Lon Chaney(1883-1930)

Actor
Director
Writer

Play trailer2:46

Le Fantôme de l'opéra (1925)

Although his parents were deaf, Leonidas Chaney became an actor and also owner of a theatre company (together with his brother John). He made his debut at the movies in 1912, and his filmography is vast. Lon Chaney was especially famous for his horror parts in movies like e.g. Quasimodo in Notre-Dame de Paris (1923). Due to his special make-up effects he carried the characterization to be "the man with the thousand faces." He only filmed one movie with sound: The remake of one of his earlier films Le club des trois (1930). His son, Lon Chaney Jr., became a famous actor of the horror genre.

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Awards
- 12 wins total

Photos488

+ 481

Known for

Le club des trois

6.7

Echo

1930

Le Fantôme de l'opéra

7.5

The Phantom

1925

Larmes de clown

7.7

Paul Beaumont - Vetenskapsman

1924

Le club des 3

7.1

Echo - The Ventriloquist

1925

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

Le club des trois
6.7
- Echo
- 1930
Tonnerre
6.8
- Grumpy Anderson
- 1929
Loin vers l'Est
6.6
- Tiger Haynes
- 1929
Le talion
7.2
- Phroso
- 1928
Dans la Ville Endormie
6.5
- Dan Coghlan
- 1928
Ris donc, paillasse!
7.5
- Tito
- 1928
Le loup de soie noire
6.9
- Chuck Collins
- 1928
Londres après minuit
6.7
- Professor Edward C. Burke
- 1927
Mockery
6.8
- Sergei
- 1927
L'inconnu
7.7
- Alonzo
- 1927
Monsieur Wu
6.3
- Mr. Wu
- Wu's Grandfather
- 1927
Marine d'abord!
7.1
- Sergeant O'Hara
- 1926
La route de Mandalay
6.3
- Singapore Joe
- 1926
L'oiseau noir
6.7
- Dan - The Blackbird
- The Bishop
- 1926
La tour des mensonges
7.6
- Jan
- 1925

Director

Writer

Videos2

Clip 15:49

Badness: Live and Not Plugged In

Personal details

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Official site
- Official Site
Height
- 1.70 m
Born
- April 1, 1883
- Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Died
- August 26, 1930
- Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA(throat hemorrhage)
Spouses
Children
- Lon Chaney Jr.
Parents
Relatives
- Ron Chaney(Great Grandchild)
Other works
Wrote entry on motion picture make-up in the 1929 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Publicity listings

Did you know

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Trivia
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.