The Tramp

The Tramp
Charlie Chaplin as "The Tramp".
First appearance	Kid Auto Races at Venice
Last appearance	Modern Times
Created by	Charlie Chaplin
Portrayed by	Charlie Chaplin
Information
Gender	Male

The Tramp (Charlot in several languages), also known as The Little Tramp, was British actor Charlie Chaplin's most memorable on-screen character and an icon in world cinema during the era of silent film.

The Tramp, as portrayed by Chaplin, is a childlike, bumbling but overall good-hearted character who is most famously portrayed as a vagrant who endeavors to behave with the manners and dignity of a gentleman despite his actual social status. However, while he is ready to take what paying work is available, he also uses his cunning to get what he needs to survive and escape the authority figures who will not tolerate his antics. Chaplin's films did not always portray the Tramp as a vagrant, however. The character ("The Little Fellow," as Chaplin called him) was rarely referred to by any names onscreen, although he was sometimes identified as "Charlie" and rarely, as in the original silent version of The Gold Rush, "The Little funny Tramp".

The character of the Tramp was originally created by accident while Chaplin was working at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, when dressing up for the short film Mabel's Strange Predicament starring Mabel Normand and Chaplin. That was actually the first film featuring the Tramp but a different film, shot later but with the same character, happened to be released two days earlier. The Tramp debuted to the public in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice (released on February 7, 1914; Mabel's Strange Predicament, shot earlier, was released on February 9, 1914). Chaplin, with his Little Tramp character, quickly became the most popular star in Keystone director Mack Sennett's company of players. Chaplin continued to play the Tramp through dozens of short films and, later, feature-length productions (in only a handful of other productions did he play characters other than the Tramp).