Charlie Chaplin Receives Honorary Oscar, 20 Years After Being Excluded From U.S.
Silent film star Charlie Chaplin, who had been hounded out of the U.S. in 1952, returned to Hollywood on this day for the first time in 20 years to receive an honorary Oscar. He received a 12-minute standing ovation from the audience.
a British citizen, had been hounded out of the U.S. in 1952 because of his political views and allegations of immorality. The U.S. government, on September 17, 1952, revoked his permit to return while he was on a visit to London to promote his new film Limelight. He was born in England and never became an American citizen, living and working in the U.S. on a visa.
Perhaps Chaplin’s greatest contribution to human rights was his film The Great Dictator (1940), a wicked satire of Adolph Hitler. In contrast, in the pre-World War II years, Hollywood studios avoided any direct criticism of Hitler, in part because they were afraid of having their films banned in the lucrative German market.
He did not return to the U.S. for twenty years until this occasion in 1972, when he received an Honorary Academy Award on this evening for his contributions to the movies.
See Chaplin receiving his Honorary Oscar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Pl-qvA1X8
Read: Kenneth Lynn, Charlie Chaplin and His Times (1997)
Read Chaplin’s FBI file: http://vault.fbi.gov/charlie-chaplin
Learn more at the official Charlie Chaplin web site: http://www.charliechaplin.com/