Born in April 1889, Charlie Chaplin grew up in dire poverty, his father a hopeless alcoholic, his mother driven mad from syphilis. Young Charlie cut his theatrical teeth in British music halls. He arrived penniless in America at the age of 25 and within a few short years was not only a millionaire but a worldwide celebrity. This new biography traces his life in meticulous detail, demonstrating how his tragic childhood formed both his personality and his art. Infamous for his politics and his scandalous sex life, Chaplin was a much more complex and contradictory character than has hitherto been known. Stephen Weissman's Chaplin casts a whole new light both on the screen legend and on the turbulent era through which he lived.