 When his parents divorced, his mother, the actress Paula Marr, remarried the actor William Collier Sr. who adopted Charles (the two did share a resemblance) and gave the boy the new name William Collier Jr. Collier's acting experience in childhood, having first appeared on stage at age seven, helped him get his first movie role at age 14 in "The Bugle Call" (1916).He later became a popular leading man in the 1920s and successfully made the transition from silent into sound film.Nevertheless, he retired from acting in 1935, and in 1937 traveled to England to work as a movie producer.