Trivia

His career suffered in his later years due to alcoholism.

His father told him that he was too tall for a successful career in film.

Near the end of his life, he made an appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. He claimed that his weak voice was the result of his playfully growling at children on Halloween; actually, he was suffering from throat cancer.

His favorite role was that of Lenny Small in Des souris et des hommes (1939). After a few drinks at parties, he would recite scenes from that film.

He made headlines in the 1960s when he criticized "Fractured Flickers" for desecrating old film classics like his father's film Notre-Dame de Paris (1923).

Fay Wray and Joel McCrea were classmates of his at Hollywood High School.

Broderick Crawford, who had played Chaney's role of Lenny Small in "Of Mice and Men" on Broadway in 1937, worked with Chaney at one time and shared a dressing room with him. Apparently, both men were such heavy drinkers that they would get drunk together and take turns beating each other up.

When Broderick Crawford left the stage production of "Of Mice and Men", Chaney was eager to play the role. He credits the kindness of Wallace Ford, the original "George", for getting him the role, which, of course, led to the screen version (Des souris et des hommes (1939)) and eventual stardom.

He was the only person to have played all four of the Universal Classic Monsters: Le Loup-garou (1941) (Lawrence Talbot/the Wolf Man), Le Spectre de Frankenstein (1942) (the Frankenstein Monster), La Tombe de la momie (1942) (Kharis the Mummy) and Le Fils de Dracula (1943) (Count Anthony Alucard, the son of Count Dracula).

The 6-foot-tall Chaney wanted to play football in Hollywood High School, but was turned down because he only weighed 125 pounds.

Well-known character actor William Smith started out as a child actor and in an interview with a horror film magazine stated that during breaks on the set of Le Spectre de Frankenstein (1942), Chaney treated all of the children on the set to ice cream.

Had two sons with his wife Dorothy Hinckley: Lon Ralph (born July 3, 1928) and Ronald Creighton (born March 18, 1930).

He wanted to reprise his father's role of Quasimodo in Notre-Dame de Paris (1923) and underwent a screen test for the second version of Quasimodo (1939), but the role went to Charles Laughton instead. Chaney did recreate this role in an episode of the TV series Route 66 (1960).

He was posthumously awarded a Golden Palm star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California on January 11, 1999.

Like his father before him, he created his own make-up for the role of Akhoba in Tumak, fils de la jungle (1940), but union regulations forced him to abandon this practice.

Battled throat cancer and heart disease in his later years.

Pictured on one of a set of five 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps that were issued on September 30, 1997 and celebrated "Famous Movie Monsters". He is shown as the title character in Le Loup-garou (1941). Other actors that were honored in this set of stamps, and the classic monsters that they portrayed, are Lon Chaney as Le Fantôme de l'opéra (1925); Bela Lugosi as Dracula (1931); and Boris Karloff on two stamps as both La Momie (1932) and the Frankenstein Monster in Frankenstein (1931).

He was born prematurely and weighed only 2 1/2 pounds at birth. The illnesses that he suffered from at the end of his life may have been partially a result of this. In fact he was born, in his own words, "black and dead". His father took him outside to an ice-covered lake, broke the ice and put him into the ice-cold water to jump-start his breathing; however, according to his son, Lon Ralph Chaney, as well as Cleva's daughter by her second marriage, Stella George, this story is complete fiction.

He appeared with Bela Lugosi in five films: Le Loup-garou (1941), Le Spectre de Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein rencontre le loup-garou (1943), Deux nigauds contre Frankenstein (1948) and Les monstres se révoltent (1956).

In 1930 he resided at 735 North Laurel Avenue in Los Angeles, California while working as an advertising manager for a water heater company.

Like his father, he often refused requests for autographs, though when he did sign them he usually wrote "Luck, Lon Chaney", using a very large capital "L" as the first letter of both "Luck" and "Lon".

He officially played the role of the Frankenstein Monster only twice: once in Le Spectre de Frankenstein (1942) and then again in an episode of the TV series Tales of Tomorrow (1951). It was not until 1957 when Frankenstein (1931) starring Boris Karloff would debut on TV; also in 1957, Christopher Lee would play the role of the Monster in Frankenstein s'est échappé (1957). Chaney "unofficially" played the role of the Monster with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello also twice: in Deux nigauds contre Frankenstein (1948) in which he stood in for Glenn Strange for one scene while Strange recovered from a broken ankle, and in an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950) where, in a mock opera sketch, Chaney appeared (for some reason) in full Frankenstein Monster regalia and danced the Charleston with Lou Costello, then hung around for the finale. Shortly before his death, Chaney complained in an interview that the serious horror film genre had been ruined by both Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.

He once mentioned how his father did all that he could to dissuade him from following in his professional footsteps.

Often he would accompany his father, Lon Chaney, to the studio and wait for the trolley on a bench at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. After the bench was removed years later, a special memorial to his father replaced it.

Was well-known for his love of animals and would frequently have his dogs on his film sets with him. There is a famous picture of him in his Wolf Man make-up playing with his German Shepherd Dog, "Wolf".

From his father, he developed skills as a make-up artist; however, he was not able to make much use of these skills due to strict union rules.

His scheduled 10-day tour on behalf of Bride of the Gorilla (1951) spiraled to 4 1/2 months and covered 4,500 miles.

To his despair, he found himself being billed as just "Lon Chaney" during his time at Universal.

He was released from his contract with Universal in 1945. The reason given for this was due to the actor's problems with alcohol.

He appeared with John Carradine in 13 films: Sa dernière chance (1937), La folle parade (1938), Patrouille en mer (1938), L'Aigle des frontières (1939), Le brigand bien-aimé (1939), La Maison de Frankenstein (1944), Le fantôme de la momie (1944), La maison de Dracula (1945), La grande nuit de Casanova (1954), Les monstres se révoltent (1956), Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967), Gallery of Horror (1967) and House of the Black Death (1971).

He has two roles in common with Bela Lugosi: (1) Lugosi played Count Dracula in Dracula (1931) and Deux nigauds contre Frankenstein (1948) while Chaney played him in Le Fils de Dracula (1943) and (2) Chaney played the Frankenstein Monster in Le Spectre de Frankenstein (1942), in which Lugosi also appeared, while Lugosi played him in Frankenstein rencontre le loup-garou (1943), in which Chaney also appeared.

His relationship with his father over the years was described as distant at best.

Attempted an early career as a songwriter.

His last film might have been in Woody Allen's Tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir sur le sexe... sans jamais oser le demander (1972). In "Conversations With Woody Allen" by Eric Lax, Allen recalled feeling like a fan "sitting across from the Wolf Man!" as he interviewed Chaney for a role. Chaney did not appear in the film's final cut and he died the year after it was released.

Was mentioned by name along with that of his father, Lon Chaney, in Warren Zevon's song "Werewolves of London" (1978).

Does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Lon Chaney, Jr. "Star Fund" was established in order to help the Chaney estate raise funds and awareness to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for him.

Was an avid hunter/outdoorsman.

Son of Lon Chaney.

Chaney's World War II draft registration card indicates his height was 6' 3". Some sources argue against this. According to Calvin Thomas Beck in "Heroes of the Horrors" (Macmillan, 1975), Chaney wore special shoes in Des souris et des hommes (1939) to increase his height by six inches. Beck writes, "In reality, he was just six feet tall." According to Beck, Chaney said that "from that film on, people thought I was much taller" (Beck, p. 235). Early publicity accounts from the 1930s describe Chaney as a strapping six-footer. In Gregory W. Mank's books, Chaney is described as being 6' 2" (though Mank reproduces press material for Le Loup-garou (1941) which describes Chaney as being five inches taller than Claude Rains, who was 5' 7").

Body cremated, ashes scattered. Other reports say that his body was donated to the University of Southern California for medical research.

Even though they appeared in several films together, there was little love lost between him and Evelyn Ankers. They would frequently clash.

It took him 6 1/2 hours every day to get made-up as the Wolf Man, which meant leaving home at 2:00 A.M. to be ready for work at 9:00 A.M. He worked until 5:00 P.M., then spent 1 1/2 hours having the make-up taken off,.

He made 13 horror films in one year for Universal.

He has three roles in common with Christopher Lee: (1) Chaney played the Frankenstein Monster in Le Spectre de Frankenstein (1942), while Lee played him in Frankenstein s'est échappé (1957), (2) Chaney played Kharis the Mummy in La Tombe de la momie (1942), Le fantôme de la momie (1944) and La Malédiction de la momie (1944), while Lee played him in La Malédiction des pharaons (1959) and (3) Chaney played Count Dracula in Le Fils de Dracula (1943), while Lee played him in 10 films from Le Cauchemar de Dracula (1958) to Dracula père et fils (1976).

He starred in all six films of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" film series; however, he was featured on the original radio show that these films were based on only once.

Grandfather of Ron Chaney.

He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Deux nigauds contre Frankenstein (1948) & Le train sifflera trois fois (1952).