Chaplin knighthood postponed

BRITAIN postponed knighting Charlie Chaplin for nearly 20 years because of his romantic escapades and his politics, according to secret documents unsealed on Saturday.

Chaplin, now regarded as one of the greatest silent film directors and actors, was initially put forward for the honour in 1956 but did not receive it until 1975.

The documents released by the Public Records Office show that the British government was wary of acknowledging the star because he had become reviled by some Americans as a communist sympathiser and a man of questionable morals.

Chaplin, who was born in London in 1889, moved to the United States in 1910 and lived there for 42 years as his film career flourished.

By 1956, when he was first considered for a knighthood, the documents recorded that the public had "taken exception" to Chaplin's two marriages to 16-year-old girls Mildred Harris in 1918 and Lita Grey in 1924.

Gossip columnists were abuzz over doubts about the validity of his later marriage to actress Paulette Goddard in China and a lengthy paternity suit in which he was declared the father of actress Joan Barry's child.

In 1969, a US official told the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Protocol Department that Chaplin could only be honoured if "the Queen would be prepared to overlook the charges against him". Britain passed him over.

It was only after Scottish businessman Fergus Horsburgh wrote to Queen Elizabeth II in January 1972 from his home in Canada urging an honour for Chaplin that a knighthood became likely.

By then Chaplin was living in Montreux, Switzerland, with Oona O'Neil, whom he had married in 1943.

Britain sought advice from its embassies in Washington and Berne.

Lord Cromer, the British ambassador to Washington, replied, "A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since 1956".

Chaplin received his knighthood in 1975, two years before his death, aged 78, on Christmas Day 1977.