Famous Eaters - Sir Charlie Chaplin

Each month we look at the eating habits

of famous people, past and present

NAME: Sir Charlie Chaplin

BORN: 16 April 1889

DIED: 25 December 1977

FAVOURITE FOOD: The meal that Charlie Chaplin is probably most associated with comes via his moving portrayal of a destitute miner in the silent movie Gold Rush. It is Thanksgiving Day and all he has to eat is one of his hobnailed boots that has been boiled on the rickety stove.

Food also featured in two of Chaplin's other films. In The Kid, a pancake breakfast and a hearty stew dinner play important parts in the script. In The Great Dictator, Chaplin's parody on Adolph Hitler made in 1940 in which he first talked on screen, it is strawberries and "Henglish" mustard that feature prominently.

While these are merely props for his films, London-born Chaplin had other links with food. He was regularly asked to donate a recipe for use in cookbooks that were sold to raise money for charity. The first of these was the 1916 publication Celebrated Actor-Folks' Cookeries, and Chaplin, who had by now been christened "The Little Tramp" for the

stereotypical character he played in many films, donated a recipe for an apple roll.

Despite having lived in the USA since 1910, his English upbringing remained strong and when asked in the mid 1920s for his favourite dish, he answered "Henglish steak and kidney pie".

His outspoken views and sympathetic leanings towards communism came under scrutiny from the notorious McCarthy investigation, which ran from 1950 to 1954, into communist infiltration into the US Government.

In 1952, Chaplin and his wife, Oona, left the States and settled in Switzerland, where they raised eight children including their actress daughter Geraldine. It is not known

whether Chaplin was converted to fondu or rosti during his time in Switzerland.

In 1972 he returned to the United States to receive a special Oscar. In 1975, two years before his death, he was knighted by the Queen.

Graham Ridout