Is it named for silent movie icon Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)? Close: it’s for Sydney Chaplin (1885-1965), Charlie’s half-brother. Syd followed Charlie to Hollywood in 1914, where he served as Charlie’s manager, starred in some short comedies, helped run the “Sassy Jane” dress company, and even participated in L.A.’s early aviation industry, owning an airfield at present-day Wilshire and Fairfax. Chaplin Avenue was named in 1922; that’s when Syd himself lived on this street during a separation from his first wife Minnie. Soon, however, he would move to a large house on Sunset and La Brea, next to Charlie’s motion picture studio. (The studio is now owned by the Jim Henson Company; the house gave way to a strip mall long ago.) Syd Chaplin’s acting career ended with accusations of sexual assault in 1930.
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