María Eugenia Yagüe
Updated Sunday, March 17, 2024-02:06
Cinema Charles Chaplin: the dark side of the tyrant, controlling, mean and hurtful genius
Family Chaplin's Spanish granddaughter learns about her indigenous roots in Chile
Charles Chaplin
died in
his mansion in Switzerland
on Christmas Day 1977. He was
88 years old
and had a
secret
that he never wanted to reveal.
His wife
Oona O'Neill,
36 years younger, survived him for 14 more years without knowing
that mysterious episode
in the life of her husband.
The daughter of Nobel Prize winner Eugene O'Neill also died in the same family home in Vevey, surrounded by most of her family.
To know more
Hollywood.
Claire Bloom, the young woman whom Chaplin discovered for his Footlights: "I adored him until the day he died and beyond"
Editor: LUIS FERNANDO ROMO
Claire Bloom, the young woman whom Chaplin discovered for his Footlights: "I adored him until the day he died and beyond"
The couple
always slept in separate rooms
and yet had eight children.
Upon the death of her mother, when her
heirs
proceeded to distribute the belongings of the house, they found her father's
nightstand
closed and only one thing inside,
a letter that no one had knowledge of
.
"Charlie, I have read your biography and you are a bit of a liar because
you say that you were born in London
and I know that you were not born there, but in Black Patch, the largest
Romani gypsy camp
in England, in the caravan of the Gipsy Queen, the queen gypsy. And that is said in the gypsy world and I have heard it from my grandmother, who was there when you were born...".
Dolores Chaplin, granddaughter of Charles Chaplin.CEDED
Dolores Chaplin,
one of the
granddaughters
of the unforgettable Charlot, speaks with LOC about the content of the letter and the surprising
origins of her grandfather,
a topic that has been speculated about for some years.
She and
her sister Carmen,
her director, have taken it to a
documentary
produced in Spain and which will be premiered in our country, in addition to presenting it at
festivals
around the world.
"It has been a very interesting job in which we have
interviewed Spanish gypsies,
Farruquito, Antonio Carmona, the director Emil Kusturica, in addition to collecting testimonies from actors who have played roles of gypsies to find out how ethnic and cultural origins influence their careers. And others who are and were not known,
like Michael Caine.
A
member of the Rolling Stones
seems to have those same origins but did not want to speak for the documentary.
Charles and Oona Chaplin at London airport, after exiling from the United States accused of being a communist, in 1952.Getty
"We are
certain of my grandfather's gypsy origins
and he did not have a birth certificate. I barely knew him. He knew where he came from, but he
never said it because Hitler labeled him
and attacked him as a Jew and he did not want to deny it. so that it would not appear that he was a Jew who denied being one.
His aversion to Nazism
was made very clear in
The Great Dictator.
In the United States he was
branded a communist when
they persecuted anyone who was a democrat and progressive and that is why my grandparents settled in Europe".
FROM POOR TO RICH
Chaplin
was born into a very poor family,
"like something out of a Dickens story," but he made a great fortune, says his granddaughter.
"He was very smart and
knew how to invest very well.
He was also one of the first to create
his own production company
and be independent of the Hollywood studios, which had the actors tied to very tough contracts."
Dolores and her sister Carmen are
the daughters of Michael, Chaplin's son
who played the poor boy in
The King in New York
, today a notable writer.
Michael liked movies with Mexican themes and actresses Carmen Miranda and Dolores del Río and hence his name.
Dolores has worked in French
films like
Asterix
but now she prefers to dedicate herself to writing or creating her own things.
She lived in Madrid with her aunt Geraldine
Chaplin and also in Paris.
She
has
a son with whom she lives in Spain
.
She maintains a good relationship with her ex, also resident in Madrid.
Dolores poses with the wax figure of her grandfather, at the El mundo de Chaplin museum, in Switzerland.CEDED
The impressive personality of Charles Chaplin
overshadowed the figure of his wife,
Oona, a fascinating woman whom the actor and director, who was 53 years old, met
when she was 17 years old
and wanted to be an actress in Hollywood.
Her affair was one
more scandal
in the prolific love life of Chaplin, who
liked young girls.
But Oona was the definitive woman in his life since her wedding in 1943.
"My grandmother had an overwhelming personality,
she was beautiful, she always was.
At a young age she had a
great love with JD Salinger
and was a close friend of Truman Capote and Gloria Vanderbilt, but with my grandfather
she chose to be in the shadows
and live with the family. I remember when he took us in the Rolls-Royce to buy toys and told us "take what you want", I who had parents and a very hippy life, I was amazed by that wonderful grandmother. She never wanted what she
had written to be published
and his correspondence with his friends, important and highly talented people, but...", Dolores leaves in suspense.