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.

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. 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." Silent Film Comedy Legend Charlie Chaplin A daily dose of unique art, culture and technology from around the world. Silent Film Comedy Legend Charlie Chaplin Share on Skype (Opens in new window) Charlie Chaplin died 34 years ago on Christmas Day 1977 at the age of 88. Much more than just a great comic actor, Chaplin conceived, directed, produced, and even wrote the scores for his films (as well as starring in them). In the process he pioneered silent film comedy and laid foundations for all the film makers who followed. Above he plays a barber in a scene from his 1940 classic The Great Dictator . Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max Linder , to whom he dedicated one of his films.

His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the music hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88. Here are a few more iconic examples of his work. Chaplin’s Little Tramp character literally eats his shoe in a famous scene from 1925’s The Gold Rush (ranked 58th on the American Film Institute’s list of the all-time greatest films). Here’s the Tramp in the Lion’s cage from The Circus (1928). This scene uses some filming tricks, but Chaplin was actually in the cage with the Lion on many takes. He also learned to tightrope walk for the film. Chaplin died in his sleep in Vevey, Switzerland on 25 December 1977 and is buried in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery, Switzerland. Shortly after, his body was stolen in an attempt to extort money from his family. His body was recovered and buried again, this time under 6 feet of concrete. You can imagine a suitably Chaplin-esque scene if graverobbers ever returned, breaking their picks & backs trying to chip through the concrete.

You can rest in peace now, Charlie.

Today in History - Unix Calendar Today in History First performance of Silent Night 1868 President Andrew Johnson pardons Confederate soldiers 1899 Oscar winning actor and film legend, Humphrey Bogart born in New York City 1907 Grammy Award winning singer, Cabell "Cab" Calloway III born in Rochester, New York 1914 German and British troops cease fire 1918 Soldier, revolutionary and third president of Egypt, Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat born in Mit Abu al-Kum, Egypt 1924 Paratrooper, boxer, and prolific screenwriter, Rod Serling born in Syracuse, New York 1939 First radio broadcast of A Christmas Carol 1939 First Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 1946 Singer, songwriter, author, and businessman, James William "Jimmy" Buffett born in Pascagoula, Mississsippi 1949 Singer, Academy and Golden Globe Award winning actress, Sissy Spacek born in Quitman, Texas 1954 Academy Award winning songwriter, musician and singer, Annie Lennox born in Aberdeen, Scotland 1977 Menachem Begin meets with Anwar

 Sadat 438 Publication of the Theodosian Code 496 Baptism of Clovis, King of France 800 Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor 820 Assassination of Leo V, Emperor of Byzantium 875 Coronation of Charles "the Bald" as Emperor of the Franks 967 Coronation of Otto II as Holy Roman Emperor 1000 Stephen crowned as Hungary's first King 1066 William the Conqueror was crowned King William I of England.

1075 Pope Gregory VII kidnapped while saying Mass 1223 St. Francis of Assisi assembled one of the first Nativity scenes, in Greccio, Italy. 1583 Orlando Gibbons, whom Glenn Gould regarded as the greatest composer of all time, was baptized. By the age of 19 he was earning money for compositions. He was one of England's most prominent organists from the age of 21. 1621 The Plymouth Colony bans card-playing 1635 Death of Samuel de Champlain, explorer 1642 British mathematician, physicist and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton born 1776 General George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey. 1818 "Silent Night" was performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorff, Austria: composed by organist Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr. 1821 American Red Cross founder Clara Barton born 1868 President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion that resulted in the Civil War.

1870 Richard Wagner hired an orchestra to play music on Cosima's 33rd birthday. The music was the "Siegfried Idyll." She was sleeping upstairs until the orchestra began performing on the lower stairs. 1876 Founder of the Republic of Pakistan Mohammed Ali Jinnah born 1887 Hotel Magnet Conrad Hilton born 1892 English author (Cicily Fairfield) Rebecca West (The Meaning of Treason, A Train of Powder, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, The Birds Fall Down) born 1893 Robert "Believe It or Not" Ripley born 1895 Foster father Cal Farley Founder of Cal Farley's Boys Ranch born 1896 John Philip Sousa wrote the melody to a song that had haunted him for days. On Christmas Day, that melody was finally titled, "The Stars and Stripes Forever."He had hoped the song would be a ballad - but alas, another march.

1899 Actor Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Caine Mutiny, The Barefoot Contessa, Tokyo Joe, Key Largo) born 1906 Singer and band leader Cab (Cabell) Calloway (`Highness of Hi-De-Ho': Minnie the Moocher) born 1913 Singer Tony Martin born 1914 Singer (Alvin Morris) Tony Martin (It's a Blue World, To Each His Own, Kiss of Fire) born 1917 The play, "Why Marry?", opened at the Astor Theatre in New York City. Jesse Lynch Williams won a Pulitzer the following year making ; "Why Marry?" the first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1918 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (Nobel Peace Prize winner with Israel's Menachim Begin in1978) born 1924 Scriptwriter Rod Serling (The Twilight Zone, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Planet of the Apes, Seven Days in May) born 1926 Hirohito became emperor of Japan, suceeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito (Hirohito was formally enthroned almost two years later). 1928 Actor Dick Miller born 1931 New York's Metropolitan Opera broadcast an entire opera over radio for the first time: "Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck. 1937 Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of "Symphony of the Air" over NBC radio. 1939 The Charles Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol", was read by Lionel Barrymore on "The Campbell Playhouse" on CBS radio. The reading of the tale became an annual radio event for years to come. 1941 British Hong Kong surrendered to advancing Japanese forces.

1943 Actress Hanna Schygulla (Dead Again, The Summer of Miss Forbes, Forever, Lulu, Casanova, Delta Force) born 1945 Actor Gary Sandy (WKRP in Cincinnati, All That Glitters, Troll, Hail) born 1946 Singer Jimmy Buffett (Margaritaville, Come Monday, Changes in Latitudes - Changes in Attitudes; main `Parrot Head') born 1946 Football Hall-of-Famer Larry Csonka born 1946 Comedian W.C. Fields died in Pasadena, California, at age 66. 1948 Singer Barbara Mandrell (CMA Entertainer of the Year 1980, 1981; Female Vocalist of the Year 1979) born 1949 Actress Sissy (Mary) Spacek (Coal Miner's Daughter, Missing, The River, Carrie) born 1950 Dick Tracy got married on Christmas Day. The comic strip hero married Tess Truehart. 1954 Rock musician Noel Hogan (The Cranberries) born 1977 Comedian Sir Charles Chaplin died in Switzerland at age 88.

1982 Country singer Alecia Elliott born 1987 Authorities recaptured Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who had escaped two days earlier from the federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia, where she was serving a life sentence for her attempt on the life of President Ford. 1988 Christmas services were held in Lockerbie, Scotland, where residents mourned the loss of 270 lives in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 with relatives of the victims. 1989 Former baseball manager Billy Martin died in a traffic accident in Fenton, New York. 1989 Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising. 1990 Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev won sweeping new powers from the Congress of People's Deputies. 1990 Romania's former monarch, King Michael, arrived on his first visit to his homeland since Communist rulers forced him to abdicate four decades earlier -- but he was deported by the new Bucharest government less than 12 hours later. 1991 Soviet President Mikhail S.

Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a Communist superpower that had already gone out of existence. 1992 US Marines delivered wheat to a refugee camp in Bardera, Somalia, setting off a small riot among the Somalis; American and French troops also took control of Hoddur. 1993 Full-fledged Christmas celebrations returned to Bethlehem for the first time since the Palestinian uprising began six years earlier. 1993 In London, an unidentified 59-year-old woman who'd been implanted with donated eggs gave birth to twins in a case that sparked controversy. 1994 Pope John Paul the Second, in his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" message, bemoaned "selfishness and violence" around the world. 1994 A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a Jerusalem bus stop, injuring a dozen other people. 1995 Singer Dean Martin died at his Beverly Hills home at age 78. 1995 An ailing Pope John Paul the Second cut short his traditional Christmas greetings, telling crowds he was fighting to regain his health.

1996 Peruvians held candles high and prayed outside the Japanese ambassador's residence, where leftist rebels freed one hostage for health reasons, but continued to hold more than 100 others. 1997 Richard Bliss, a field technician for Qualcomm Incorporated accused of spying in Russia, arrived in San Diego after Russian authorities were persuaded to let him return home (however, Russia says its investigation of Bliss continues). 1997 Comedian Jerry Seinfeld announced plans to fold his highly successful NBC sitcom "Seinfeld" at the end of the current season. 1998 British mogul Richard Branson, American millionaire Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand of Sweden gave up their attempt to make the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight seven days into their journey, ditching off Hawaii. 1999 Space shuttle "Discovery's" astronauts finished their repair job on the Hubble Space Telescope. 1999 A Cuban airplane crashed in northern Venezuela, killing all 22 aboard.

2005 Australian troops receive Christmas show in Iraq 2005 Fiesta Season begins in Colombia 2005 Armenian Journalists Facing Prison Sentences in Turkey 2005 Australian wheat to lose out in Iraqi market grab 2005 Apaches accuse Prescott Bush of robbing Geronimo's grave 2005 Cheney-Rumsfeld "Cabal" alleged in the USA 2005 War between top lawyers in Greece 2005 Taxi driver stabbed to death in Nova Scotia 2005 United States 2003 National Adult Literacy Survey released 2006 India wins its first cricket Test in South Africa 2006 James Brown dies of pneumonia 2007 Google Taiwan: Building knowledge sharing center-stage with innovations 2007 No injuries after Antarctica research station support plane crashes 2007 Israel says cluster bomb use was legal 2007 Leaders throughout the world deliver Christmas messages 2008 Apartment gas blast in Yevpatoria, Ukraine 2008 BBC ON THIS DAY | 17 | 1978: Charlie Chaplin's stolen body found About This Site | Text Only 1978

: Charlie Chaplin's stolen body found The coffin containing the body of Charlie Chaplin - missing since his grave was robbed 11 weeks ago - has been found.

It was dug up from a field about a mile away from the Chaplin home in Corsier near Lausanne, Switzerland. The legendary comedian died on Christmas Day last year, aged 88. He was buried two days later in the village of Corsier in the hills above Lake Geneva. Charlie would have thought it ridiculous Lady Oona Chaplin Swiss police have arrested two men - a Pole aged 24 and a Bulgarian aged 38 - and say they have confessed to stealing the coffin and reburying it. Names of the accused have not been released, but police say they are both motor mechanics. They were traced after police kept a watch on 200 phone kiosks and tapped the Chaplins' phone after the family received ransom demands of �400,000 for return of the body after it went missing in March. Sir Charles' 51-year-old widow, Lady Oona Chaplin, refused to pay up saying: "Charlie would have thought it ridiculous." In further calls the kidnappers made threats to harm her two youngest children. Hollywood rumours The family kept silent about the ransom demands and various rumours circulated about the missing coffin.

One Hollywood report suggested it had been dug up because Sir Charles was a Jew buried in a gentile cemetery. Lady Chaplin, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill inherited about �12m after the death of her husband. The couple and their eight children have been living in Lausanne since 1952. A spokesman for the Chaplins said: "The family is very happy and relieved that this ordeal is over." Superintendent Gabriel Cettou, the head of the Geneva police, said the two men would be charged with attempted extortion and disturbing the peace of the dead.

Question: Which cinema legend died on Christmas Day 1977 at the age of 88?
Answer: CHARLIE CHAPLIN