The Story
A remarkable journey from Iran to Covent Garden
Iran, circa 1975 — balancing high above the stage
A gift for physical comedy
Born Omedian Pakdel Namaghy in Iran, Charlie joined the State Circus of Iran at the age of thirteen and toured with the company for the next thirteen years. He also performed in the Italian Circus of Moira Orfei, and for the Shah himself, before the 1979 revolution changed everything.
Corsier-sur-Vevey — with Geraldine Chaplin
Across Europe, into the world
After leaving Iran, Charlie took his act across Europe — performing in theatres, town squares, and festival stages from Zurich to Dublin. The Chaplin family welcomed him as one of their own, including Geraldine Chaplin — the great comedian's eldest daughter — pictured here. He became a regular at the festival in Corsier-sur-Vevey, the Swiss village where Charlie Chaplin spent the last twenty-four years of his life and where Chaplin's World museum now stands, and at the Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival in Waterville, Ireland.
Covent Garden, October 1983 — the early London years
A new home in Covent Garden
Charlie arrived in London in 1979, and the cobblestones of Covent Garden became his stage. For over four decades since, he has kept the spirit of the Little Tramp alive — not as a museum piece, but as a living, breathing, hilariously physical performance that connects with audiences of every age, language, and background.
In 1984, Madame Tussauds of London commissioned a new wax figure of Charlie Chaplin — and chose Omedian himself as the model. The £3,000 waxwork was a fresh recreation of the museum's original 1931 figure of the great comedian.
"These two Charlies make a superb double act."
The Sunday People · 30 December 1984
Covent Garden, February 2026
An act in its full maturity
Four and a half decades on, Charlie is firmly established as the world's premier Chaplin impersonator. He performs in Covent Garden and at festivals worldwide, with the same physical command, warmth, and instinct for an audience that have defined his act from the very first. He is, simply, the best of his kind.
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