Here ’s a funny titbit from spy account : in the fifties , American intelligence ask Britain ’s MI5 to investigate the actor Charlie Chaplin on suspicions that Chaplin was a dangerous commie . But the intelligence agencies were ineffective to confirm that Chaplin was bear in England , run to an investigating into whether Chaplin was a whole different someone than he claim to be .
late declassify MI5 file unwrap the extent of British intelligence ’s investigation into Chaplin ’s background . After Chaplin provide the US in 1952 under a cloud of communist charge , American tidings require MI5 to enquire Chaplin ’s setting . Chaplin claimed that he was stand in south London in April 1889 , but MI5 was ineffective to find any records of his birth in the UK , and Chaplin did n’t receive a passport until 1920 .
American word advise that Chaplin was actually a Jewish Russian military man originally named Israel Thornstein , but the idea that Chaplin was endure in France came from Scotland Yard . Scotland Yard ’s Special Branch clear along a bakshis from a generator who claimed Chaplin was actually born in Fontainebleau , alfresco of Paris . And the constabulary memoranda suggest Scotland Yard believed this was a possibility :
There may or may not be some truth in this , but in sight of the fact that no documentary proof has been obtained that Chaplin was born in the United Kingdom , it may well be that he was in fact deliver in France .
The foreign intelligence segmentation MI6 actually investigated the claim , but could n’t find validation that Chaplin was born in France , either . It ’s amazing to think that so many imagination were devote to figure out an worker ’s seat of birth , and the true statement may well be fairly workaday . Last year , Chaplin ’s house describe a letter that evoke Chaplin may have been pay in a mobile camp near Birmingham , which would answer for for the lack of records .
The most reasonable reception to this whole business sector comes from John Marriott , who headed MI5 ’s counter - subversion branch . He noted in the records :
It is curious that we can find no record of Chaplin ’s birth , but I barely think that this is of any security system import .
MI5 file : Was Chaplin really a Frenchman and called Thornstein?[Telegraph viaThe Atlantic ]
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