Sydney Chaplin
Encyclopedia
Sydney Chaplin was an English actor
. He was the elder half-brother of Sir
Charlie Chaplin
and served as his business manager
, and the half-uncle of the actor Sydney Chaplin (1926–2009), who was named after him.
in London, England. There is a mystery as to who was Sydney’s father. The story is that it was a man named Hawkes, but there is no record of Hannah’s marriage to a Mr. Hawkes. He began using the Chaplin surname following his mother's marriage to Charles Chaplin Sr., a year after his birth. While Syd and brother Charlie were in the Hanwell Schools, following his mother's mental demise, Syd was placed in the program designed to train young boys to become seamen, on the Exmouth training ship docked at Grays, Essex. He followed this training period with several years working on ships, receiving high marks from all of his employers. But his ambition was to get into the entertainment business and he left his final voyage with that in mind.
Charlie and Sydney worked briefly together in one of their first stage appearances, the play Sherlock Holmes in 1905. Syd was briefly cast as a villain in that play. In 1906, however, he landed a contract with Fred Karno
, of Karno's London Comedians and was to fight hard to bring Charlie into the company two years later. Charlie never achieved the sort of fame Syd did as a principal comedian for that company, but that was to be the only time that Syd was able to outdo his brother—at least in front of an audience.
After Charlie achieved world-wide fame in the 1910s, the brothers discovered they had another half-brother through their mother, Wheeler Dryden
, who had been removed from his mother's care as an infant and raised abroad by his father. Wheeler was also an actor, and the brothers reunited in Hollywood in 1918, occasionally working together at Chaplin's studio through the 1950s.
contract, he suggested Sydney be asked to join the company. Syd and Minnie Chaplin arrived in California, then, in October 1914 and he made a few comedies there, including the "Gussle" comedies and the feature-length A Submarine Pirate
in 1915, which, second to Tillie's Punctured Romance, was the most financially successful comedy Keystone ever made.
Following this success, Chaplin decided to leave the screen to negotiate Charlie's Mutual
contract. He was able to get Charlie his first million dollars in early 1916. Soon, he was handling the majority of Charlie's business affairs, including a failed sheet music business and a successful merchandising one, in addition to further contract negotiation. He also appeared in a few films during the First National
era, such as Pay Day and The Pilgrim. Sydney achieved his own million-dollar contract from Famous Players Lasky
in 1919, but a series of problems resulted in only one failed film, King, Queen, Joker
and disappearance from the screen once again. Later films include The Perfect Flapper
(1924) with Colleen Moore
, A Christie Comedy, Charley's Aunt
(1925) and five features for Warner Brothers, including The Man on the Box (1925), Oh, What a Nurse! (1926), The Missing Link (1927), The Fortune Hunter (1927), and The Better 'Ole
(1926). The last is perhaps his most well-known film today because of his characterization of cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather
's famous World War I
character, Old Bill and the fact that it was the third Warner Brothers film to have a Vitaphone
soundtrack.
Sydney's first film for British International Pictures (BIP), A Little Bit of Fluff
(1928), proved to be his final film. In 1929, just as was to begin work on a second film for the studio, Mumming Birds, he was accused of biting off the nipple of actress Molly Wright in a sexual assault
. BIP settled out of court, conceding the truth of Wright's claims. Following the scandal, he left England, leaving a string of unpaid tax demands. By 1930 he was declared bankrupt.
. Even though the corporation lasted only a year, in that time it accumulated many "firsts." Syd and partners had the first ever airplane showroom for their Curtiss airplanes. Emery Rogers conducted the first roundtrip Los Angeles
to San Francisco flight in one 24-hour period. Charlie Chaplin took his first-ever airplane ride in one of Syd's planes, as did many other notable personages of the period. Chaplin got out of the aviation business right after legislation began to pass regarding pilot licensing and the taxation of planes and flights.
Chaplin married twice and had no children. His first wife, Minnie, died in France
in September 1936 following surgery for breast cancer
. After World War II
, Sydney lived most of his final years in Europe. His second wife, Henriette (called Gypsy) survived him. After a long illness, he died one month after his 80th birthday, on Good Friday, 16 April 1965, in Nice, France, on his brother Charlie's 76th birthday.
Chaplin is buried beside his wife Gypsy in Clarens-Montreux Cemetery, near Vevey
.
in Richard Attenborough
's Chaplin, depicting his personal and professional relationship with Charlie
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He was the elder half-brother of Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
and served as his business manager
Business manager
In a general context, a business manager is a person who manages the work of others in order to run a business efficiently and make a large profit...
, and the half-uncle of the actor Sydney Chaplin (1926–2009), who was named after him.
Early life
Chaplin was born as Sidney John Hill, to 19-year-old Hannah HillHannah Chaplin
Hannah Chaplin was the founding matriarch of the Chaplin family of actors as the mother of Sir Charlie Chaplin....
in London, England. There is a mystery as to who was Sydney’s father. The story is that it was a man named Hawkes, but there is no record of Hannah’s marriage to a Mr. Hawkes. He began using the Chaplin surname following his mother's marriage to Charles Chaplin Sr., a year after his birth. While Syd and brother Charlie were in the Hanwell Schools, following his mother's mental demise, Syd was placed in the program designed to train young boys to become seamen, on the Exmouth training ship docked at Grays, Essex. He followed this training period with several years working on ships, receiving high marks from all of his employers. But his ambition was to get into the entertainment business and he left his final voyage with that in mind.
Charlie and Sydney worked briefly together in one of their first stage appearances, the play Sherlock Holmes in 1905. Syd was briefly cast as a villain in that play. In 1906, however, he landed a contract with Fred Karno
Fred Karno
Frederick John Westcott , best known by his stage name Fred Karno, was a theatre impresario of the British music hall. Karno is credited with inventing the custard-pie-in-the-face gag. Among the young comedians who worked for him were Charlie Chaplin and Arthur Jefferson, who later adopted the...
, of Karno's London Comedians and was to fight hard to bring Charlie into the company two years later. Charlie never achieved the sort of fame Syd did as a principal comedian for that company, but that was to be the only time that Syd was able to outdo his brother—at least in front of an audience.
After Charlie achieved world-wide fame in the 1910s, the brothers discovered they had another half-brother through their mother, Wheeler Dryden
Wheeler Dryden
George Dryden WHEELER was an English actor and film director, the son of Hannah Chaplin and music hall entertainer Leo Dryden and thus the half brother of Charles and Sydney Chaplin...
, who had been removed from his mother's care as an infant and raised abroad by his father. Wheeler was also an actor, and the brothers reunited in Hollywood in 1918, occasionally working together at Chaplin's studio through the 1950s.
Career
As Charlie was negotiating his KeystoneKeystone Studios
Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Edendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company...
contract, he suggested Sydney be asked to join the company. Syd and Minnie Chaplin arrived in California, then, in October 1914 and he made a few comedies there, including the "Gussle" comedies and the feature-length A Submarine Pirate
A Submarine Pirate
A Submarine Pirate is a 1915 short comedy film starring Syd Chaplin and featuring an early uncredited appearance by Harold Lloyd.-Cast:* Syd Chaplin - Ambitious waiter* Wesley Ruggles - The inventor's accomplice* Glen Cavender - A shrewd inventor...
in 1915, which, second to Tillie's Punctured Romance, was the most financially successful comedy Keystone ever made.
Following this success, Chaplin decided to leave the screen to negotiate Charlie's Mutual
Mutual Film
Mutual Film Corporation was an early American motion picture conglomerate best remembered today as the producers of some of Charlie Chaplin's greatest comedies....
contract. He was able to get Charlie his first million dollars in early 1916. Soon, he was handling the majority of Charlie's business affairs, including a failed sheet music business and a successful merchandising one, in addition to further contract negotiation. He also appeared in a few films during the First National
First National
First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...
era, such as Pay Day and The Pilgrim. Sydney achieved his own million-dollar contract from Famous Players Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
in 1919, but a series of problems resulted in only one failed film, King, Queen, Joker
King, Queen, Joker
King, Queen, Joker is a 1921 silent feature farce written and directed by Sydney Chaplin, Charlie's older brother. The picture was produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film was shot in England, France and the United States.Less than a reel of this film,...
and disappearance from the screen once again. Later films include The Perfect Flapper
The Perfect Flapper
The Perfect Flapper was a 1924 comedy film starring Colleen Moore. This was Colleen's second "flapper film" after Flaming Youth. It was released after Through the Dark--which had been made before Flaming Youth but did not make it to the theaters until after—and Painted People. The film is...
(1924) with Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore
Colleen Moore was an American film actress, and one of the most fashionable stars of the silent film era.-Early life:...
, A Christie Comedy, Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
(1925) and five features for Warner Brothers, including The Man on the Box (1925), Oh, What a Nurse! (1926), The Missing Link (1927), The Fortune Hunter (1927), and The Better 'Ole
The Better 'Ole
The Better 'Ole, also called The Romance of Old Bill, is an Edwardian musical comedy with a book by Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliott, music by Herman Darewski, and lyrics by Percival Knight and James Heard, based on the cartoon character Old Bill, an infantryman, drawn by Bairnsfather...
(1926). The last is perhaps his most well-known film today because of his characterization of cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather
Bruce Bairnsfather
Captain Bruce Bairnsfather was a prominent British humorist and cartoonist. His best-known cartoon character is Old Bill...
's famous World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
character, Old Bill and the fact that it was the third Warner Brothers film to have a Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
soundtrack.
Sydney's first film for British International Pictures (BIP), A Little Bit of Fluff
A Little Bit of Fluff
A Little Bit of Fluff or Skirts is a comedy genre silent film made in England, starring Syd Chaplin and Betty Balfour, and directed by Wheeler Dryden and Jess Robbins.-Production background:...
(1928), proved to be his final film. In 1929, just as was to begin work on a second film for the studio, Mumming Birds, he was accused of biting off the nipple of actress Molly Wright in a sexual assault
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
. BIP settled out of court, conceding the truth of Wright's claims. Following the scandal, he left England, leaving a string of unpaid tax demands. By 1930 he was declared bankrupt.
Personal life
In addition to his importance in launching and promoting brother Charlie's career over the years, perhaps Chaplin's most important contribution to history is in the field of aviation. In May 1919, he, along with pilot Emery Rogers, formulated the first privately owned domestic American airline, The Syd Chaplin Airline, Co., based in Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
. Even though the corporation lasted only a year, in that time it accumulated many "firsts." Syd and partners had the first ever airplane showroom for their Curtiss airplanes. Emery Rogers conducted the first roundtrip Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to San Francisco flight in one 24-hour period. Charlie Chaplin took his first-ever airplane ride in one of Syd's planes, as did many other notable personages of the period. Chaplin got out of the aviation business right after legislation began to pass regarding pilot licensing and the taxation of planes and flights.
Chaplin married twice and had no children. His first wife, Minnie, died in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in September 1936 following surgery for breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Sydney lived most of his final years in Europe. His second wife, Henriette (called Gypsy) survived him. After a long illness, he died one month after his 80th birthday, on Good Friday, 16 April 1965, in Nice, France, on his brother Charlie's 76th birthday.
Chaplin is buried beside his wife Gypsy in Clarens-Montreux Cemetery, near Vevey
Vevey
Vevey is a town in Switzerland in the canton Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne.It was the seat of the district of the same name until 2006, and is now part of the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut District...
.
In popular culture
Sydney was portrayed both as a teenager by actor Nicholas Gatt and as an adult by actor Paul RhysPaul Rhys
Paul Rhys is a British television, film and theatre actor.Rhys was born in Wales and studied at RADA, leaving with the Bancroft Gold Medal in 1987. While there, he obtained his first major screen role, in Absolute Beginners . Since then he has seldom been off the stage and screen...
in Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
's Chaplin, depicting his personal and professional relationship with Charlie