Geraldine Chaplin

Geraldine Chaplin Photo

GERALDINE CHAPLIN

Date of Birth: July 31, 1944

Geraldine Chaplin began her long career with an uncredited role at the age of eight in Limelight, a film by famed silent-era comedian and Chaplin’s father, Charlie Chaplin. Her famous name helped get her foot into the movie business, but it wasn’t until she was cast as Tonya in David Lean’s adaptation of the epic love story, Doctor Zhivago, that Chaplin was able to step out of her father’s shadow.

Chaplin has enjoyed a long and successful career in North America with movies such as A Wedding, Welcome to L.A., The Age of Innocence, Jane Eyre and Robert Altman’s Nashville for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. She also played the role of her own grandmother in Richard Attenborough’s biopic of her late father, Chaplin, which starred Robert Downey Jr. in the title role.

While she has made a name for herself in North America, Chaplin continues to have the most success overseas in Spanish and French cinema. Fluent in both languages, she has been a part of Spanish cinema for decades with roles in Pedro Almodovar’s Talk To Her and Jacques Rivette’s Love on the Ground. She was also a close collaborator of Carlos Saura with whom she had a 12-year relationship.

She won a Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the Argentine-Spanish thriller, In the City Without Limits and received a Goya nomination for Jose Antonio Bayona’s The Orphanage. She reunited with Bayona for the disaster film The Impossible starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor.

Chaplin’s impressive contributions to Spanish cinema earned her a Gold medal from the Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematograficas de España.

In 2006, Chaplin married her long-time partner, Chilean cinematographer Patricio Castilla with whom she has a daughter, actress Oona Chaplin. She also has a son, Shane, with Carlos Saura.

Filmography:

The Impossible (2013)
The Orphanage (2007)
BloodRayne (2005)
Heidi (2005)
Talk to Her (2002)
Jane Eyre (1996)
Home for the Holidays (1995)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Chaplin (1992)
The Children (1990)
The Mirror Crack'd (1980)
A Wedding (1978)
Welcome to L.A. (1976)
Nashville (1976)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Anna and the Wolves (1973)
Stranger in the House (1967)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Par un beau matin d'été (1965)
Limelight (1952)