10 Americans You Won't Believe Were Accused Of Being Communists

9. Charlie Chaplin

Okay so not an American nationalist but someone who was prominent in the country, who was harassed by anti-Communist groups and was denied re-entry to the US on a number of occasions when he was returning from travelling abroad was British comic actor Charlie Chaplin. Best known for his films The Dictator, A Woman of Paris and The Gold Rush, Chaplin was first suspected of being a Communist sympathiser as early as 1922, and FBI director J Edgar Hoover requested a file on the actor in September 1946. He was also added to the Hollywood blacklist in the early 1950s, meaning he could not get work in Hollywood. Interestingly, the MI5 in Britain were also roped into investigating Chaplin - and in particular they were asked to determine whether or not the actor was born in England as he claimed, or whether suggestions his real name was Israel Thornstein and he was actually from France or Eastern Europe had substance. It was his 1947 film Monsieur Verdoux which really sparked accusations of Communism, however, due to the fact it openly criticised capitalism and argued that superpowers encourage mass killing through wars and weapons of mass destruction. Also a public proponent of the US opening a Second Front to help the USSR during World War II, Chaplin denied being a communist and instead labelled himself a "peace-monger". He was subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, but was never called to testify, and there were even calls to have him departed, such was the fear of his supposed socialist preachings.