Charlie Chaplin grew up in London workhouses, joined a music-hall troupe, and in Hollywood created the Tramp — writing, directing, scoring and starring in his own films, and co-founding United Artists to keep control of them. City Lights and Modern Times stayed silent long after sound arrived. The Great Dictator attacked Hitler in 1940. He was hounded out of the United States in the McCarthy years and did not return for twenty years.
