Charlie Chaplin’s son, Michael J. Chaplin, had much to say about his late father during his recent book tour. His debut romance novel, A Fallen God, retells the story of the 12th-century English story Tristan And Isolde. Aside from being an author, Michael is a multi-talented actor, pop musician, farmer, and ex-hippie.
77-year-old Michael revealed how his long-gone father’s fame still impacts his career and their tumultuous relationship during the comic actor’s lifetime. “He cast a huge shadow over me. It was rammed down my throat,” Michael said. “My teachers would always say, ‘You’ll never be like your father.'”
Charlie Chaplin’s death was “liberating” for Michael Chaplin
The Guardian gave an account of Michael’s thoughts on Chaplin’s parenting, and he likened his father’s death to his birth, referring to a religious sect where members start counting their age by how long they lost their father. “He likes to see the day his father died as a rebirth,” the outlet stated. “It’s not that Michael disliked his dad. He loved him and couldn’t have admired him more.”
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Michael described Chaplin as “intimidating,” recalling how he preferred his siblings. “He always said, ‘I’m a loner, I have no friends.’ When he wanted to, he could entertain us. He was great at mime. He had a lot of weapons to amuse us with,” he recalled. “He, Geraldine, and Victoria would do duets on the piano. He related to them.”
Michael ran away from home
Despite his father’s shortcomings, Michael had vices of his own. He confessed to doing drugs as a young adult in the ’60s to Chaplin’s utter disdain. “I definitely wasn’t a good son. I ran away from home. I embarrassed him,” he recalled. Sadly, father and son never resolved their differences until Chaplin died in December 1977 as he filed to prevent the release of Michael’s first book, I Couldn’t Smoke The Grass On My Father’s Lawn.
Thankfully, the younger legend found closure through unusual dreams where Chaplin would appear and talk things out with him. “I started having powerful dreams where I confronted him, and we talked together. It was when I went back to Switzerland and the family house. He’d stopped at that point being an obstacle and was opening the doors for me to live…I think he was telling me, wherever he is, that he’s not excluding me from his life,” Michael said.