Famous Fathers Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Others Who Became Dads in Their Later Years
The silent-film pioneer and iconic “Little Tramp” had sons Charles Spencer Chaplin III (May 5, 1925) and Sydney Earl Chaplin (March 30, 1926) with his second wife Lita Grey. Later, he had eight children with his fourth wife Oona O’Neill, whom he married in 1943 when she was 18, much to her playwright father Eugene O’Neill‘s consternation.
Chaplin and Oona stayed together until his death in 1977 at the age of 88. They welcomed Geraldine Leigh (July 31, 1944), Michael John (March 7, 1946), Josephine Hannah (March 28, 1949), Victoria Agnes (May 19, 1951), Eugene Anthony (Aug. 23, 1953), Jane Cecil (May 1957), Annette Emily (December 1959), and Christopher James (July 8, 1962).
Christopher was born when Chaplin was 73 years old.
In the 1992 biopic Chaplin, Robert Downey Jr. portrayed the titular legend, with Geraldine playing her own paternal grandmother, Hannah Chaplin. Geraldine shared in an interview with the Baltimore Sun that in their house, only Charlie Chaplin movies were watched, and other comedians like Laurel and Hardy were not discussed. She believed this was because Chaplin was insecure and couldn’t fathom that someone else’s film might be good.