Best of Friends, Worst of Enemies

The great Charlie Chaplin, master of the silent film era, was incredibly close with his older brother Syd. They went through so much together; their father abandoned their family and their mother was an alcoholic. And so Syd and his little brother Charlie took care of each other – they became inseparable. Syd became Charlie’s manager, and the two were incredibly close until the day they died.

But Charlie also had a younger half-brother, Wheeler, whom he never mentioned in either of his autobiographies. Wheeler was raised separately from Charlie, and while Wheeler repeatedly tried to form a relationship with his famous older brother, Charlie refused to have anything to do with him. Wheeler spent the rest of his life worshipping Charlie from afar, collecting memorabilia and newspaper articles about his big brother.

I believe there is an important lesson in the complicated story of Charlie Chaplin and his two brothers.