Sydney Chaplin

About Sydney Chaplin

Who is it?: Actor, Soundtrack
Birth Day: March 16, 1885
Birth Place:  Beverly Hills, California, United States
Died On: 16 April 1965(1965-04-16) (aged 80)\nNice, France
Birth Sign: Aries
Occupation: Actor
Years active: 1905–1929
Spouse(s): Minnie (d. 1936) Henriette (Gypsy) (d. 1992)
Parent(s): Hannah Hill
Relatives: See Chaplin family

Sydney Chaplin Net Worth

Sydney Chaplin was born on March 16, 1885 in  Beverly Hills, California, United States, is Actor, Soundtrack. In choosing a professional acting career for himself, bon vivant Sydney Chaplin had to deal with the powerful and pervasive shadow of his famous father, the legendary Charles Chaplin, hovering over him every step of the way. While his older brother, actor Charles Chaplin Jr., buckled under the pressure and died of an alcohol-related illness at age 43, the dashing and debonair Sydney achieved respectable success on his own terms by avoiding films and focusing on the theater.Sydney was the oldest surviving Chaplin child at the time of his death following a stroke on March 3, 2009. While in no way could he match his father's ambitious nature and incredible genius, Sydney managed to do things his way. Fortunately, he was not weighed down by his father's all-encompassing obsession for recognition. Easygoing to a fault, Sydney was both charming and charismatic -- a winning combination on the stage. A wonderful mimic, he also possessed a fun and witty idle-rich mentality that tended to reflect his stage and film persona.Sydney Earle Chaplin, who bore a similar, slightly forlorn facial resemblance to his famous father, was born in Beverly Hills, California, on March 31, 1926, and was the second son born to Charlie and his second wife, Lita Grey. Lita was an aspiring actress who married the 35-year-old legend when she was 16. Sydney was named after his half-uncle, actor Syd Chaplin. His parents' marriage was doomed from the start and indeed was over before Sydney was even a year old. Charlie created just as many headlines off camera as he did on, and this breakup was no exception. The acrimonious divorce proceedings was a feast for the tabloids in 1927. Sydney was thereafter raised by his maternal grandmother and saw almost nothing of his father during his most irregular upbringing.Growing up, the boy suffered from extreme restlessness and a lack of discipline, and his education was erratic as a result. He was expelled from three boarding schools by the time he was 16. However, things changed for him with his country's participation in World War II. Drafted into the infantry at age 18, a new sense of purpose took over him when he was sent to Europe to serve as a bazooka man in the Third Army commanded by General George S. Patton.Sydney had avoided his father's profession up until this point. However, after his discharge from the United States Army, he was asked by a friend to try acting and he found out that he liked it. In 1946, he became the co-founder (with George Englund) of the Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Father Charlie actually directed Sydney in a couple of the company's endeavors, including a production of "Rain". Impressed by Sydney's newfound seriousness, Charlie gave him his first movie role as the composer in the classic Limelight (1952). Despite a fine introduction into films, Sydney's later output would be largely overlooked.Despite his inbred elegance, he was not the leading man type on film and was often cast in ethnic support roles (Indian, Egyptian). His credits included such foreign films as Un acte d'amour (1953) starring Kirk Douglas; Columbus entdeckt Krähwinkel (1954), which co-starred brother Charlie Jr., the British entry Land of the Pharaohs (1955), which starred one-time paramour Joan Collins, the English/Egyptian co-production Abdulla the Great (1955) starring Kay Kendall, and another British programmer, Follow That Man (1961) with Dawn Addams. He did not have any better luck with the American films he made -- Pillars of the Sky (1956) -- an actionful Western in which he played an Indian scout working for the army -- Four Girls in Town (1957) and Quantez (1957). Sydney did star in one above-average picture, the British thriller Confession (1955) co-starring Audrey Dalton, but the second-string film came and went without much fanfare.Stardom finally occurred for the actor on the New York stage -- not in a chic comedy, for which he was known, but in a musical. He opened on Broadway in November 1956 in the hit Betty Comden and Adolph Green effort "Bells Are Ringing" after femme star Judy Holliday encouraged him to audition. Having never sung before, it took 15 rounds before the director gave him the role of Jeff Moss, the gent who falls for Holliday's switchboard operator. Both Sydney and Judy wound up winning Tony Awards in 1957 for their performances (Sydney in the "featured" category) and he also earned a 1957 Theatre World Award as a new "promising personality". He and Holliday became involved at one point, which did not work out, and the uncomfortable situation led to his agreed replacement (by Hal Linden). Sydney would not return to perform with Holliday when the show made its London debut. Nevertheless, he continued on Broadway in both musicals and comedies, including "Goodbye, Charlie" (1959), "Subways Are for Sleeping" (1961) and "In the Counting House" (1962). His modest baritone was utilized on television as well in the musical version of Wonderful Town (1958) starring Rosalind Russell.Sydney's second greatest triumph came again in a Broadway musical -- "Funny Girl" (1964) co-starring meteoric newcomer Barbra Streisand. Playing the inveterate gambler and ladies' man Nick Arnstein opposite Streisand's love-torn comedienne Fanny Brice, both actors received Tony nominations for their performances, but neither won. His problems working with the young and eccentric Streisand resulted in a feud that led to his eventually leaving the cast. Because of the problems with his leading ladies, both of his original roles in "Bells Are Ringing" and "Funny Girl" went to other more famous stars (Dean Martin and Omar Sharif, respectively) when they transferred to film.In the late 1960s, Sydney appeared in another of his father's pictures, supporting Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren in the poorly-received A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). Sadly, this was Charlie's last hurrah as a director. Sydney later worked in foreign-made film fare, most of them unworthy of his talents. He ended his career in the late 1970s on an uneventful note with some standard television guest appearances and roles in a couple of abysmal horror films: So Evil, My Sister (1974) and Satan's Cheerleaders (1977), the latter movie featuring other veteran actors on the wane, including John Ireland, John Carradine and Yvonne De Carlo.In later years, Sydney opened a celebrity-friendly bistro and dinner club called "Chaplin's" in Palm Springs, California. It ran for about a decade. He also enjoyed trophy-winning celebrity status out on the desert's golf courses. Sydney Chaplin died at age 82 of a stroke in Rancho Mirage, California on March 30, 2009. He was survived by his third wife, Margaret Beebe, and his only child Stephan from his first marriage.
Sydney Chaplin is a member of Actor

💰 Net worth: Under Review

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Biography/Timeline

1905

In 1905 Charlie and Sydney worked briefly together in one of their first stage appearances, Sherlock Holmes. Syd was briefly cast as a villain in that play. In 1906 however, he landed a contract with Fred Karno, of Karno's London Comedians and was to fight hard to bring Charlie into the company two years later. Charlie never achieved the sort of fame Syd did as a principal Comedian for that company, but that was to be the only time that Syd was able to outdo his brother—at least in front of an audience.

1910

After Charlie achieved worldwide fame in the 1910s, the brothers discovered they had another half-brother through their mother, Wheeler Dryden, who had been removed from his mother's care as an infant and brought up abroad by his father. Wheeler was also an actor, and the brothers reunited in Hollywood in 1918, occasionally working together at Chaplin's studio through to the 1950s.

1914

As Charlie was negotiating his Keystone contract, he suggested Sydney be asked to join the company, and Syd and his wife Minnie Chaplin arrived in California in October 1914. Syd made a few comedies there, including the "Gussle" comedies, and the comedy short A Submarine Pirate in 1915, which, second to Tillie's Punctured Romance, was the most financially successful comedy Keystone ever made.

1916

Following this success, Sydney decided to leave the screen to negotiate Charlie a better contract. After getting him a $500,000 contract with Mutual on 27 February 1916, he got him his first million dollar ($1.25 million) contract on 17 June 1917 with First National. Soon he was handling the majority of Charlie's Business affairs, including a failed sheet music Business and a successful merchandising one, in addition to further contract negotiation. He also appeared in a few films during the First National era, such as Pay Day and The Pilgrim. Sydney achieved his own million-dollar contract from Famous Players-Lasky in 1919, but a series of problems resulted in only one failed film, King, Queen, Joker (1921), disappearing from the screen once again. Later films include The Perfect Flapper (1924) with Colleen Moore, A Christie Comedy, Charley's Aunt (1925) and five features for Warner Bros. Pictures, including The Man on the Box (1925), Oh, What a Nurse! (1926), The Missing Link (1927), The Fortune Hunter (1927), and The Better 'Ole (1926). The last is perhaps his best-known film today because of his characterisation of Cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather's famous World War I character, Old Bill, and the fact that it was the second Warner Bros. film to have a Vitaphone Soundtrack. It is also believed by many to have the first spoken word of dialogue, "coffee", although there are those who disagree.

1919

In addition to his importance in launching and promoting brother Charlie's career over the years, perhaps Chaplin's most important contribution to history is in the field of aviation. In May 1919, he, along with pilot Emery Rogers, formulated the first privately owned domestic American airline, the Syd Chaplin Airline Company, based in Santa Monica, California. Even though the corporation lasted only a year, in that time it accumulated many "firsts." Syd and partners had the first ever aeroplane showroom for their Curtiss aeroplanes. Emery Rogers conducted the first roundtrip Los Angeles to San Francisco FLIGHT in one 24-hour period. Charlie Chaplin took his first-ever aeroplane FLIGHT in one of Syd's planes, as did many other notable personages of the period. Chaplin got out of the aviation Business right after legislation began to pass regarding pilot licensing and the taxation of planes and flights.

1928

Sydney's first film for British International Pictures (BIP), A Little Bit of Fluff (1928), proved to be his final film. In 1929, just as he was to begin work on a second film for the studio, Mumming Birds, he was accused of biting off the nipple of Actress Molly Wright in a sexual assault. BIP settled out of court, conceding the truth of Wright's claims. Following the scandal, he left England, leaving a string of unpaid tax demands. By 1930 he was declared bankrupt.

1965

Chaplin married twice and had no children. His first wife, Minnie, died in France in September 1936 following surgery for breast cancer. After World War II, Sydney lived most of his final years in Europe. His second wife, Henriette (called Gypsy) survived him. After a long illness, he died one month after his 80th birthday, on 16 April 1965, in Nice, France. Chaplin is buried beside his wife Gypsy in Clarens-Montreux Cemetery, near Vevey.