Actor Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. 1968 Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Charles Spencer Chaplin III (May 5, 1925 – March 20, 1968) was an American actor.

Life and career

Chaplin was born in Beverly Hills, California. He was the elder son of actors Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey. His half-siblings from his father's last marriage to Oona O'Neill are Geraldine, Michael, Josephine, Victoria, Eugene, Jane, Annette, and Christopher. His elder half-brother Norman died as an infant.

As young children, he and his younger brother Sydney were used as pawns in their mother's bitter divorce from Charlie Chaplin, during which a lot of the couple's "dirty linen" was aired in public, sensational divorce hearings. Following the divorce, the brothers were raised by their mother and maternal grandmother until the mid-1930s, when they began to make frequent visits to their father.

Chaplin attended the Black-Foxe Military Institute in Hollywood and the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. He served in the US Army in Europe during World War II.

Charles married actress Susan Magness (born c. 1936) on August 6, 1958. They lived in Los Angeles, California. Their daughter Susan Maree Chaplin was born in May 1959. They separated in October 1959 and divorced on November 23, 1959. His ex-wife and daughter still live in Los Angeles.

Chaplin acted in 13 films, appearing with his father in Limelight (1952). In 1959, he had a role in the film Girls Town which featured the son of another famous silent movie comedian, Harold Lloyd Jr. He appeared with his brother Sydney in the play Ethan Frome at the Circle Theatre, now named El Centro Theatre. In 1960 he wrote a book about his family life entitled My Father, Charlie Chaplin.

Death

Chaplin died of a pulmonary embolism on March 20, 1968, in Santa Monica, California, aged 42. He is buried in the Abbey of the Psalms mausoleum at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery with his maternal grandmother Lillian Carrillo Curry Grey (1888–1985).

Selected filmography

Limelight (1952) as Clown (uncredited)
Fangs of the Wild (1954)
Columbus Discovers Kraehwinkel (1954)
High School Confidential! (1958)
The Beat Generation (1959)
Sex Kittens Go to College (1960)

Further reading

Grey, Lita. My Life With Chaplin, Grove Press. 1966.
Grey, Lita; Vance, Jeffrey. Wife of the Life of the Party: A Memoir. Scarecrow Press. 1998.