Charlie Chaplin Viewed Show Business as His ‘Life Raft’ Before Exile From the U.S. With His Family

In 1952, Charlie Chaplin, his wife and their children boarded an ocean liner in New York bound for a vacation in Europe. They had no way of knowing that once they left, they would not be allowed back to America. Exile from the U.S., where the British comedian had lived for nearly 40 years, must have stung, but it wasn’t the hardest obstacle Charlie, a pioneer of early cinema, had to overcome in his long life. A child born into poverty and raised without a father, he spent his early years in orphanages after his mother was institutionalized. “Charlie’s life raft was show business,” says Scott Eyman, author of Charlie Chaplin vs. America. But even as Charlie honed his comedy antics in vaudeville, he grew into a “lone wolf” socially. “He learned he couldn’t depend on anybody but himself.”

Self-reliance and keen powers of observation made Charlie realize some universal truths, which he would incorporate into his Little Tramp movies. “‘Nobody really cares about anybody else’ is the subtext of Chaplin films,” Eyman says. Yet despite the adversity his character encountered, hope is never completely lost. “No matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head,” said Charlie.

Audiences responded to the trials of the Little Tramp and made Charlie a star. By age 26, he was the world’s highest-paid actor. He used this clout to claim autonomy over his art — producing, writing, directing, starring in and even editing his own films. “He felt confident in his power over an audience,” says Eyman.

Perhaps he grew too confident, because Charlie’s fame couldn’t save him from gossip. At 29, he wed a teenager and left her two years later. His next wife accused him of adultery in a tabloid-ready divorce. When he wed Oona O’Neill, the debutante daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill, “everybody thought, here we go again,” says Eyman. Their marriage would be different. “There was perfect synchronicity between Charlie and Oona. She accepted him completely, and he accepted her as someone of value, which she never got from her father,” says Eyman.

The public savored his scandals, but Charlie’s outspoken views on politics attracted the attention of the U.S. government. “They began a full-court press of investigation, opening his mail, bugging his phone and leaking negative information to columnists,” explains Eyman.

Told he would have to submit to and pass a new investigation into his morals and politics before he would be allowed back into the country, Charlie refused. He and Oona moved their family to Switzerland, where they lived until his death in 1977. Privately, these years out of the spotlight were the happiest of Charlie’s life; but his work suffered. The films he released from exile were not as popular and have never been considered among his best. “The public had always been with him, and he assumed that would not change,” says Eyman. “That was not the case.”