Geraldine Chaplin

Geraldine Leigh Chaplin (born July 31, 1944) is an actress whose extensive career has included multilingual roles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German films. Born in the United States and raised in the United Kingdom and Switzerland, she holds American, British, and Spanish citizenship. She is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of his eight children with his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, and thus a granddaughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill. She made her Broadway acting debut in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes in 1967, In 2018, she starred in Red Land (Rosso Istria), an Italian film by Maximiliano Hernando Bruno based on Norma Cossetto and the foibe massacres. In 2019, she played the Duchess of Windsor in season 3 of the Netflix period drama series The Crown.

Early life and education Geraldine Leigh Chaplin was born on July 31, 1944, in Santa Monica, California, the fourth child of actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin, and the first child of his fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, whom he married in 1943. Charlie Chaplin was 55 when Geraldine Chaplin was born and Oona was 19 years old. Geraldine was the first of their eight children.

When Geraldine was eight years old, her father took the family on vacation to Britain and other parts of Europe. Two days after the family set sail, the U.S. Attorney General James P. McGranery signed an order refusing Chaplin permission to re-enter the country. Chaplin's father moved the family to Switzerland. She attended boarding school there, where she became fluent in French and Spanish. Also in this time period, Geraldine appeared in her father's film Limelight (1952).

Early acting, 1965–1969 When her dream of becoming a ballet dancer ended, Chaplin followed her father into what was to become a prolific acting career. In an interview to publicize the film, she explained, "Because of my name, the right doors opened."

In 1967, she made her Broadway debut in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. Her performance was praised by Clive Barnes in a New York Times review, where he noted that Chaplin "acts with spirit and force... with a magnificently raw-voiced sincerity" giving a performance of "surprising power".

She also started what would become a major collaboration that year, starring in Spanish film director Carlos Saura's psychological thriller Peppermint Frappé (1967) and playing two women in the film, Ana and Elena.

The Hawaiians through Cría Cuervos, 1970–1979 Chaplin starred alongside Charlton Heston in the American historical film The Hawaiians (1970). Chaplin then appeared in The Three Musketeers (1973), and Nefertiti y Aquenatos (1973), directed by Raúl Araiza in which she played the role of ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti alongside Egyptian movie star Salah Zulfikar, as well as the sequel, The Four Musketeers (1974). Chaplin was cast as the obnoxious BBC reporter Opal in Robert Altman's Nashville (1975), for which she received her second Golden Globe nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. She went on to star in the Altman films Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976), and then A Wedding (1978), doing Roseland (1977) in between. Chaplin later occasionally co-wrote scripts for and starred in several later Saura films—for these, receiving her greatest critical success such as Ana and the Wolves (1973), Cría Cuervos (1976), Elisa, vida mía (1977), and Mamá cumple cien años (1979). Cría Cuervos won the Special Jury Prize Award at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. Critic Vincent Canby praised Chaplin's "superb" performance.

Chaplin starred in several films produced by Altman and directed by Alan Rudolph, with a BAFTA-nominated role in Welcome to L.A. (1976), in which she played a housewife addicted to cab rides. She received critical acclaim for her role in Remember My Name (1978), in which she played Anthony Perkins' murderous estranged wife.

In an interview with The New York Times in 1977, Chaplin cited that her career was going more successfully in Europe than in the United States. She complained that "I only seem to work with Altman here ... I don't have any offers in this country, none. Not even an interesting script to read. The only person who ever asks me is Altman—and James Ivory." Other notable Spanish films she collaborated with and appeared in Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her (2002), and Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage (2007), for which she received a second Goya Award nomination. She also starred in the Catalan drama, The Mosquito Net (2010), for which she was awarded the Crystal Globe.

In 2006 Chaplin was awarded the gold medal by the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España—the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences—for her contribution to Spanish cinema.

In 2022, she appeared in the music video for the song "Pure", by Swiss artist Gjon's Tears.

Personal life

Chaplin has two children, Shane and Oona. Her son Shane Saura Chaplin was born in 1974. His father is Spanish film director Carlos Saura, who directed several films Chaplin appeared in. Her daughter Oona is now an actress in British and Spanish films. Chaplin married Oona's father, Chilean cinematographer Patricio Castilla, in 2006.

In 1978, the Chaplin family were the victims of a failed extortion plot by kidnappers who had stolen the body of Charlie Chaplin. Geraldine Chaplin negotiated with the kidnappers, who had also threatened her infant son.

, Chaplin has maintained a home in Miami. She also was spending time in residences between Madrid and Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland (the latter near the former long-time home of her parents).

Filmography

Film

Television