When Charlie Chaplin was a little boy, a sheep escaped on its way to a slaughterhouse near where he lived. Charlie and other youngsters chased the sheep around, laughing and having fun. But when it was taken away, Charlie realized the sad finality of death and cried to his mother. That incident paved the way for the theme of Charlie’s future filmmaking career. Comedy mixed with pathos made perfect sense to him. He was also an everyman character, a lost soul, a wanderer - he embodied the American soul. He could be anyone. Chaplin was born Sir Charles Chaplin after his father on April sixteenth, 1989.