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50 free Charlie Chaplin trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Charlie Chaplin trivia quiz starts with a boy in the Lambeth workhouse whose mother was committed to Cane Hill, and follows him through the Eight Lancashire Lads, Sherlock Holmes on the West End, Fred Karno's troupe with Stan Laurel, and the $150-a-week Keystone contract that changed cinema. Then the Tramp: the costume built as 'a contradiction', Kid Auto Races at Venice, the $670,000 Mutual deal at 26, the founding of United Artists, Jackie Coogan in The Kid, the shoe dinner in The Gold Rush, the silent gamble of City Lights, the gibberish song in Modern Times, and the Hitler double-act of The Great Dictator. The last stretch covers the fall and the return: the Joan Barry trials and J. Edgar Hoover, the four wives and Oona O'Neill, the day the US revoked his re-entry permit, the Swiss estate at Corsier-sur-Vevey, the 12-minute Oscar ovation, the knighthood in a wheelchair, the only competitive Oscar for Limelight's score, and the two men who dug up his coffin. There are also questions on 'Smile', the assassination plot in Japan and George Orwell's list. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Silent Film and Classic Hollywood quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which London district did Chaplin spend his early years with his mother and brother Sydney?
Kennington
He believed he was born at East Street, Walworth, though no birth record exists.
Q 02How old was Chaplin when he was first sent to the Lambeth Workhouse?
Seven
He was housed at the Central London District School for paupers, 'a forlorn existence', and sent to the workhouse again at nine.
Q 03To which asylum was Chaplin's mother Hannah committed in 1898, and again permanently from 1905?
Cane Hill
Her psychosis was thought to stem from syphilis and malnutrition; she stayed in care until her death in 1928.
Q 04With which clog-dancing troupe did the young Chaplin tour English music halls in 1899 and 1900?
The Eight Lancashire Lads
He got in through his father's connections but wanted a comedy act, not dancing.
Q 05Which role did the teenage Chaplin play in Sherlock Holmes opposite William Gillette?
Billy the pageboy
'It was like tidings from heaven,' he said of being called to London for it at 16.
Q 06Which impresario signed Chaplin in 1908 despite calling him 'pale, puny, sullen-looking'?
Fred Karno
His brother Sydney had wangled him a two-week trial; the Karno troupe that toured America also included Stan Laurel.
Q 07Which future comedy star was in the same Karno touring company as Chaplin in North America?
Stan Laurel
Chaplin's biggest hit on the tour was the drunk 'Inebriate Swell' in A Night in an English Music Hall.
Q 08How much per week did Chaplin's first film contract with Keystone pay in 1913?
$150
He thought Keystone comedies 'a crude melange of rough and rumble' but rationalised: 'it would mean a new life.'
Q 09What was Chaplin's first film, released on 2 February 1914, which he strongly disliked?
Making a Living
One review still called him 'a comedian of the first water'; his boss Mack Sennett had worried he looked too young.
Q 10In which film did audiences first see the Tramp, released on 7 February 1914?
Kid Auto Races at Venice
Mabel's Strange Predicament was shot first but released two days later.
Q 11What did Chaplin add to the Tramp costume to give the character age without hiding his expression?
A small moustache
'The pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large'; the moment he was dressed, 'he was fully born'.
Q 12Which hobo comic strip in a London magazine did Chaplin credit as a childhood influence on the Tramp?
Weary Willie and Tired Tim
It ran in Illustrated Chips.
Q 13How much did Chaplin promise to pay Mack Sennett if his directorial debut, Caught in the Rain, flopped?
$1,500
It was a hit, and he directed almost every short he appeared in thereafter, about one a week.
Q 21On 6 July 1925, Chaplin became the earliest movie star to do what?
Appear on the cover of Time
The same year his second son Sydney was born to Lita Grey, whom he had married in Mexico when she was 16.
Q 22Chaplin's 1927 divorce from Lita Grey cost him what settlement, then the largest awarded by an American court?
$600,000
Her leaked petition accused him of 'perverted sexual desires' and groups called for his films to be banned.
Q 23For which film did Chaplin receive a special trophy at the very first Academy Awards?
The Circus
He so associated it with the divorce stress that he left it out of his autobiography.
Q 14Which leading lady did Chaplin meet in a cafe and hire at Essanay, later making 35 films with him?
Edna Purviance
They were also a couple until 1917; A Woman of Paris was built as a star vehicle for her.
Q 15What was the annual value of Chaplin's 1916 Mutual contract, making him one of the world's highest-paid people?
$670,000
'The public wants Chaplin and will pay for him,' the studio president explained; Chaplin later called these his happiest years.
Q 16With which three partners did Chaplin found United Artists in 1919?
Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith
The revolutionary arrangement let the four artists fund and control their own pictures.
Q 17How old was Mildred Harris when Chaplin married her in 1918?
16
Their son Norman, born in 1919, lived three days; the loss is thought to have shaped The Kid.
Q 18Which four-year-old co-starred with Chaplin in The Kid (1921)?
Jackie Coogan
At 68 minutes it was his longest film yet and one of the first to blend comedy and drama; it reached over 50 countries by 1924.
Q 19Why was A Woman of Paris (1923), Chaplin's first film as an independent producer, unusual?
Barely appeared in it
He made only an uncredited cameo; critics admired it but the public had no interest in a Chaplin film without Chaplin.
Q 20The Gold Rush was inspired by a photograph of the Klondike and by the story of which ill-fated group?
The Donner Party
Chaplin said 'This is the picture that I want to be remembered by'; it features the Tramp eating his shoe.
Q 24In City Lights (1931), the Tramp falls for a flower girl who is what?
Blind
Made silent in defiance of the talkies after a 21-month shoot, it became Chaplin's own favourite; James Agee called the ending 'the highest moment in movies'.
Q 25What had the ultra-nationalists who killed Japan's PM in 1932 originally planned to do to the visiting comedian?
Assassinate him to provoke war with the US
The plot against him failed only because the reception's date was announced late.
Q 26In Modern Times (1936), the Tramp's voice is heard on film for the only time. What does he perform?
A gibberish song
Chaplin had planned dialogue but changed his mind in rehearsals; Paulette Goddard co-starred and secretly married him in Canton.
Q 27Chaplin and Adolf Hitler were born how far apart?
Four days
Both rose from poverty and wore the same moustache; the resemblance supplied the plot of The Great Dictator.
Q 28What was the name of Chaplin's Hitler parody in The Great Dictator?
Adenoid Hynkel
He also played a Jewish barber, a jab at Nazi claims that Chaplin himself was Jewish; filming began six days after Britain declared war.
Q 29How long is Chaplin's closing anti-war speech in The Great Dictator?
Five minutes
Critics saw the overt preaching as the start of his decline in popularity, though Churchill and Roosevelt both liked the film.
Q 30Under which law was Chaplin tried and acquitted in 1944 in a case pushed by J. Edgar Hoover?
The Mann Act
He faced 23 years if convicted; the paternity suit brought by Joan Barry went the other way despite blood tests.