17. Charles Chaplin
By 1918 Charles Spencer Chaplin was arguably the most well-known celebrity in the world. His silent films and the persona of the Little Tramp were popular in the Far East, throughout the British Empire, in Europe, and in the United States. His activities were followed avidly by fans, in newspapers and magazines, and in a new process contributing to celebrity, the newsreel. During the 1930s he resisted the new genre of movies with sound, called talkies by the press, until he saw they could sway public opinion. In 1940 he satirized Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in a film he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in, The Great Dictator. According to a German refugee who fled Nazi Germany, Hitler watched the film twice, alone.
Following the Second World War Chaplin squandered much of his celebrity with reports of numerous extramarital affairs and supposed communist sympathies. An affair involving a paternity suit was furthered with leaked information from J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. When Chaplin married 18-year-old Oona O’Neill, the daughter of another American celebrity, playwright Eugene O’Neill, public backlash over his morals was harsh. Chaplin went to London to premiere his film Limelight in September 1952. The day following his departure the United States revoked his re-entry permit, effectively banning him from the country. He resided in Switzerland for the rest of his life. In 1972 he was allowed to return to the United States to receive an Honorary Academy Award, after which he returned to Switzerland, where he died in December 1977.