Famous Faces Friday: Michael Sheen as Chaplin

Rankin, the UK's leading fashion photographer, reveals the rich history of Hollywood photography and how its most influential and enduring images were created. From Hollywood's golden age, epitomised by gorgeous images of screen goddesses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich to brooding shots of Marlon Brando; from the unparalleled allure of pictures of Marilyn Monroe to iconic black and white stills of Charlie Chaplin, Rankin immerses himself in the art of the Hollywood portrait and explores the vital role it has played in both the movie business and our continuing love affair with movie stars.
To understand how the image makers of Hollywood created these iconic photographs, Rankin recruits a cast of leading Hollywood actors to help him recreate some of the most important - including Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin); Selma Blair (Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions), British actor Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, Dylan Thomas's biopic The Edge of Love); actor extraordinaire Michael Sheen (The Damned United, Frost/Nixon), and living Hollywood legend Jane Russell.

Cary Grant as Chaplin

Cary Grant as Charlie Chaplin (photo by Bert Stern, via LIFE Magazine, Dec. 23rd, 1963)

“[Chaplin] has given great pleasure to millions of people, and I hope he returns to Hollywood. Personally, I don’t think he is a Communist, but whatever his political affiliations, they are secondary to the fact that he is a great entertainer. We should not go off the deep end.”
-Grant at a 1952 press conference, after the State Department revoked Chaplin’s re-entry permit to the U.S. due to suspicions he was a Communist

Charlie on a train...

Beauty school drop-out?

From the Orange County Registry online:
'The unusual is usual most days at the COBA beauty school. One day, Charlie Chaplin impersonator Ruben Gerard wandered in and made himself comfortable under a hair dryer. Gerard was promoting an antique sale on the block.'

Michael Jackson

Lucille Ball