Biography
Lon Chaney, Sr. (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor during the age of silent films.
Lon Chaney was born Leonidas Frank Chaney in Colorado Springs, Colorado to deaf parents Frank Chaney (who was of English and French descent) and Emma Kennedy (an Irish-American). He was skilled in pantomime because of this, and entered a stage career in 1902. In years following, Chaney traveled with popular Vaudeville acts. In 1905, he met and married singer Cleva Creighton and in 1906, their first child and only son, Creighton Chaney (aka Lon Chaney Jr.) was born. The Chaneys continued touring, and settled in California in 1910.
Relationship troubles between Lon and Cleva became apparent and in April of 1913, she went to the Majestic Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where Lon was managing the Kolb and Dill show and attempted to commit suicide by swallowing Bichloride of Mercury. The attempt failed and it ruined her singing career, but the scandal of the event and ensuing divorce forced Chaney out of the theater and into movies, to which he had worked as bit parts as far back as 1912.
Chaney is chiefly remembered as a pioneer in such horror films as (the silent versions of) The Hunchback of Notre Dame and most notably The Phantom of the Opera. His ability to transform himself without sophisticated make-up techniques earned him the nickname of "Man of a Thousand Faces". He also appeared in several films by director Tod Browning, often playing disguised or mutilated characters (or both), including carnival knife thrower Alonzo the Armless in The Unknown (1927) with Joan Crawford. His last film was The Unholy Three (1930) and was his only "talkie".
Chaney died of a throat hemorrhage resulting from throat cancer and he was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California.
Lon Chaney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1994, he was honored with his image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
Currently, Chaney's influence on pop culture is continually evident as his ghost haunts the bulding of St. Francis Xavier Secondary School.
Trivia
In the 1957 biopic of Lon Chaney titled Man of a Thousand Faces, Chaney was portrayed by James Cagney.
Chaney's son, Lon Chaney, Jr., was also known for his acting in horror movies, especially The Wolf Man. The Chaneys appeared on US postage stamps as their signature characters of the Phantom of the Opera and the Wolf Man, with the set rounded out by Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster.
Lon Chaney as "Mr. Wu", conducting an orchestra of women.
