Charlie Chaplin's 122nd Birthday

Apr 16, 2011

122nd Birthday of Charlie Chaplin

This video Doodle celebrates English comic actor Charlie Chaplin, who is widely known for acting, writing, producing and directing during the silent film era.

The Story

About Charlie Chaplin

Reflections about Charlie Chaplin from Doodler Ryan Germick

About the Doodle:

"Chaplin is one of my creative heroes. Despite being an art-obsessed high schooler preemptively bored by anything in black and white, I borrowed a VHS tape of Chaplin’s work from the library on a lark. It’s not an exaggeration to say watching it changed my life. I laughed, I cried—I cried from laughter. For the first time I realized the power of visual storytelling.

We sometimes tell small stories with Google’s logo, but for Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin’s birthday, the Doodle team created something extra fun. For the next 36 hours the Google homepage will pay homage to Charlie Chaplin’s creative legacy with our first-ever live action video doodle.

The simple, silent short film stars the entire Doodle team (with fellow doodler Mike Dutton sporting that famous mustache, hat and eyeliner) and was shot on location in Niles, Calif., the setting of several of Chaplin’s early classics including The Tramp. Niles is also home to our advisers for this doodle, the ever-helpful Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

True pieces of art, Chaplin’s films still feel fresh today even though some of them are nearly a century old. We hope that our homage gets people talking about his work and the many virtues of silent film."

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Doodler Mike Dutton acted as Charlie Chaplin for the live action Doodle
The Story

About the Charlie Chaplin Doodle

This Doodle celebrates Charlie Chaplin who was a star of the silent film era and also wrote, directed and produced more than 80 movies in a career that spanned decades. His movies included masterpieces such as The Kid, The Gold Rush, and Modern Times. He scored many of his pictures as well, and on at least one occasion served as an on-set hairdresser.

Where this Doodle appeared

The Doodle 122nd Birthday of Charlie Chaplin launched Apr 16, 2011

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