Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was a silent movie star from the early 20th century.

The First Doctor briefly met Charlie Chaplin while on the run from the Daleks in Hollywood in 1921. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)

After Donna Noble was converted into the "Doctor-Donna", she suggested the Tenth Doctor and she visit him. Moments later, however, she experienced the start of a potentially fatal mental breakdown that forced the Doctor to erase her memories of travelling in the TARDIS. (TV: Journey's End)

The Doctor considered this Donna's "last request." He honoured her request by travelling alone to the silent film era of Hollywood to meet Chaplin. Instead, though, he encountered Archie Maplin, one of Chaplin's competitors, in 1926. (COMIC: Silver Scream)

The physical resemblance between Chaplin and Adolf Hitler was once remarked upon by Fey Truscott-Sade who once told Nazi Colonel Kessler that she thought that it was "mad" that "millions of people [were] following a disgusting little man with a Charlie Chaplin moustache." (COMIC: Me and My Shadow)

Behind the scenes

 * The reference to Chaplin in the Series 4 finale episode marks the second time that a stated desire to meet a famous personage is preempted by the sudden departure of a companion; previously it was the Doctor stating a desire to meet Agatha Christie just before the departure of Martha Jones (TV: Last of the Time Lords); Christie subsequently appeared in The Unicorn and the Wasp.
 * Chaplin's Little Tramp was reportedly one of the influences in determining the style of Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor.
 * Years before playing Jamie McCrimmon, Frazer Hines appeared in Chaplin's film A King in New York, the last film in which Chaplin played a starring role.
 * The comic story Silver Scream was originally to have featured Chaplin, but IDW was unable to get the likeness rights, so a substitute character, Archie Maplin, identified as a rival to Chaplin, was created instead. This is in keeping with real-life history as Chaplin did indeed inspire a number of impersonators during his career.