Charles Spencer CHAPLIN, alias Charlie CHAPLIN: British. This file was opened in 1952 when CHAPLIN was reported to have made a covert donation to the American Communist Party in 1923 and to have continued his communist associations subsequently. In 1953 he denied that he was a communist but was prevented from returning to the USA. In 1958 the Security Service, which had never been convinced by the American reports, assessed him as progressive or radical rather than communist