Chaplin: A Life is a 2008 biography of the actor Charlie Chaplin by American psychoanalyst Stephen M. Weissman. [1] The book examines young Chaplin's early childhood experiences and the formative role they later played in shaping his art. An ex-London street urchin, Chaplin used humor to creatively transform real life boyhood experiences of homelessness into his screen character's picaresque adventures as the streetwise Little Tramp.