Charlie Chaplin & Spike Milligan – ChatterQuote April 2013
Charlie Chaplin
A day without laughter is a day wasted!
The 1st of this month’s quotes comes from the famous British comic actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin, or rather Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplin, an Aries born April 16th, 1889 in London, England, and who died on Christmas day, December 25th, 1977 at the age of 88 in Vevey, Switzerland. Chaplin rose to fame in the “silent movie” era, which seems a bit odd for an Aries, since silence isn’t exactly one of their strong suits! Instead, Charlie Chaplin displayed the pioneering spirit of an Aries, just look at the path he carved out in the film industry for all those to follow after him? That’s what an Aries does – they inspire everyone around them, and then move on to the next project, often leaving others to complete what they have started! They are very passionate people.
Chaplin’s childhood was not an easy one, so he needed to be a tough Aries to survive. He was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine – just think about that for a moment, especially those of you with young kids – can you imagine sending your child to the workhouse in this day and age? Well, maybe some of you can, but my point is that he had to overcome many tough obstacles from a very early age in order to reach the success that he was able to.
He also began performing at a young age, most likely as an escape from the real world he was living in, touring music halls and then later as a stage actor and comedian. But then Chaplin was signed by the famous Fred Karno (besides discovering Charlie Chaplin, Fred Karno was also credited with inventing the original custard-pie-in-the-face gag!), whose company then took him to America at the age of 19. Once in the US, Chaplin was scouted by the motion picture industry and made his 1st appearance in 1914 with Keystone Studios. From there, he developed his famous “tramp” character, which like a true Aries, always wore that hat, and by 1918, he was one of the most famous men in the world!
In 1919 Chaplin co-founded United Artists giving him complete control over his films. Many movies (and several marriages) later, including such classics as The Kid, The Gold Rush, City Lights & Modern Times, his interest in the politics of the time was shown by his satire of Adolf Hitler (also an Aries!) in the 1940 film The Great Dictator. This however, led to an unfortunate decline in his popularity along with accusations of his being a communist. Ultimately he was forced to leave the US and settled in Switzerland until he died.
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Spike Milligan
I’m not afraid of dying I just don’t want to be there when it happens!
I also wanted to give you a 2nd quote this month, from comedian, musician, poet & writer Spike Milligan, an Aries, also born on April 16th (same day as Charlie Chaplin, check that out!) but in 1918 and not in England. Terence Alan Patrick Seán “Spike” Milligan, KBE (Knight, or Order of the British Empire) was born in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, British India, to English and Irish parents (guess which one was which?), but spent most of his adult working life in the UK, where he died on February 27th, 2002, in Rye, East Sussex.
My dad was a big fan and we grew up listening to Spike Milligan, creator of the brilliant comedy Goon Show, which he performed on BBC Radio along with fellow comedians Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers (who, coincidentally were both Virgos, both born on September 8th just 4 years apart – how weird is that?) The Goon Show was both crazy and creative, with lots of whacky sound effects, as well as abundantly silly humor. Once again, we have an Aries pioneer, and down the road, comedy groups such as Monty Python with their newly absurd brand of humor were certainly and majorly influenced by Spike and his fellow Goons.
Spike also wrote many books, and ironically enough, much like Charlie Chaplin, he too had a thing about fellow Aries Adolf Hitler, and one of Spike’s better-known and auto-biographical books was entitled Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, based on when he served in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. Seriously, I’m not making this stuff up! It’s no big surprise that Spike, as an Aries, ruled by the Planet and War-God Mars, was not only an army brat, but also ended up serving in the military himself! Notice how many hats he wore as well, including several of the ones on this blog where I found the one above.