Limelight is a 1952 American comedy-drama film written, produced, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, based on a novella by Chaplin titled Footlights. The score was composed by Chaplin and arranged by Ray Rasch.
Sydney John Chaplin was an English actor. Chaplin was the elder half-brother of actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin and served as his business manager in later life.
Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger, CBE was an English stage and film actor. He is noted for his performance as Doctor Septimus Pretorius in James Whale's film Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Mildred Harris was an American stage, film, and vaudeville actress during the early part of the 20th century. Harris began her career in the film industry as a child actress when she was age 10. She was also the first wife of Charlie Chaplin.
Chester Cooper Conklin was an early American film comedian who started at Keystone Studios as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops, often paired with Mack Swain. He appeared in a series of films with Mabel Normand and worked closely with Charlie Chaplin, both in silent and sound films.
A Countess from Hong Kong is a 1967 British romantic comedy film scored, written, and directed by Charlie Chaplin, and the final film directed, written, produced and scored by him. Based on the life of a former Russian aristocrat, as he calls her in his 1922 book My Trip Abroad. She was a Russian singer and dancer who "was a stateless person marooned in France without a passport." The film starred Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren, and revolved around an American diplomat who falls in love with a stowaway on a cruise. Sydney Chaplin, Tippi Hedren, Patrick Cargill and Margaret Rutherford co-star in major supporting roles; Chaplin also made a cameo, marking his final screen appearance.
Betty Blythe was an American actress best known for her dramatic roles in exotic silent films such as The Queen of Sheba (1921). She appeared in 63 silent films and 56 sound films over the course of her career.
George Dryden Wheeler Jr., known better as Wheeler Dryden, was an English-born American actor and film director. He was the son of Hannah Chaplin and music hall entertainer Leo Dryden, and younger half-brother of actors Sir Charlie and Sydney Chaplin.
Betty Balfour was an English screen actress, popular during the silent era, and known as the "British Mary Pickford" and "Britain's Queen of Happiness". She was best known to audiences for her Squibs series of films.
Popeye the Sailor is a 1933 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Publix Corporation. While billed as a Betty Boop cartoon, it was produced as a vehicle for Popeye in his debut animated appearance.
Flora Le Breton was an English silent film actress from Croydon, Surrey, England. She was a dainty blonde with dark blue eyes. In the UK she was called both the British Mary Pickford and the English Mary Pickford.
Mary Gordon was a Scottish actress who mainly played housekeepers and mothers, most notably the landlady Mrs. Hudson in the Sherlock Holmes series of movies of the 1940s starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Her body of work included nearly 300 films between 1925 and 1950.
Harry McCoy was an American film actor and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1912 and 1935.
Edmund Breon was a Scottish film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1907 and 1952.
The Real Thing at Last is a "lost" satirical silent movie based on the play Macbeth. It was written in 1916 by Peter Pan creator and playwright J. M. Barrie as a parody of the American entertainment industry. The film was made by the newly created British Actors Film Company in response to news that American filmmaker D. W. Griffith intended to honor the 300th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death by producing of a film version of the play. It was subtitled A Suggestion for the Artists of the Future. It was screened at a charity benefit attended by the royal family, but was not widely distributed, and no copies are known to survive.
The Chaplin family is a national acting family. They are the descendants of Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Hill, mother of Sydney John Chaplin, Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin Jr., and George Wheeler Dryden.
A Little Bit of Fluff is a British farce written by Walter W. Ellis which was first staged in 1915 and went on to have a long original run. Starring Ernest Thesiger, it ran at the Criterion Theatre, London, between 1915–1918, for a total of 1241 performances.
A Little Bit of Fluff is a 1919 British silent comedy film directed by Kenelm Foss and Geoffrey H. Malins and starring Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Minto and Bertie Wright. The film is an adaptation of the popular stage farce of the same name by Walter W. Ellis. Ernest Thesiger reprised his stage success as Bertram Tully, as did Alfred Drayton and Stanley Lathbury. The play was filmed again in 1928. The 1919 version was made at the Kew Bridge Studios in London.
Hannah Harriet Pedlingham Chaplin, also known by the stage name Lily Harley, was an English actress, singer and dancer who performed in British music halls from the age of 16.
Little Devil-May-Care is a 1928 French-British silent drama film directed by Marcel L'Herbier and starring Betty Balfour, Jaque Catelain and Roger Karl.
