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Charlie Chaplin a 'secret Jew' claim in FBI and MI6 files

February 17, 2012 24:01
Charlie Chaplin

ByBernard Josephs, Bernard Josephs

1 min read

Was the great comedian Charlie Chaplin secretly Jewish? His mixture of pathos and humour had a Jewish "feel" and fans were all too ready to believe that his real name was Israel Thornstein.

This was the alias he was given by the FBI and MI6 in secret papers released by the National Archive this week.

They show how Chaplin was under surveillance by security men during the feverish anti-Communist atmosphere in Washington and London during the 1950s.

Top of their list, they said, was to discover the star's real identity. Although he was born in Kennington in 1889, (his mother, Hannah, was a musical comedy actress), a Special Branch officer wrote to MI5 that there was evidence that he had been born in France.