Charlie chaplin biography communist

Feb. 17, 2012 — -- His comic genius has been celebrated for a century, but was Charlie Chaplin also a master of deception?

According to newly released documents, both the FBI and Britain's MI5 spent years trying to determine if the star of silent films was actually a Communist born in France under the name Israel Thornstein.

On Friday, the British National Archives released previously classified documents compiled by MI5 in the 1950s revealing extensive cross-Atlantic surveillance of the British actor for suspected communist ties.

It was the height of the McCarthy era in the U.S., the FBI was keeping a close eye on left-leaning Hollywood stars and the bureau's staunchly anti-communist chief, J. Edgar Hoover, privately derided Chaplin as "one of Hollywood's parlor Bolsheviks," MI5 historian Christopher Andrew told the Associated Press.

The FBI asked its British counterpart to investigate Chaplin