Friday, October 15, 2010

Little Charlie...



Two great photos of a little boy (or maybe a little girl) dressed as a melancholy Charlie.

The Floorwalker



Chaplin poked fun at his contemporary impersonators at the height of 'Chaplin-mania' in his film 'The Floorwalker', a short film about mistaken identity and embezzlement. Lloyd Bacon plays his double (on the right).
You can view the mirror-routine scene here.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Is this Chaplin?


Corbis.com tags this as actually being Chaplin, but I am convinced it is a very good impersonator. Mainly because that's not Jackie Coogan, and the tiny Charlie seems like part of an act. I've tried to dig up info, but this photo does not appear in any Chaplin book or website, to my knowledge.
Also, if we are to assume that this was taken during the making of 'The Kid', Chaplin's outfit would look more like this:

For comparison, here are a few more photos of Chaplin and Coogan on the set:




What do you think? I'm not sure who this impersonator is in the photo below, but I think it could be him. Compare their facial structure and shoes:

Lucille Ball and Mickey Rooney

Billy West

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Samir Kamoun


Charlie Chaplin has been a strolling character at Universal Studios Hollywood for many years. He was first played by Tunisian actor Samir Kamoun in the early 1980s following his discovery as a street artist by Lew Wasserman, and he's been there delighting visitors with his mime work ever since.
You can read more about Samir's life as a Charlie impersonator here.