Frank, the novelist and critic; Georges Carpentier, the boxer, and St. John Irvine, the British dramatist. Throughout his life, he enjoyed the shuttlecock of wits with bright and learned men and women. With his success, he was taken up by society figures-- Mrs. W.K. Vanderbilt, Elsie de Wolfe, Princess Xenia of Greece and hundreds of others. Although Chaplin was not generally accounted vain, he was impressed, as the latter portion of "My Autobiography" attests.

Written after his forced absence from the United States and in perhaps an understandable mood of irritation, the book concludes with accounts of his reception in Europe after 1952 by socially and governmentally prestigious people, in whose attentions he basked. Other comic actors of the silent or early-sound era-- Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd and W.C. Fields-- also enjoyed acclaim and their pictures were often revived; but none, with the possible exceptions of Fields, created a genre. Even the Marx Brothers, in the opinion of many critics, could not rival Chaplin in creativity and fertility. One explanation was that Chaplin's command of pictures after 1917 was complete. He was the author, star, producer, director and chief cutter. Moreover, as Huff's book noted: "He himself played every character in every one of his pictures, to show the actors, men and women, exactly how he wanted them to do a character or a scene.

And he accompanied each actor's miming with a running commentary of suggestions, criticism or encouragement." In one film, "The Great Dictator," he served as hairdresser in the belief that he could do a better job than a professional coiffeur of arranging Paulette Goddard's hair to resemble a scrub-woman's. This impulse to perfectionism, costly in terms of time and film exposed, caused Chaplin many moments of anxiety, and self-doubt. His usual solution was to spend a couple of days in bed working through his problem. Exuberance From Confidence Over all, however, Chaplin possessed an egotism that did not admit of defeat. "You have to believe in yourself,"-- that's the secret" he once advised his son Charles Jr. "I had that exuberance that comes from utter confidence in yourself." Even as a London waif "I thought of myself as the greatest actor in the world," he recalled. Born April 16, 1889, in south London, Charles Spencer Chaplin was the son of a vaudevillian and a music hall soubrette, whose stage name was Lily Harley.

By an earlier union, Chaplin's mother, Hannah, had a son, Sydney, four years the actor's senior. Sydney was to become his half-brother's business manager. The elder Chaplin was a heavy drinker. "I was hardly aware of a father, and do not remember him living with us," Chaplin wrote. The couple separated shortly after he was born, and for a time Mrs. Chaplin was able to support herself. But her voice lost its quality, and "it was owing to her vocal condition that at the age of 5 I made my first appearance on the stage." "I remember standing in the wings when mother's voice cracked and went into a whisper," her son recalled. "The audience began to laugh and sing falsetto and to make catcalls. It was all vague and I did not quite understand what was going on. But the noise increased until mother was obliged to walk off the stage. When she came into the wings she was very upset and argued with the stage manager who, having seen me perform before mother's friends, said something about letting me go on in her place.

Captivated His Audience "And in the turmoil I remember him leading me by the hand and, after a few explanatory words to the audience, leaving me on the stage alone. And before a glare of footlights and faces in the smoke, I started to sing, accompanied by the orchestra, which fiddled about until it found my key." The lad captivated his audience, especially when "in all innocence I imitated mother's voice cracking," and he was greeted by laughter and cheers and applause. Very shortly, however, Mrs. Chaplin's fortunes dwindles, and she and the two children were obliged to enter the Lambeth workhouse. Then the boys were dispatched to an orphanage outside London. "Although we were well looked after, it was a forlorn existence," Chaplin wrote of those years. The institution practiced flogging, and at the age of 7 he received a severe caning. Moreover, for suspected ringworm, his head was shaved and iodined, and he was put in an isolation ward. Sydney went off to sea for a while and young Charles passed through a succession of workhouses. Meantime, Mrs. Chaplin was committed briefly as insane.

When she was released, the small family again lived in penury, relieved slightly when Charles joined a troupe of clog dancers. He never forgot his days of poverty and the struggle for the necessities of life. Nor, when he was wealthy and famous, did he neglect his mother, seeing to it that she was well cared for in her eventual emotional breakdown. Finally, he took her to California, where she died. Clog dancing lasted only briefly, followed by weeks and months of catch-as-catch-can existence. "I (was) newsvender, printer, toymaker, doctor's boy, etc., but during these occupational digressions, I never lost sight of my ultimate aim to become an actor," Chaplin recalled. "So, between jobs I would polish my shoes, brush my clothes, put on a clean collar and make periodic calls at a theatrical agency." At 12-- his persistence was rewarded, and he received a small stage part, then toured the provinces as Billy in William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes." Later, he played the part with Mr. Gillette in London, receiving favorable notices. An awkward age followed, however, in which he received several burlesque bookings.

Then came a substantial run in "Casey's Court Circus," in which he impersonated a patent-medicine faker. Switch to Pantomime In this engagement, according to the Huff biography, Chaplin decided to become a comedian. He also learned the unimportance of the spoken word. "Once, while playing in the Channel Islands," Mr. Huff wrote, "he found that his jokes were not getting over because the natives knew little English. He resorted to pantomime and got the desired laughs." His success landed him a job with the Fred Karno Company. "With Karno he learned the hard way, traveling all over Britain and going twice to America," according to John Montgomery, a writer on films. "The repertory was varied; there were sketches about drunks, thieves, family relations, billiards champions, boxers, Turkish baths, policemen, singers who prepared to sing but somehow never started, conjurors who spoiled their own tricks and pianists who lost the music . . . a wide various of subjects, mixed with a little honest vulgarity." The Karno troupe was Chaplin's polishing school, for it taught him the rich lessons of his trade by which the actor makes an audience laugh.

In 1913, Mack Sennett, then the producer of short film comedies for an insatiable public, signed the actor for $150 a week. "I hated to leave the troupe," he recalled. "How did I know that pictures were going to be a successful medium for pantomime? Suppose I didn't make good?" Nevertheless, he joined Sennett in Los Angeles, and made his debut in "Making a Living," a one-reeler that appeared in 1914. In those early Sennett comedies, there was no scenario. "We get an idea, then follow the natural sequence of events until it leads up to a chase, which is the essence of our comedy," Sennett explained. Chaplin changed that by adopting an identifiable character -- the Little Tramp -- which allowed the public to single him out from other comedians. 35 Sennett Films In his year with Sennett, Chaplin played in 35 films, including "Tillie's Punctured Romance," a six-reeler that also starred Marie Dressler and Mabel Normand.

It was the screen's first feature-length comedy, and it is occasionally shown today in various cut-up versions. Others of the Keystone, or Sennett, films have been mutilated or rearranged, according to the Huff book, which notes, "Rarely does one come across an unmutilated Keystone original." The originals of these films were shown around the world and they inspired such songs as "When the Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin." The renown they brought to Chaplin enabled him to shift to the Essanay Company for the then grand sum of $1,250 a week. For Essanay he made 14 films in 1915, including "The Tramp," his first generally recognized classic and the first in which he introduced a note of pathos. In the picture, Chaplin, a tramp, saves a farmer's daughter, played by Edna Purviance, from a robber gang, for which he is rewarded with a job on the farm. Routing the gang again, he is shot in the leg and nursed by the daughter. The tramp's happiness is unbounded until the girl's sweetheart arrives.

Realizing his fate, the tramp scribbles a farewell and departs. In the fadeout, Chaplin's back is to the camera. He walks dejectedly down a long road. Then he pauses, shrugs his shoulders, flips his heels and continues jauntily toward the horizon. Several variations on this theme were used in later Chaplin films, notably in "Limelight." After his Essanay period Chaplin went to the Mutual Company for $670,000 a year. He was 26, three years out of vaudeville and perhaps the world's highest paid performer. The sudden advent of wealth had little immediate effect on its life-style. When he signed his Mutual contract he remarked, "Well, I've got this much if they never give me another cent-- guess I'll go and buy a whole dozen ties." He was living at the time in a small hotel room and he kept away from Hollywood parties, preferring to roam at might through Los Angeles's poorer quarters. Shortly, however, he moved to larger quarters, hired a secretary, bought a Locomobile and acquired Toraichi Kono, a combination valet, bodyguard and chauffeur.

Kono, as he was generally called, remained with the actor for about 20 years, serving as the keeper of his privacy. Fortune in the Millions In time Chaplin grew passionately attached to money. Although he was not a tightwad, neither was he a conspicuous spender, save on his own comfort. In the end, his fortune was in the millions. And he insisted toward the close of his life that he had been actuated all along by money. "I went into the business for money, and the art grew out of it," he said. "If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can't help it. It's the truth." However, those who were close to Chaplin in his early film years were impressed by his painstaking search for artistry. In doing the two-reel "The Immigrant," in 1917, for instance, he shot 90,000 feet of film to obtain the 1,809 feet of the finished picture. His dozen Mutual films were all two-reelers.

They included some ranked among his best-- "The Floorwalker," "The Fireman," "The Vagabond" and "Easy Street." The negatives were not preserved, and the worn and duplicated prints that are sometimes shown at "Chaplin festivals," according to critics, bear only slight relationship to the quality of the original films. His Own Producer When the Mutual contract was up, Chaplin went to First National for $1-million for eight pictures over 18 months. For the first time he was his own producer in his own studio. Actually he made nine pictures over five years and these included some of his greatest achievements-- "A Dog's Life," "Shoulder Arms" and "The Kid." Sparing of caricature, "A Dog's Life" derives its humor from the parallels between a dog's existence and that of a vagabond. "Shoulder Arms" is Everyman at war, and, according to Jean Cocteau, "It moves like a drumroll." For "The Kid," Chaplin employed Jackie Coogan, a 5-year-old with mischievous brown eyes.

Hailed as "a picture with a smile -- perhaps a tear," the movie was a chapter out of Chaplin's own slum life. It contains little horseplay and much emotional intensity. Coogan's tears were real, induced by the sad stories Chaplin spun for him at necessary moments. Marriages and Divorces During the preparation of "The Kid" for release, Chaplin was embroiled in the first of several marital and extra-marital episodes that were to plague him. Good-looking and attractive to women, he was involved in a score or more of alliances, many with glamorous actresses, but these were usually discreetly handled. Not so with his first two marriages. In 1918, when the actor was 29, he abruptly married 16-year-old Mildred Harris. They were divorced two years later in a fanfare of publicity. Four years afterward he married Lolita McMurry, also 16, whose stage name was Lita Grey. She was ensconced in her husband's 40-room mansion, from which Chaplin soon fled. Two children, Charles Jr.

and Sydney, were born of the union, which ended in 1927 after a sensational divorce case, in the course of which Chaplin pictures were barred in some states at the urging of women's clubs. The actor's third wife was Pauline Levy, a chorus girl whose film name was Paulette Goddard. The two met in 1931, when Miss Goddard was 20, and according to Chaplin, were married in 1936. They were divorced in 1942 without public fuss. Meantime, in 1941, the actor met Joan Berry, a 21-year-old aspiring actress known as Joan Barry. She later charged that he was the father of her daughter, and Chaplin was once again the subject of lurid headlines. He was indicted for allegedly taking Miss Barry across state lines for immoral purposes, but this charge was dropped and he was acquitted of three related accusations. Miss Barry, however, filed a paternity suit, in which blood tests demonstrated that Chaplin was not her child's father. Nonetheless, a jury found against him and he was ordered to support the infant.

In the midst of these troubles in 1943, Chaplin, then 54, married 18-year-old Oona O'Neill, the playwright's daughter, over her father's vigorous objections. Their marriage proved happy and lasting, and it produced eight children. Chaplin's later films were made for United Artists, a company he founded in 1919 with three Hollywood friends, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and David Wark Griffith. Chaplin's initial picture for this concern was "A Woman of Paris," a comedy of manners that he produced and directed without starring in it. Considered a milestone in screen history for its influence on movie style, it was based in part on the life of Peggy Hopkins Joyce, briefly Chaplin's mistress, and it stressed social sophistication. In it Adolphe Menjou made his debut as a suave philanderer. "The Gold Rush" -- "the picture I want to be remembered by," Chaplin said -- came out in 1925 and it once again confirmed his hold on the public. It has been frequently revived and much analyzed. Less successful with the critics was "The Circus," which opened in 1928.

It seemed to lack the feeling of "The Gold Rush," and its comedy twists were short on flair. Its shortcomings, however, appeared less evident in revivals. Starting work on "City Lights" in 1928, the actor faced a crisis in the advent of talkies. He was fearful that spoken dialogue would impair the character of The Tramp, cause difficulties in his reliance on pantomime and cut into foreign sales. Moreover, many of Chaplin's effects had been achieved by undercranking the camera, a feat impossible at the set speed of a motordrive sound camera. After some thought, Chaplin decided to defy the new technology, and "City Lights" was produced as a silent picture with a musical score. The story of the blind flower girl, played by Virginia Cherrill, used more than 800,000 feet of film over two years. The tragicomedy was an enormous triumph when it opened in 1931, and outgrossed many slick sound films in revivals over the last 40 years. Many critics rank "City Lights" as among Chaplin's greatest creations.

Reputation as Radical The picture's appeal was one factor in Chaplin's conquering tour of Europe and the Orient-- a whirl of meetings with statesmen, writers, artists and celebrities. Returning to Hollywood, he embarked upon "Modern Times," a satire on mass production, which at the time gave the actor a reputation as a radical. "It [the picture] started from an abstract idea, an impulse to say something about the way life is being standardized and channelized, men turned into machines-- and the way I felt about it," he said of his witty social parable. The Little Tramp disappeared with "Modern Times," and with "The Great Dictator" Chaplin joined the sound-picture ranks. A ferocious ridicule of Hitler and Mussolini, the film has grown in stature over the years as its political implications have been, according to critics, more fully realized. "I want to see the return of decency and kindness," Chaplin said at the time. "I'm just a human being who wants to see this country a real democracy . . ." Despite "The Great Dictator," the nineteen-forties were difficult years for Chaplin.

His private life provided a headline festival for the tabloid press; he was vexed by income tax trouble; his wartime speeches calling for a Western second front to crush Hitler irked many conservatives; and "Monsieur Verdoux" did poorly at the box office. This fugue of troubles was intensified by the advent of the cold war. The actor came under fire for introducing Henry A. Wallace at a rally and for protesting the deportation of Hanns Eisler, the composer and a onetime Communist. Westbrook Pegler, the columnist, denounced him, and Representative John E. Rankin, a right-wing legislator from Mississippi, demanded his deportation. Chaplin's life "is detrimental to the moral fabric of America," Mr. Rankin asserted, urging that he be kept "off the American screen and his loathsome pictures be kept from the eyes of American youth." Finally, in 1952, the actor, a British subject, was virtually exiled by the United States.

While he was sailing to Britain on vacation, the Attorney General announced that he could not re-enter the country unless he could prove his "moral worth." Piqued, Chaplin spent the rest of his life in Europe, settling on a 38-acre estate at Vevey, Switzerland. A Special Academy Award In 1972, however, amends of a sort were made to Chaplin. He visited the United States to receive a special Oscar from the Motion Picture Academy and to accept accolades in New York. By this time the once-bubbling actor had aged into senility. He could do little more than bow and smile in response to expressions of affection for him and his art. Meantime, critical opinion vindicated Chaplin's belief that "Verdoux" was a brilliant picture. Its satire of a business and war-minded world was more appreciated in the context of opinion in the 1960's and 70's than it had been in the late 40's. Apart from "Limelight," Chaplin's final films-- "The King in New York" and "A Countess From Hong Kong"-- were accounted by many critics as lesser works.

In his declining years Chaplin looked back with happiness on his early days in the movies at Keystone and Essanay. "I was able to try anything in those days," he said. "I was free." Film History Milestones - 1977 Event and Significance 1977 George Lucas' space opera Star Wars (1977) , made for $11 million, was released in theaters in mid-summer and grossed nearly $200 million on its first release, topping Jaws (1975) as the highest earning film to date and generating an astoundingly lucrative merchandising campaign. It truly revolutionized movie merchandising. After adjusting for inflation, its US gross profit was second only to Gone with the Wind (1939) . It ultimately helped to resurrect the financial viability of the science-fiction genre, a category of films that was considered frivolous and unprofitable, and its exhilarating, action-paced computer-generated effects thrilled audiences. Until Jaws (1975) and then Star Wars (1977) , the summer was typically Hollywood's slow season -- not true afterwards.

1977 Star Wars (1977) was nominated for ten Academy Awards (including Best Picture), and won in six (mostly technical) categories. It marked the first use of an animated 3-D wire-frame graphic, and extensively used CGI. One of its negative influences was that it accelerated a trend towards special-effects-laden blockbuster films targeted at young people. It generated a remarkable two sequels (for the original trilogy) and three prequels, and led to the equally-successful collaboration between Spielberg and Lucas for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) . 1977 Director John Badham's Saturday Night Fever (1977) created a disco-dancing craze, popularized disco music, made a star of John Travolta, and the extremely popular songs by the BeeGees encouraged the future popularity of movie soundtracks. The then-23-year-old Travolta earned his first lead actor Oscar nomination as disco sensation Tony Manero in the film. New Jersey native Travolta's first significant role was in the mid-1970s TV series Welcome Back, Kotter, occurring simultaneously with his first major film role in DePalma's horror thriller Carrie (1976).

These set the stage for his appearance as the lead in the disco dance blockbuster. His promising career was then uneven for almost a decade, but was rejuvenated by Look Who's Talking (1989) and Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) . 1977 Director/writer Steven Spielberg's successful science-fiction classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) , presented a unique view of aliens as benign and kind --- and saved Columbia Pictures from bankruptcy by being the studio's biggest grossing film up to that time. It helped to usher in the era of the blockbuster sci-fi/fantasy film. It was Spielberg's first film after his enormously successful blockbuster Jaws (1975) . As a high school junior, Spielberg's first feature film, shot in 8 mm, was Firelight (1964) - the inspirational precursor to this film, about a town terrorized by UFOs.

1977 Woody Allen's semi-autobiographical romantic comedy Annie Hall (1977) , a marked departure from Allen's earlier slapstick-filled pictures, won the Best Picture honors over the special-effects blockbuster Star Wars (1977) , and gave the director/star/writer two Oscars (Best Screenplay and Best Director). The costuming of the title character (Best Actress winner Diane Keaton) -- dubbed the 'Annie Hall' look -- created a fashion craze. Woody Allen became the first director to win an Academy Award for a film he starred in. From five nominations, the film won a total of four Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay), losing only Allen's own Best Actor nomination. Allen declined to attend the awards ceremony, instead playing jazz on his clarinet in NYC's Michael's Pub. 1977 Canadian writer/director David Cronenberg's low-budget horror film Rabid (1977) starred ex-porn film star Marilyn Chambers (the ex "Ivory Snow girl") in the lead role as Rose, a mutant predator with vampirish blood cravings following plastic surgery.

It was a notable cross-over role for the former hard-core adult film actress - she was one of the first adult stars to cross over into a mainstream film. 1977 Andre Blay, who had founded an audio/video production and duplication company in 1968 called Magnetic Video, established the first video distribution company (in Detroit, Michigan) in 1977 to license, market and distribute half-inch videotape cassettes (both Betamax and VHS) to consumers. It was the first company to sell pre-recorded videos. He offered the first group of fifty best-selling movies (from Twentieth Century Fox) to the public through a direct-mail sales operation called the Video Club of America, advertised in TV Guide. His revolutionary company ushered in the lucrative era of home-video. 1977 George Atkinson of Los Angeles began to advertise the rental of 50 Magnetic Video titles of his own collection in the Los Angeles Times, and launched the first video rental store, Video Station. It was a 600-square-foot storefront on Wilshire Boulevard.

In order to raise capital, Atkinson charged $50 for an "annual membership" and $100 for a "lifetime membership," which provided the opportunity to rent the videos for $10 a day. Atkinson was threatened with a lawsuit for renting the videos, but quickly discovered that U.S. copyright law gave him the right to rent and resell videos he owned. Within five years, he franchised more than 400 Video Station stores across the country. 1977 Respected 43 year-old Polish director Roman Polanski had sex with a 13-year-old girl (Samantha Gailey (now Geimer)) following champagne (and allegedly, quaaludes) in actor Jack Nicholson's hot tub in his LA home.

Known for directing Rosemary's Baby (1968) (his debut Hollywood film) and the highly-acclaimed Chinatown (1974) which revitalized the film noir genre, and for being the widower of the brutally-murdered Manson victim and 26 year-old pregnant wife Sharon Tate in August, 1969, Polanski pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawful sexual intercourse with the minor but fled to France in February, 1978 before his sentencing. In exile, he went on to direct Tess (1980), Frantic (1988) (featuring the first starring role of Emmanuelle Seigner - his future wife), the erotic thriller Bitter Moon (1992), and The Pianist (2002), which was nominated for Best Picture and won three Oscars, including Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director (unclaimed, since he remained a fugitive from US justice).

[Footnote: After 31 years as a fugitive for charges of statutory rape, 76 year-old Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in 2009 while enroute to the Zurich Film Festival, with possible extradition to the US to face sentencing for his conviction, although he was released by the Swiss as a "free man" in mid-2010.] 1977 "The King" Elvis Presley died at the age of 42 on August 16, 1977 at his Memphis, Tennessee home -- Graceland. The rock 'n' roll king had been suffering from the effects of drug abuse and suddenly died of a heart attack. On June 26, 1977, Elvis had performed his last concert at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. 1977 American comedian Groucho Marx, the most recognizable of the Marx Brothers with a cigar, thick eyebrows and mustache, died at the age of 86. He had also served as the host of the popular radio and TV game-quiz show You Bet Your Life.

1977 On July 13, 1977, a blackout in NYC - lasting for 25 hours - resulted in looting, arson, and other civic unrest, unlike the earlier Northeast blackout of 1965. More than 10 million people were affected by the power outage. 1977 Charlie Chaplin, a famous actor/producer/director/writer and mime from the silent era into the 1950s, died (on Christmas Day) at the age of 88, at his home in Switzerland. He was considered one of the greatest male screen legends of all time. His most famous character role was as the Tramp, debuted in Kid Auto Races in Venice (1914). He co-founded United Artists Studios in 1919, and he was known for two of the greatest films ever made: City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) . His final directed film was A Countess From Hong Kong (1967).

1977 Talented director/producer/writer Howard Hawks, known for a wide-ranging number of classic Hollywood films ( Scarface (1932) , Bringing Up Baby (1938) , Only Angels Have Wings (1939) , His Girl Friday (1940) , Sergeant York (1941), The Big Sleep (1946) , Red River (1948) , Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and Rio Bravo (1959)), died at the age of 81. 1977 David Begelman, the executive head of Columbia Studios, was suspended for confessed embezzlement and forgery. In late 1977, he was reinstated, but then by early 1978, Hollywood gossip columnists Rona Barrett and Liz Smith exposed the story to a mass audience, dubbed "Hollywoodgate". Shortly afterwards, Begelman was reinstated and then running United Artists for MGM, while actor/whistleblower Cliff Robertson was blacklisted for four years.

1977 The TV mini-series Roots premiered on ABC-TV on January 23, 1977, based on Alex Haley's novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. It was one of the first examples of the mini-series format. It originally aired for eight consecutive nights, and was one of the top-rated, most-watched broadcast TV shows of all-time. 1977 Actress Joan Crawford (born Lucille LeSueur) died at the age 72. She had begun her career as a dancer and after a number of roles (including Grand Hotel (1932) ) soon became known as one of Hollywood's greatest stars. Although she was labeled as "box-office poison," by the 40s, she made a comeback in Warners' film noir Mildred Pierce (1945) and won the Best Actress Oscar. Other memorable films included Johnny Guitar (1954), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) , and her last major film was the science-fiction horror film Trog (1970). She was famously portrayed by Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest (1981).

1977 Director Moustapha Akkad's The Message (1976, 1977) (aka Mohammed, Messenger of God), was an epic-length 178 minute dramatic biopic, taglined: "The Story of Islam." It starred Mexican-born actor Anthony Quinn (Abdallah Geith in the 198 minute Arabic version) - following his success in the desert epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) -- as Mohammed's desert-dwelling warrior uncle Hamza. It was set in 7th century Mecca and documented the beginnings of Islam and the life and teachings of the prophet. Various religious groups called the film 'sacrilegious' and 'an insult to Islam' and it was banned from showings in much of the Arab world. There was further controversy when the film premiered in the U.S. in Washington, DC, in March, 1977. The Hanafi Black Muslim extremist group led by Hamas Abdul Khaalis staged a heavily-armed siege against the local Jewish chapter of the B'nai B'rith (its national headquarters) under the mistaken belief (without having seen the film) that Anthony Quinn played Mohammed in the film.

During the two-day crisis, they took nearly 150 people hostage, and threatened to blow up the building while demanding the film opening's cancellation. Future DC mayor Marion Barry was shot when the terrorists overran the District Building, and many others were injured. The hostage situation was eventually defused by the FBI and Muslim ambassadors, and the theater chain that had booked the film cancelled the showing. This disastrous opening unfortunately ruined US box-office for the controversial film, as various moviehouses were forced to cancel their showings due to political pressures and further fears of violence. 1977 Director Herbert Ross' The Turning Point (1977) was the dramatic story of two dancers, both blessed and cursed by their own 'turning point' choices in life between career or marriage/motherhood. The film has the dubious distinction of having a record number of nominations - eleven - without winning a single Oscar. Its record was later tied by Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985). 1977 The first openly gay man elected to public office in California, Harvey Milk, was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors on November 8, 1977.

His life (and tragic assassination at the age of 48 on November 27, 1978) was chronicled in director Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk (2008), starring Best Actor-winning Sean Penn as Milk.

Question: Which comic actor died on Christmas Day 1977?
Answer: Charlie Chaplin