Happy Birthday Charlie Chaplin 10 Photos . Updated: 16 Apr 2015, 11:59 AM IST Livemint It is the 126th birth anniversary of the man who made millions laugh. Sir Charles Spencer Charlie Chaplin, the comic genius who rose to fame in the silent movie era, taught the world to laugh at itself. Rare pictures of the tramp. 1/10Charlie Chaplin was born on 16 April 1889 in Walworth, London, United Kingdom. His childhood was fraught with poverty and hardship. The fact that he made laughing at himself his strength in all movies, made him all the more endearing. 2/10An undated portrait of a handsome Chaplin. Interestingly, Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest. AFP 3/10A 7 year old Chaplin (third row from front, third from left) with fellow pupils at Hanwell Poor Law School, London, 1897. Young Chaplin began performing onstage at the age of 5. Both his parents were music hall entertainers. Michael Ochs Archives/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 4/10Charlie Chaplin (centre) with Casey’s Circus music hall comedy troupe, in UK, 1906. To his left is Will Murray, the principal comedian with the company, which was also known as Will Murray’s Gang. Michael Ochs Archives/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 5/10Eating his own boot in this famous scene from ‘The Gold Rush’ (1925). His work was also a scathing attack on the disparities in society. 6/10With Edna Purviance, whom Chaplin met in a cafe and hired on account of her beauty as his leading lady. She went on to appear in 35 films with Chaplin over eight years. 7/10With Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1952. Chaplin never became a US citizen and was exiled from the US in 1953 because he refused to have the American citizenship. AFP 8/10Chaplin in a garden in Del Monte, California, with his wife and actress Paulette Goddard on 6 August 1936. He married Goddard secretly on 1 June 1936. AFP 9/10Chaplin points out some of the landmarks of London, his native city, to his wife Oona Chaplin, from the roof of the Savoy Hotel on 23 September, 1952. Oona was Chaplin’s fourth wife. AFP 10/10Together Oona and Chaplin had eight children. His own daughter, actress Geraldine Chaplin (in black, behind Chaplin), portrayed his mother on screen in the 1992 movie ‘Chaplin’, with Robert Downey Jr. portraying Chaplin. AFP