The first year of the Academy Awards brought Chaplin a special Oscar for The Circus, probably more in recognition of his contributions to the industry as a whole.

The Great Dictator, released twelve years later, brought Chaplin the New York
Critics' Best Actor Award.

Overseas, in 1921, Chaplin was decorated by the French - who made him Officer de I'Istruction Publique - after attending the Paris opening of The Kid.

May 1956 brought an honour from both his native country and chosen profession when he was made an Honorary Life Member of the film technicians' union, ACT.

Chaplin became a Grand Officer of the Italian Order of Merit in December 1952, when visited Rome for the Italian premiere of Limelight.

In 1954, Chaplin was awarded the World Peace Prize, the proceeds of which were distributed to the needy of Paris and Lambeth.

In 1962, he received honorary doctorates from both Oxford and Durham universities - appropriate recognition for a self-educated man whose formal schooling had been barely extant.

June 1965 saw Chaplin in Amsterdam, to receive the Erasmus Prize, alongside Swedish Film- maker Ingmar Bergman; the presentation was made by Prince Bernhard, in the presence of Queen Juliana and Princes Beatrix.

In 1971, the Grande Medaille de Vermeil was awarded to Chaplin by the City of Paris; a year later, his name was belatedly added to Hollywood's Walk of Fame, presumably in anticipation of his visit to accept a special Oscar; after arriving in New York, he was presented with the city's most prestigious cultural prize, the Handel Medallion.

Later, in 1972, the Venice Film Festival honoured Chaplin with the Golden Lion.

The British New Year's Honours List for 1975 announced what had seemed inevitably but strangely postponed; a knighthood.

Chaplin had privately declined this honour in the early 1930s.

In 4 March1975 he was nonetheless delighted to become 'Sir Charles', and was thus dubbed by Queen Elizabeth II.

The Queen was present once more to congratulate Sir Charles when, in the spring of 1976, he was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

June 1976 brought recognition once more, with Honorary Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters.