Director and actor Charlie Chaplin moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1913. He and thousands of others helped the city’s population grow from 319,198 people in 1910 to 576,673 in 1920, making Los Angeles the tenth largest city in the United States. In 2023, more than 3.8 million people lived in Los Angeles making it our nation's second largest city behind New York City, New York.

Jump to:

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in London, England, in April 16, 1889. He began acting as a teenager and within a few years began working for several traveling vaudeville company. As a lead actor with the Fred Karno Company, he toured the United States. During one of his American performances, Chaplin caught the attention of a New York Motion Picture Company representative who believed the young actor would make a great addition to Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios lineup that included production of the popular slapstick Keystone Cops films. 

Chaplin signed a $150-per-week contract with Keystone Studios in September 1913, moved to Los Angeles in December, and began working at the studio in January 1914. His motion picture debut was a short film titled Making a Living that Keystone released in theaters February 2, 1914. Just a few days later, Keystone released Kid Auto Races at Venice and Mabel's Strange Predicament featuring the first appearance of Chaplin's "Little Tramp" character.

Chaplin made his directorial debut just four months after arriving at Keystone Studios. Max Sennett initially declined Chaplin's request but reconsidered when the budding actor and director promised to personally pay Sennett $1,500 from his own pocket if the film flopped. Sennett agreed, allowing Chaplin to make his directorial debut with the film Caught in the Rain. Much to Chaplin's relief, the film was a success following its release of May 4, 1914. He was soon one of Keystone Studios prolific directors, overseeing production of about one movie each week.

Two years later, Chaplin was directing films for the Mutual Film Corporation for nearly $13,000 a week, equivalent to approximately $378,000 today! In 1918, he signed an eight-film, $1 million dollar contract with First National Exhibitors' Circuit that allowed him to build his own studio on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard. The following year, Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith established United Artists to fund and produce their films. In the years that followed, Chaplin wrote, directed, and starred in some of his most famous movies including The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), and Modern Times (1936). On May 16, 1929, he was nominated for best director, actor, and writing Academy Awards for his 1928 silent movie, The Circus. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chose to instead honor Chaplin with an honorary award for his total contribution to the movie industry.

Interestingly, while most motion picture studios transitioned to movies with sound—called "talkies"—following the success of Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer in 1927, Chaplin continued to produce silent films. He would not direct and act in a movie with dialogue until 1940 when he released The Great Dictator, which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor.

Although The Great Dictator was a box office success, it marked the beginning of a decline in Chaplin's popularity among American movie audiences. A long, out-of-character political speech at the end of The Great Dictator was jarring for many Americans. Legal problems and scandalous accusations further distanced Chaplin from American audiences. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover accused Chaplin of being a communist sympathizer for his criticism of the U.S. government's House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) and other trials that investigated suspected communists in the entertainment industry.

Chaplin's liberal opinions and political statements eventually led to his exile from the United States. On September 18, 1952, Chaplin left the United States to attend the premier of his movie "Limelight" in London. One day after he left, then U.S. Attorney General James P. McGranery revoked Chaplin's re-entry permit. Government records released decades later proved there was no evidence to prevent his re-entry to the United States, but Chaplin chose not to apply for reentry and settled in Switzerland with his family.

Chaplin did not return to the United States for 20 years. In 1972, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Chaplin an honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century." Chaplin was worried about the reception he would receive after being away for two decades. However, upon taking the stage, "The Little Tramp" actor and director was greeted by a 12-minute standing ovation.

Charlie Chaplin died at his home in Switzerland on December 25, 1977. More than a century since the height of his career, he remains one of the most influential figures in cinema and one of the greatest actors in movie history.

You can learn more about Charlie Chaplin and filmmaking using U.S. Census Bureau data and records. For example:

• Charlie Chaplin took up residence in the United States three years after traveling to the country to perform in Vaudeville shows in 1910. The 1910 Census reported that the total population of the United States was 93,402,151, including 13,648,081 foreign-born inhabitants like Charlie Chaplin. Of the foreign-born population, 2,501,333 came from Germany; 1,602,782 from Russia; 1,352,251 from Ireland; and 1,343,125 from Italy. Among the foreign-born population originating from Great Britain, 877,719 came from England.
• When Charlie Chaplin moved to Los Angeles in 1913, he was one of thousands of new residents who helped the city's population grow nearly 81 percent from 319,198 people in 1910 to 576,673 in 1920. The influx of new Los Angelenos helped make it the tenth largest city in the United States. By 1930, Los Angeles was the nation's fifth largest city with a population of 1,238,048 people. Los Angeles replaced Chicago, Illinois as the nation's second largest city in 1990. With an estimated 3,820,914 people in 2023, Los Angeles remained the second largest city in the United States behind New York City, which had a population of 8,258,035.
• The first feature-length silent movie filmed in Hollywood was director D.W. Griffith's In Old California. The Western was shot in 1907 and released in theaters in 1910. Soon after, Hollywood became known as the movie capital of the world. In 2022, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series found that there were 17,683 establishments in the Motion Picture and Video Production sector (NAICS 512110). These establishments were primarily engaged in the production and distribution of motion pictures, videos, television programs, and television commercials. California led the nation with 7,114, followed by New York (2,247), and Florida (1,009).
• A branch of the motion picture company Selig Polyscope Company opened one of the first movie studios in Los Angeles in 1909. Located in the Edendale neighborhood, Selig Polyscope was famous for producing dozens of popular silent films, including the first film version of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1910 and more than 100 short- and feature-length Westerns starring Tom Mix. Edendale was also home to Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, famous for its slapstick Keystone Cops. The former district of Edendale is now part of the Echo Park, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
• Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and produced the movie Pay Day in 1922. That year, approximately 40 million Americans attended the movies every week. Chaplin released one of his most famous movies, Modern Times, featuring the last appearance of his character the Little Tramp, in 1936 when 88 million Americans went to the movies weekly and spent $626 million annually. A Countess from Hong Kong starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren was the last movie Chaplin wrote, directed, and produced in 1967. That same year, Americans spent $989 million at movie theater box offices. More recently, domestic box office receipts totaled $8.56 billion in 2024 thanks to top-grossing movies like Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Wicked, Moana 2, and Despicable Me 4.
• Before leaving the United States to live in Switzerland in 1952, Chaplin lived in Los Angeles and Montecito. In 1920, the population of Los Angeles was 319,198. One hundred years later, the 2020 Census found that Los Angeles had a population of 3,898,841. Montecito's population in 2020 was 8,638.
• Charlie Chaplin was famous for writing, directing, and acting in silent movies. He resisted sound and dialogue in his movies for years, even after Warner Bros. Pictures released The Jazz Singer —the first "talkie"—in 1927 starring Al Jolson. Chaplin did not release his first true sound film featuring music and dialogue until the 1940 film, The Great Dictator. Today, data for business providing audio services for film, television, and video productions are collected as part of the Sounding Recording Studios sector (NAICS 512240). In 2022, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series found there were 1,887 sound recording studio employer firms (those with paid employees) in the United States. States with the greatest number of these firms were California (639), New York (281), and Florida (165). During the pay period that included March 12, 2022, these firms employed 6,321 people and had an annual payroll of nearly $469 million.
• Did you know that Charlie Chaplin owned and lived at a hotel in Los Angeles? The hotel still welcomes guests interested in its historic Hollywood charm. In 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns series found that Los Angeles County was home to 1,241 establishments in the Hotels (except Casino Hotels) and Motels sector, with a combined revenue of nearly $7 billion.  The sector also reported employing 39,665 people for the pay period that included March 12, 2022.
• Although popular movies are filmed around the world, California remains the center of the film industry in the United States. With 7.3 million square feet of sound stages, Los Angeles hosts the most film and television production space in North America. According to the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series, the Motion Picture and Video Production sector (NAICS 512110) employed 85,396 people in California during the pay period that included March 12, 2022. California also the largest number of employees in the Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers (NAICS 711510) sector which includes independent individuals primarily engaged in performing in artistic productions, in creating artistic and cultural works or productions, or in providing technical expertise necessary for these productions. During the same pay period, the sector employed 42,659 people.
• Charlie Chaplin was 88 years old when he died at his home in Switzerland on December 25, 1977. Other celebrities who died on Christmas Day include: actors and singers Dean Martin (1995) and Eartha Kitt (2008); singer and songwriter James Brown (2006); actor and comedian W.C. Fields; baseball player and manager Billy Martin; landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr.; Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame football linebacker Bill Bergey; Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon producer Leon Schlesinger (1949); author and Caldecott Medal winner Simms Taback (2011); and lock inventor Linus Yale, Jr. (1868). 

William Augustus Weaver was born on May 17, 1797, in Dumfries, Virginia. He was a naval officer during the War of 1812, was wounded in battle off the coast of Boston, MA, and taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a prisoner of war. After the war, he returned to the Unites States and joined the U.S. State Department.

At the State Department, Weaver served as secretary to the commission charged with adjusting claims of Spanish citizens on land in the United States. The border between New Spain and the United States, roughly defined by the Adams-Onís Treaty, remained in dispute until the end of the Mexican War. In 1834, he was commissioner to Mexico.

In 1840, Secretary of State John Forsythe appointed Weaver to become the first superintendent of the census. Weaver was responsible designing the schedule used to count the population in 1840. The design has been criticized for trying to cram too much information in too little space, leading to a significant number of enumerator errors.