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Google has today paid tribute to comic legend Sir Charles Spencer better known as Charlie Chaplin with a special silent movie Google Doodle on what would have been the actor’s 112th birthday.
Visitors to Google (www.google.com) are greeted with the YouTube video replacing the usual static Google doodle logo.
The black-and-white video, which stars the members of the Google Doodle staff, is a short movie featuring gags borrowed from Chaplin’s famous films.
In the video posted today, Charlie is moved on by a policeman after he is spotted reading a Google newspaper on a park bench, interacts with an artist painting a Google logo and then tries to bluff his way into an event without paying the $1 admission.
One of his methods for trying to gain access is by drawing a Google doodle of his own. After eventually getting the money out of the policeman he is able to head jauntily up the road with his trademark cane.
Chaplin, born in London on 16 April 1889, was also famous for his oversized trousers and shoes, bowler hat and toothbrush moustache, with The Tramp his most popular character.
His parents were both music hall performers, and their son began his official career aged just eight, having already stood in as an emergency replacement aged five when his mum’s voice failed during a show.
The young Chaplin started out as part of The Eight Lancashire Lads before later joining Fred Karno’s vaudeville troupe, which took him to America.
He was signed to Keystone Studios, where his film career began, and would go on to make more than 80 movies in a Hollywood career which lasted until 1967.
Chaplin married four times and had 11 children. His first wife Mildred Harris, a child star, was just 16 when they wed, while he was 13 years older. The marriage ended in divorce two years later.
He died on Christmas Day 1977, aged 88.