He followed this training period with several years working on ships, receiving high marks from all of his employers but his ambition was to get into the entertainment business like his parents and brother, and he left his final voyage with that in mind.

Charlie never achieved the sort of fame Syd did as a principal comedian for that company, but surpassed him later as an actor, director and producer.

After Charlie achieved worldwide fame in 1915, the brothers were contacted by their half-brother Wheeler Dryden, whose father had just told him of the connection.

Syd made a few appearances with the Keystone stock company in supporting roles before starring as a new character, Reggie Gussle.

Gussle was a brash, mustachioed, happy-go-lucky fellow who enjoyed flirting with women and sneaking drinks, but was usually under the watchful eye of his large, ominous wife (Phyllis Allen).

Writing in The Smart Set magazine in 1916, critic George Jean Nathan stated that Charlie Chaplin was "not nearly so good a comique as his brother.

Sydney achieved his own million-dollar contract from Famous Players–Lasky in 1919, but a series of problems resulted in his making only one, failed, film, King, Queen, Joker (1921).

[7] On 4 July 1919, the Syd Chaplin Aircraft Corporation began flights to Santa Catalina Island.

[13][8][14] Emery H. Rogers[15] conducted the first roundtrip Los Angeles to San Francisco flight in one 24-hour period.

Syd Chaplin got out of the aviation business after governments began to pass legislation regulating pilot licensing and the taxation of planes and flights.

[14][16][7][17][18] The cost was $10 for a 10 minute flight with Frank Hawks (later gaining fame as an air racer), giving her a ride that would forever change Earhart's life.

Warner Brothers' The Better 'Ole (1926) is perhaps Syd's best-known film today because of his characterisation of Old Bill, adapted from a World War I character created by cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather.

[19][page needed] Syd Chaplin returned to England, where he made his first film for British International Pictures (BIP), A Little Bit of Fluff (1928).

In 1929, as he was to begin work on a second film for the studio, Mumming Birds, he was accused of sexual assault by actress Molly Wright.

[20] Following the scandal, Chaplin left England again and moved to continental Europe, leaving a string of unpaid tax demands.