Former residence of legend made into museum

Charlie Chaplin's former home is being opened up as a museum dedicated to the great silent movie comic. The manor house is just outside the Swiss town of Vevey, near Geneva where Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life.

Lake Leman near Geneva attracts millions of tourists every year, and it was here that screen legend Charlie Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life.

A statue and a couple of souvenir shops were the only clues to indicate this is Chaplin town.

This pretty mansion house - now a museum - is where Chaplin spent a quarter of a century.

The actor was born in 1889 in the London slums and endured a childhood of poverty.

After a modest start in his native England as a music hall performer, Chaplin moved to the United States where he became one of the great stars of silent films. His first widely acclaimed film is Modern Times, a mordent parody on the state of the world's frenzied capitalist economy.

In the 1950s - during the depths of the Cold War - the US was hunting famous people suspected of supporting communism. Charlie Chaplin and his widely known socialist beliefs made him an easy target for the committee of conservatives who finally revoked his visa in September 1952.

The following January, Chaplin and his fourth wife Oona O'Neill, also the true love of his life, bought Manoir du Ban, a neoclassical mansion surrounded by 14 acres of woodland where they spent Chaplin's last 25 years surrounded by their numerous offspring.

"Here we have the family manor and we can see his life from his family perspective. We also are truthful to the family story. But we will also build a studio by the park. Where we will approach the work of Charlie Chaplin. It will be a modern and highly interactive museum. That's why we will call the museum 'The Chaplin's World'," said Philippe Meylan of Chaplin Museum.

The museum is hoping the faithful recreation of Chaplin's last home will be the best way to allow visitors to fully understand how Chaplin lived. At this piano he composed the score of his last two movies The King in New York and A Countess from Hong Kong.

"This museum aims particularly to put in evidence Chaplin's cinematic genius. His talent as film producer and actor. He was an exceptional pantomime. But the museum also wants to stress on the dimension of the work he has inherited us. His work was both funny and touching. Charlie Chaplin was a great humanist. His films were profoundly social and humanist. And we will put all those characteristics for all to see," said Yves Durand of Chaplin Museum.

Today Chaplin's acting legacy can be seen in his daughter Geraldine, who lives nearby, and his granddaughter Oona Chaplin, currently a star in hit TV series "Game of Thrones".

Oona's sister Laura is an artist who lives between Switzerland and England.

"Towards the end of his life he was worried that he would be forgotten. Because he'd worked so hard and he had a very strong message to tell people. Which is still relevant to this day. It's unbelievable how futuristic he was. I think that he would be so excited that people could go and visit. I think that is what he wanted the most. To be remembered and people to hear his message still today," said Laura Chaplin.

Chaplin died in the early hours of December 25, 1977, surrounded by his wife and seven of his children. The museum opens to the public on Sunday.