A investigation conducted by the MI5 British intelligence service investigated Charlie Chaplin. They wanted to see if Charlie Chaplin was indeed a French citizen named Israel Thornstein according to documents quoted by The Telegraph.
British intelligence officers were unable to find any document to prove that Charlie Chaplin was born in the United Kingdom even if Chaplin himself said that he was born in 1889 in London. The mystery that surrounds his origin came out when the great actor and director left America in 1952, under suspicions because of his alleged communist preferences.
No birth certificate of Charlie Chaplin was found and the oldest document was an official passport from 1920. MI5 also investigated suspicions that said that Chaplin was born in Fountainbleu, near Paris, while the Americans claimed that his real name is Israel Thornstein.
Despite intensive investigation, no certain evidence of his origins was found and MI5 concluded that Chaplin was not born in the UK or he was born in the UK under a different name.
MI5 denied the accusations made by the U.S. who said that Charlie Chaplin is a very dangerous communist. A letter found by the members of Charlie Chaplin’s family proves the fact that, most likely, Chaplin was born in a nomad community in the city of Smethwick near Birmingham.