Charlie Chaplin's son, Sydney, dies at 82

Sydney Chaplin, the oldest surviving son of film legend Charlie Chaplin and a Tony-award winning actor in his own right, has died at the age of 82, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

Chaplin, who starred opposite Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl" on Broadway, died on Tuesday at his home in the California desert community of Rancho Mirage, due to complications from a stroke, the Times reported.

The second son of Charlie Chaplin and his second wife, Lita Grey, Sydney Chaplin was born in Beverly Hills in 1926 and recalled in interviews that he didn't know his father very well as a child.

After serving in World War Two he turned to acting, co-founding the Circle Theater in Los Angeles and taking a number of stage and screen roles.

He won a Tony award for the 1950s musical "Bells are Ringing" and appeared in the last film his father directed, 1967's "A Countess From Hong Kong."

The British-born Charlie Chaplin was one of Hollywood's first and greatest stars and a pioneering filmmaker, perhaps best remembered for his "Little Tramp" character.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters)