Wissenswertes

A quiet soul by nature, he valued his privacy highly. Granting few interviews and disliking the Hollywood social whirl, he much preferred spending quiet time with his family and a few close friends, often at his cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This avoidance of publicity led to his being unfairly labeled by some as strange and unfriendly. However, those who knew him best always described him as a good, loving husband, father, and friend. Similarly, his co-stars, among them Loretta Young and Joan Crawford, remembered him as being very cooperative and helpful, especially to those performers without much experience.

Were it not for his death, he rather than Bela Lugosi would have been Tod Browning's choice for the starring role in Dracula (1931).

A popular joke of the era was "Don't step on it; it might be Lon Chaney!".

A child of deaf parents, he became a master of pantomime and understanding people who were born different.

His knowledge of make-up was so vast that he wrote the entry on the subject for an edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a publicity reel in the 1920s that featured all their contract players standing in a line as the camera panned to film them. At one point, we see a man speaking and gesturing to those around him, but with his back to the camera. Although he was not identified in the film, this was Chaney. Even in a publicity film, he didn't want the public to see his face without character make-up.

Friends with Afro-American actor Noble Johnson since both were boys in Colorado together, Chaney was responsible for giving his old friend some early breaks in a career that spanned more than four decades. Likewise, Chaney befriended the young Boris Karloff shortly after the latter's arrival in Hollywood. As with Johnson, he helped Karloff gain a foothold in the movies, and until the end of his life, Karloff always spoke kindly of Chaney as a good friend and colleague.

His salary on Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (1923) was $2,500 a week. Shooting began in December 1922, and was completed in June 1923. Chaney ended up making close to $60,000 plus contract bonuses from the picture, which was the longest shoot in his career.

His father, Frank H. Chaney, was not born deaf, but was rendered so by a childhood illness when he was not quite two. He ultimately became a successful barber, and always claimed he could remember some sounds. His mother, the former Emma Alice Kennedy, was born deaf, and was a teacher at a school for the deaf before her marriage. When her most famous son was nine years old, she was stricken with inflammatory rheumatism which left her an invalid. Lon Chaney himself was the second of four children, three boys and a girl. All of his siblings survived him, and were generously provided for in his will.

In the late 1950s there was a resurgence of interest in him. The first factor was the biopic, Der Mann mit den 1000 Gesichtern (1957) made by Univeral Pictures (then Universal International) starring James Cagney as Chaney. Of greater influence was the magazine "Famous Monsters of Filmland" started in 1958 and edited by devoted Chaney fan Forrest J. Ackerman. Ackerman published many photographs and articles about Chaney. Each issue also included at least one full page devoted to Chaney under the title "Lon Chaney Shall Not Die". This coverage introduced Chaney to new generations who would have probably never heard of him. The interest in Chaney also led to early efforts to find and preserve Chaney's films.

Unbeknown to many people, who consider Chaney a "horror actor", he was an amazing dancer in his stage years. The only film that contains footage of him dancing is the incomplete The Fascination of the Fleur de Lis (1915). He was also known to be a hilarious comedian. In fact, one report of the day said, "As a comedian, he is irresistible". And according to Michael F. Blake (Chaney's biographer), Lon could even sing. Sadly, no audio recordings exist of Chaney singing, but people who knew him said that he had a rich baritone voice.

He carried almost all the make-up he used in films in a small leather case he always had with him when in Hollywood.

At his funeral in Glendale, California on August 28, 1930, the honorary pallbearers were Louis B. Mayer, Nicholas Schenck, Irving Thalberg, Lionel Barrymore, Tod Browning, Paul Bern, Hunt Stromberg, Ramon Novarro, Harry Carey, Fred Niblo, Wallace Beery, Lawrence Tibbett, William Haines, Harry Rapf, Cliff Edwards, Lew Cody, Benny Rubin, Edgar Selwyn and George W. Hill.

For many years, the cause of the lung cancer that brought about his death at age 47 was thought to have been a piece of artificial snow, made out of crushed gypsum, that lodged in his throat during the filming of Thunder (1929), his last silent film. However, Chaney biographer and scholar Michael Blake points out that the most likely cause was the fact that Chaney was a heavy smoker, and that the piece of artificial snow merely hastened the inevitable.

His original make-up kit still survives to this day and is housed at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. It consists of a leather case engraved with his name, and opens up into folding shelf containers. Among the remaining pieces are foundation sticks, a hair brush, a powder puff and a glass eye he had especially made for one of his films. The life cast he had made of his head, and which he used to test different make-up techniques, survives to this day as well, and is also housed at the museum.

Pictured on one of a set of five 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps, issued 9/30/97, celebrating "Famous Movie Monsters". He is shown as the title character in Das Phantom der Oper (1925). Other actors honored in this set of stamps, and the classic monsters they portray, are Bela Lugosi as Dracula (1931); Lon Chaney Jr. as Der Wolfsmensch (1941); and Boris Karloff on two stamps as Die Mumie (1932) and the monster in Frankenstein (1931).

Part of Chaney's makeup for the role of Quasimodo in Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (1923) required that his right eye be buried under makeup, simulating a growth over that eye, as specified in the original Victor Hugo novel. The result of looking out of only one eye for weeks at a time left Chaney extremely short-sighted, and he had to wear thick glasses off screen for the rest of his life to correct this.

He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7046 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Was known in Hollywood for being a no-nonsense individual, with just everyone he worked with. In addition, Lon Chaney was one of the few stars at MGM who wasn't intimidated by the tyrannical Louis B. Mayer.

He did all he could to dissuade his son - Lon Chaney Jnr. - from following in his father's footsteps in becoming an actor.

His father was the son of James L. Chaney and wife Caroline Uffner and grandson of John Chaney (1790-1881), US Congressman, Representative from Ohio, and wife Mary Ann Lafere, and was a distant relative of Dick Cheney.

With the exception of Charles Chaplin, Chaney was the last major silent film star to make a talkie. Assaying five different voices in his first talkie, Chaney signed a notarized statement attesting to the fact that the different voices were his: "I, Lon Chaney, being first duly sworn, depose and say: In the photoplay entitled The Unholy Three (1930), produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation, all voice reproductions which purport to be reproductions of my voice, to wit, the ventriloquist's, the old woman's, the dummy's, the parrot's, and the girl's, are actual reproductions of my own voice, and in no place in said photoplay or in any of the various characters portrayed by me in said photoplay was a 'double' or substitute used for my voice. Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 19th day of May, 1930, J. L. Hendrickson, Notary Public in and for the county of Los Angeles, State of California."

When Lon Chaney died, MGM held a minute's silence as a tribute.

Lon Chaney was described by one time co-star Jackie Coogan, as being "an acting thief" who would steal whole scenes.

Mentioned in Warren Zevon's 1978 song "Werewolves of London".

Pictured on one of ten 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen issued 4/27/94. Designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, this set of stamps also honored Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Charles Chaplin, John Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, Theda Bara, Buster Keaton and the Keystone Kops.

Is hailed as one of the most powerful and gifted actors from the Silent era.

The actor was so proud of the movie "Tell It To the Marines," that he and his wife attended the Hollywood premiere of the said film. It was the only time Lon Chaney made an exception, given how he avoided the Hollywood social scene.

The working title of his film The Unknown - Der Unbekannte (1927) was "Alonso the Armless", which seems to have led to a great deal of confusion over the years regarding the actor's actual name. As committed to their faith as Chaney's parents were, they would probably have never considered giving one of their children a name not shared by a religious saint, and to this date there is neither a St. Alonso nor a St. Lon. Chaney's birth name was Leonidas Frank Chaney; both St. Leonidas and St. Francis are prominent in the traditional Roman Catholic Litany of Saints.

Uncle of Ancel Keys, creator of the infamous K ration, the small nutrition-packed meal distributed to thousands of American troops during World War II.

At Chaney's death, in addition to Tod Browning's Dracula (1931), several other projects were being planned for him. Most were filmed with other actors in the roles intended for Chaney: The Sea Bat (1930) (Charles Bickford), The Phantom of Paris (1931) (John Gilbert), Hölle hinter Gittern (1930) (Wallace Beery) and The Bugle Sounds (1942) (Beery, again).

Smoked at least two packs of cigarettes a day.

Some of the more bizarre make-up creations and performances by Lon Chaney, have been cited as an influence upon the Horror film genre which began in the early 1930s.

There is a persistent story that Boris Karloff used to recount that; Lon Chaney gave Karloff some acting advice, when the latter was an extra, about to give up acting, because he couldn't get a break in Hollywood, and Chaney would have picked him up and given him a ride. However, as uncovered by noted Canadian film historian, Greg Nesteroff, Karloff was very fond of embellishing his past and telling tall tales, so there is no way to corroborate if the two even met.

The actor was fiercely protective of his own privacy and seldom granted interviews or courted publicity. The few Lon Chaney did grant, he was reported as growing easily uncomfortable and agitated.

Usually declined requests to give autographs.

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is featured during the theme song of season one on the television series Ein Colt für alle Fälle (1981).

Approximately 102 of the 157 films made by Chaney are classified as lost films as of 2022.

The first Hollywood person to become an honorary member of the United States Marine Corps. The Marines provided a chaplain and Honor Guard for his funeral.

Father of Lon Chaney Jr..

Second of four children: siblings are John Chaney, George Chaney and Carolin Chaney.

Before turning to films, he was mainly known for his stage work.

Profiled in "From the Arthouse to the Grindhouse: Highbrow and Lowbrow Transgression in Cinema's First Century" by John Cline. (2010)

Interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA, in the Great Mausoleum (unmarked).

The Lon Chaney Theater in his hometown of Colorado Springs, CO is named after him.

His formal education came to an end at the age of 9 years, as he needed to care for his mother.

One of his most passionate interests was fishing.

Had English, French and Irish ancestry.

Great-grandfather of Ron Chaney.

Without receiving any official credit, Chaney directed various scenes from some of his films.