Posted by Adam

Saturday April 16, 2011

CHARLIE Chaplin would have been 122 yesterday.

The actor — best known for his classic black and white movies — was remembered Friday on what would have been a milestone day for the star.

Search engine Google celebrated the day with a video doodle on their homepage.

In the black and white video, Chaplin is moved on by a policeman after he is spotted reading a Google newspaper on a park bench, engages with an artist painting a Google logo and then tries to blag his way into an event without paying the $1 admission.

One of the methods he uses to try to get into the event involves him drawing his very own Google doodle. After eventually deceiving the policeman into giving him money, he is able to skip up the road with his trademark cane.

After the video ends, the user wass be taken to a Google page showing search results for “Charlie Chaplin.”

Roger Ebert posted on his website an account of his two most memorable encounters with Chaplin that were originally published at the time of the actor’s death on Christmas Day 1977 that capture the global admiration for the man during his final years.

Chaplin, born in London on 16 April 1889, was also well known for his oversized trousers and shoes, bowler hat and toothbrush mustache, with The Tramp who features as a tribute act in the video, his most popular character.

Chaplin was recognized with a knighthood in 1975 and received three Academy Awards during his lifetime. He passed away on Christmas Day 1997 at his home in Vevey, Switzerland, but his body was later stolen from its grave.

Charlie hit the headlines in October 2010 after an Irish filmmaker claimed that an extra in the actor’s 1928 movie The Circus could be seen using a mobile phone. The YouTube clip featuring the apparent ‘time traveler’ soon racked up several million hits.

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