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Glite Dictionary
Charles Laughton

Charles Laughton

2 6.6
An English-born American actor famous for strong film and stage roles
  • proper noun
: Charles Laughton
  • Charles Laughton won an Academy Award for his role in 'The Private Life of Henry VIII.'

Examples

  • Many critics consider Charles Laughton's performance in 'Witness for the Prosecution' to be one of his finest.

  • Charles Laughton is remembered for his iconic role as Quasimodo in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame.'

  • The film's success was due in no small part to Charles Laughton's commanding screen presence.

  • I recently watched a film featuring Charles Laughton.

  • Did you know Charles Laughton won an Academy Award?

  • Many consider Charles Laughton to be one of the greatest actors of his generation.

  • In his film career, Charles Laughton showcased a remarkable range of characters.

Surface Forms

Charles Laughton main

Morphology

Charles + Laughton

This item is a proper name referring to a specific person; the constituent tokens 'Charles' and 'Laughton' are labels without compositional lexical meanings, so a B1 learner who only knows the names cannot infer the referent, dates, or that he is an actor. Proper names are encyclopedic/arbitrary rather than semantically built from their parts, making the meaning non-derivable from the constituents.

Etymology

Charles Laughton is the name of an English-born American 'actor' known for very powerful roles, including his Oscar-winning role as Henry VIII. Think of his strong, commanding figure in films like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mutiny on the Bounty, and that image helps you remember him as a classic film star.