Charlie Chaplin with Google Doodle

Charles Spencer Chaplin, the man who taught the world to smile in the most difficult of times, is Google’s legend of the day. In 1889 Chaplin was born in a caravan near Birmingham, England to the impoverished Charles Chaplin Sr. and Hannah Chaplin, both struggling theatre artists.

After Chaplin’s alcoholic father succumbing to liver cirrhosis, and his mother losing her singing career to a throat condition, young Chaplin started appearing in supporting roles in plays.

In 1910, Chaplin, aged 21, left to America to make a living out of acting. Chaplin’s moment in life and the world’s came in the 1914 movie Kid Auto Races At Venice. In the movie, Chaplin first appeared as the tramp: the short, loose fitting clothed, cane swinging reporter. The character became a universal icon of humour, with which Chaplin would be later identified in history.

The movie came at a time when the world was at war, and it gave a reason for people to smile. In many movies to follow, Chaplin appeared as the tramp which skyrocketed his popularity, making him one of the most remembered faces of American Cinema. At the ending of the silent movie era, Chaplin declined to convert the tramp into a speaking character. The character last made its silent appearance in the final scene of Modern Times (1936).

Chaplin mostly appeared as a vagrant, which earned him a place in the hearts of people struggling to have a square meal. Chaplin played his heart out in these roles, which were also a reflection of his struggles with poverty in his early life and childhood.

Google, on the legend’s 122nd birthday, hosted their home page with a video enacting Charlie Chaplin’s acting. Chaplin’s biographer Martin Sieff once said, “It is doubtful any individual has ever given more entertainment, pleasure and relief to so many human beings when they needed it the most.” No one would ever differ.