Country : Los Angeles, California |
Profession : Actor |
Date of birth : 1926-03-31 |
Date of death : 2009-03-03 |
Cause of Death : Stroke |
| |
Sydney Earl Chaplin (March 31, 1926 – March 3, 2009) was an award winning film and theatre actor. The third son of Sir Charles Chaplin and the second by his second wife, actress Lita Grey, Sydney Chaplin was named after his half-uncle Sydney Chaplin (1885–1965).
Lita Grey was 16 when she married the 35-year-old Charles Chaplin in 1924. Sydney was born two years later in Beverly Hills. His parents divorced a year later. Their elder son, Charles Chaplin Jr, died in 1968.
After serving in World War II, including a stint in Europe, Sydney turned to acting.
He won the 1957 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Bells Are Ringing, opposite Judy Holliday, and received a Tony nomination for his performance as Nicky Arnstein, the gambling first husband of Fanny Brice, opposite Barbra Streisand, in the Broadway musical Funny Girl in 1964.
Never one to shrink from getting personally involved with his leading ladies, he had a relationship with Holliday during the "Bells Are Ringing" run; when it ended, she refused to talk to him or about him and ceased contact with any of his friends. During the run of "Funny Girl", Barbra Streisand, then newly married to Elliott Gould, would have trysts with him in their dressing rooms until she decided to end it; at that time he started disorienting her on stage by whispering "nose" to her during their "You Are Woman" love scene. She asked him to stop, he didn't; she then filed harassment charges against him with Actors' Equity.
Sydney appeared in two of his father's films, Limelight (1952) and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin's
He was the longtime owner and manager of Chaplin's, a popular restaurant in Palm Springs, California.
Death
Sydney Earl Chaplin died of stroke on March 3, 2009 at age of 82. He was survived by his wife, Margaret Beebe Chaplin, a son Stephan (by his first marriage) and a granddaughter Tamara.
Selected filmography
- Limelight (1952)
- Land of the Pharaohs (1955)
- Confession (1955)
- Abdullah the Great (1955)
- Pillars of the Sky (1956)
- Fours Girls in Town (1957)
- Quantez (1957)
- A Countess from Hong Kong (1966)
- Double Face (1969)
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