Biography
Born on 21 March 1926 in Los Angeles, California, Sydney Earle Chaplin entered the world as the son of Charlie Chaplin and his second wife, the actress Lita Grey. His name honored his father’s half-brother Syd Chaplin. After gaining stage experience with the Los Angeles Circle Theater, he stepped onto the screen for the first time in his father’s Limelight (1952). Broadway soon beckoned, where he appeared in several hit productions: Bells Are Ringing (1956), which brought him a Tony Award as Best Supporting Actor in a Musical; Subways Are For Sleeping (1961); and Funny Girl (1964). His motion-picture work during the 1950s and 1960s arrived at irregular intervals and rarely drew notice, among them Land of the Pharaohs (1955), Pillars of the Sky (1956), and Four Girls in Town (1957). In 1958 he took part in a televised staging of Wonderful Town. From the 1960s onward he accumulated many more credits, most of them shot in Europe, including Follow That Man (1961), Seven Guys and a Gal (1966), and another Chaplin family project, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). Additional late-1960s releases were Gunfighters Die Harder and Criminal Face (both 1968), followed by The Adding Machine and The Sicilian Clan (both 1969). The 1970s brought The Contract (1971), the made-for-television feature The Woman Hunter (1972), Medical Story (1975, also for television), and Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977).