Chaney, Lon

in full Alonso Chaney

born April 1, 1883, Colorado Springs, Colo., U.S.

died Aug. 26, 1930, Los Angeles, Calif.

U.S. film actor.

Born to deaf-mute parents, he learned pantomime and became an actor at 17. He moved to Hollywood in 1912 and played supporting roles until The Miracle Man (1919) made him a star. Known as "the man of a thousand faces," he was famous for his ability to transform himself through the use of makeup. He often played grotesque or dual characters in films directed by Tod Browning, including The Unholy Three (1925). His other silent films include The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), and London After Midnight (1927). His son Lon Chaney, Jr. (1905–73), appeared in numerous horror films in such repeated roles as the Wolf Man and the Mummy and, notably, in Of Mice and Men (1939).

Lon Chaney.

Brown Brothers

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▪ American actor

original name  Alonso Chaney  

born April 1, 1883, Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.

died August 26, 1930, Los Angeles, California

 American film actor, called the “Man of a Thousand Faces,” whose macabre characterizations are classics of the silent screen.

      Chaney's skills as a silent-film actor were honed during his childhood, when he learned to communicate with his deaf-mute parents through facial expression, pantomime, and sign language. As a youth, he worked several odd jobs before turning to acting at age 19 in a play he cowrote with his brother. After a few years of touring with the show to only moderate success, Chaney met actress-singer Cleva Creighton in 1905; the two married and toured together in a stage act that later included their son, Creighton. Chaney eventually found more steady work on his own as an actor, stage manager, and choreographer, but his stage career was derailed when Cleva's suicide attempt in 1913 created a public scandal. It was in the same year that Chaney made his debut in motion pictures, the medium in which he became a legend.

      Beginning in films as an extra and bit player, Chaney had an important supporting role in Hell Morgan's Girl (1917); two years later his role in The Miracle Man (1919) made him a star. During the next 10 years Chaney earned a reputation as one of the finest character actors in films. He became equally renowned for his skill with makeup (even writing on the topic for the 14th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica), a talent he developed because he thought his own features were too ordinary for a star performer. The characters he portrayed were diverse and often macabre, but they were unfailingly moving and poignant due to Chaney's ability to convey a basic decency beneath a grotesque exterior.

 Chaney often endured physical pain in order to achieve the appearance he desired for a role. For example, he bound his legs into a tight harness—resulting in broken blood vessels—for his portrayal of Blizzard, a legless criminal mastermind, in The Penalty (1920). In one of his most famous films, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), Chaney wore a 50-pound hump on his back, a fleshy covering over one eye, and prosthetics that grossly exaggerated his cheekbones, nose, and lips. Perhaps Chaney's most famous makeup creation was for The Phantom of the Opera (1925), in which he portrayed the acid-scarred character of Erik, the opera-house denizen. Other well-known Chaney roles that helped earn him the nickname “Man of a Thousand Faces” included the dual role of police inspector and vampire in London After Midnight (1927; now lost); a Chinese Mandarin in Mr. Wu (1927); an armless knife thrower in The Unknown (1927); and a clown in Laugh Clown Laugh (1928). Yet he was much more than an actor who hid behind layers of makeup, as was amply demonstrated in his acclaimed “straight” performances in films such as Tell It to the Marines (1927), While the City Sleeps (1928), and Thunder (1929). Many of Chaney's films during this period were directed by Tod Browning (Browning, Tod), a specialist in the macabre and bizarre.

      Chaney, along with other silent-screen legends such as Charlie Chaplin (Chaplin, Charlie), believed that sound films would destroy the art of pantomime, and he resisted talking roles until agreeing to reprise his role in The Unholy Three, made as a silent with Tod Browning in 1925, as a talkie in 1930. Playing multiple roles and using five distinct character voices in the film, Chaney demonstrated that he was well-suited to talkies; unfortunately, he died suddenly of a throat hemorrhage less than two months after the film's release.

      Chaney's legend was such that he retained a large cult following into the 21st century. His son, Creighton, also attained stardom in the 1930s and '40s after changing his name to Lon Chaney, Jr., and portraying notable horror roles for Universal Studios, in particular the title character in The Wolf Man (1941).

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