A recently unearthed interview with an old friend recalls how the actor was looked after by a kindly ‘foster mother’ who made sure he did the right thing
The extreme poverty endured by Charlie Chaplin while growing up in the slums of Victorian London reduced him to stealing and being scolded by the woman who took care of him, according to an interview with one of his childhood friends that has remained unheard in the British Film Institute for almost 40 years.
Effie Wisdom, whose aunt gave him a home from home when he needed it most, lamented that Chaplin “had a terrible life” as a child, “always hungry”, dressed in “ragged”, filthy clothes – no doubt later inspiring the comic genius who created the Tramp, society’s eternal victim and one of cinema’s most memorable characters.
