LON CHANEY, JR.
Name: Lon Chaney, Jr.
Birth name: Creighton Tull Chaney
Born: 10 February 1906 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Died: 12 July 1973 San Clemente, California, United States
Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973) was an American character
actor, known mainly for his roles in monster movies and as the son of silent
film actor Lon Chaney. He was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." only in 1935,
as a studio marketing ploy by a small production outfit. Chaney, Jr. had English,
French and Irish ancestry.
Born Creighton Tull Chaney in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the son of Lon Chaney and
Cleva Creighton Chaney, a singing stage performer who traveled in road shows
across the country with Lon. His parents' troubled marriage ended in divorce in
1913 following a scandalous public suicide attempt by his mother in Los Angeles.
Young Creighton lived in various homes and boarding schools until 1916, when his
father (now employed in films) remarried Hazel Hastings and could provide a
stable home. Many sources[attribution needed] report that Creighton was led to
believe his mother Cleva had died while he was a boy, and was only made aware
she lived after his father's death in 1930.
From an early age he worked hard to avoid his famous father's shadow. In young
adulthood, his father discouraged him from show business, and he became
successful in a Los Angeles appliance corporation. No film or photographs seem
to exist of the two Chaneys together in the same frame as adults, which is
remarkable since the senior Chaney had attained a career level of global fame
exceeded only by Charles Chaplin.
It was only after his father's death that Chaney started acting in movies,
beginning with an uncredited role in the 1932 film Girl Crazy. He appeared in
films under his real name Creighton until 1935, when he began to be billed as "Lon
Chaney, Jr." (and would appear as "Lon Chaney" later in his career). He first
achieved stardom and critical acclaim in the 1939 feature film version of Of
Mice and Men, in which he played Lennie Small.
In 1941, Chaney starred in the title role of The Wolf Man for Universal Pictures
Co. Inc., a role which would typecast him for the rest of his life. He
maintained a career at Universal horror movies over the next few years,
replaying the Wolf Man in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein,
House of Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Frankenstein's monster
in The Ghost of Frankenstein, Kharis the mummy in The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's
Ghost and The Mummy's Curse. He also played Dracula in Son of Dracula. Chaney is
thus the only actor to portray all four of Universal's major monsters: the Wolf
Man, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, and Dracula. Universal also starred him
in a series of psychological mysteries associated with the Inner Sanctum radio
series. He also played western heroes, such as in the serial Overland Mail, but
the six-foot, 220-pound actor often appeared as mundane heavies. After leaving
Universal, he worked primarily in character roles in low-budget films, due to
typecasting and alcoholism. In later years he often played mute or brutish roles,
partly due to the ravages of throat cancer, the same disease that claimed his
father's life. In his final feature film, Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), he
played Groton, Dr. Frankenstein's mute henchman.
While continuing to pop up in lower budget horror epics throughout the 1950s,
Chaney also established himself as a cameo artiste for producer Stanley Kramer,
taking key supporting roles in the classic western High Noon (1952) (starring
Gary Cooper), Not as a Stranger (1955), a hospital melodrama featuring Robert
Mitchum and Frank Sinatra, and The Defiant Ones (1958, starring Tony Curtis and
Sidney Poitier.) Kramer told the press at the time that whenever a script came
in with a role too difficult for most actors in Hollywood, he called Chaney.
Most talked about was a 1952 live television version of Frankenstein on the
anthology series Tales of Tomorrow during which Chaney, playing the Monster, was
so drunk that he thought he was rehearsing and picked up furniture that he was
supposed to break only to gingerly put it back down while muttering, "Break
later." A kinescope of the January 18, 1952 broadcast is available for public
viewing at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City and Los Angeles.
Remarkably, Chaney's bald and scarred makeup in this show closely resembles that
worn by Robert De Niro in a 1994 big-screen treatment.
He became quite popular with baby boomers, however, after Universal released its
backlog of horror films to television in 1956 and Famous Monsters of Filmland
magazine regularly focused on his films. He was honored by appearing as the Wolf
Man on one of a 1997 series of United States postage stamps depicting movie
monsters, as was Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy, Bela
Lugosi as Dracula, and Lon Chaney, Sr. as The Phantom of the Opera.
In the 1960s, Chaney's career ran the gamut from decent horror productions, such
as Roger Corman's The Haunted Palace and big-studio Westerns such as 1967's
Welcome to Hard Times, to such bottom-of-the-barrel fodder as Hillbillys in a
Haunted House and Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors (both 1967). His bread-and-butter
work during this decade was television - where he put in guest shots on
everything from Wagon Train to The Monkees - and a string of supporting roles in
low-budget but entertaining and very traditional Westerns featuring middle-aged
casts and produced by A. C. Lyles for Paramount.
From a personal standpoint, Chaney seemed to have been well-liked by his co-workers
- "sweet" is the adjective that most commonly emerges from people who acted with
him - yet he was capable of intense dislikes. For instance, he and frequent co-star
Evelyn Ankers did not get along at all (he called her "Shankers" and she once
characterized him as "The Mad Ghoul"), despite their undeniable on-camera
chemistry. Chaney is also said to have had a belligerent relationship with actor
Martin Kosleck. Years after the fact, Kosleck explained this as a case of
jealousy over Kosleck's (self-described) superior talent. All the people with
whom Chaney purportedly conflicted — Kosleck; actor Frank Reicher (whom Chaney
nearly strangled on camera in The Mummy's Ghost) and director Robert Siodmak (over
whose head Chaney broke a vase) — were all German, and all the incidents
occurred during World War II. There seems little doubt that Chaney's basic
geniality, even his professional intensity, could be greatly altered through the
introduction of alcohol.
Chaney always projected a peculiar childlike quality on screen, no matter how
old he was, which meant that his best roles tended to be those for which a
childish, helpless or subservient quality was requisite, such as "Lenny," "Larry
Talbot," and even in later years some of his roles as weak and/or alcoholic
parents. Only rarely did this quality drop, as was the case with his performance
as "Dracula" in Son of Dracula and years later as "Simon Orne" in The Haunted
Palace. Chaney never for a moment escaped the long shadow of his father, one of
the screen's greatest actors.
Name: Lon Chaney, Jr.
Birth name: Creighton Tull Chaney
Born: 10 February 1906 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Died: 12 July 1973 San Clemente, California, United States
Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973) was an American character
actor, known mainly for his roles in monster movies and as the son of silent
film actor Lon Chaney. He was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." only in 1935,
as a studio marketing ploy by a small production outfit. Chaney, Jr. had English,
French and Irish ancestry.
Born Creighton Tull Chaney in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the son of Lon Chaney and
Cleva Creighton Chaney, a singing stage performer who traveled in road shows
across the country with Lon. His parents' troubled marriage ended in divorce in
1913 following a scandalous public suicide attempt by his mother in Los Angeles.
Young Creighton lived in various homes and boarding schools until 1916, when his
father (now employed in films) remarried Hazel Hastings and could provide a
stable home. Many sources[attribution needed] report that Creighton was led to
believe his mother Cleva had died while he was a boy, and was only made aware
she lived after his father's death in 1930.
From an early age he worked hard to avoid his famous father's shadow. In young
adulthood, his father discouraged him from show business, and he became
successful in a Los Angeles appliance corporation. No film or photographs seem
to exist of the two Chaneys together in the same frame as adults, which is
remarkable since the senior Chaney had attained a career level of global fame
exceeded only by Charles Chaplin.
It was only after his father's death that Chaney started acting in movies,
beginning with an uncredited role in the 1932 film Girl Crazy. He appeared in
films under his real name Creighton until 1935, when he began to be billed as "Lon
Chaney, Jr." (and would appear as "Lon Chaney" later in his career). He first
achieved stardom and critical acclaim in the 1939 feature film version of Of
Mice and Men, in which he played Lennie Small.
In 1941, Chaney starred in the title role of The Wolf Man for Universal Pictures
Co. Inc., a role which would typecast him for the rest of his life. He
maintained a career at Universal horror movies over the next few years,
replaying the Wolf Man in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein,
House of Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Frankenstein's monster
in The Ghost of Frankenstein, Kharis the mummy in The Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's
Ghost and The Mummy's Curse. He also played Dracula in Son of Dracula. Chaney is
thus the only actor to portray all four of Universal's major monsters: the Wolf
Man, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, and Dracula. Universal also starred him
in a series of psychological mysteries associated with the Inner Sanctum radio
series. He also played western heroes, such as in the serial Overland Mail, but
the six-foot, 220-pound actor often appeared as mundane heavies. After leaving
Universal, he worked primarily in character roles in low-budget films, due to
typecasting and alcoholism. In later years he often played mute or brutish roles,
partly due to the ravages of throat cancer, the same disease that claimed his
father's life. In his final feature film, Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), he
played Groton, Dr. Frankenstein's mute henchman.
While continuing to pop up in lower budget horror epics throughout the 1950s,
Chaney also established himself as a cameo artiste for producer Stanley Kramer,
taking key supporting roles in the classic western High Noon (1952) (starring
Gary Cooper), Not as a Stranger (1955), a hospital melodrama featuring Robert
Mitchum and Frank Sinatra, and The Defiant Ones (1958, starring Tony Curtis and
Sidney Poitier.) Kramer told the press at the time that whenever a script came
in with a role too difficult for most actors in Hollywood, he called Chaney.
Most talked about was a 1952 live television version of Frankenstein on the
anthology series Tales of Tomorrow during which Chaney, playing the Monster, was
so drunk that he thought he was rehearsing and picked up furniture that he was
supposed to break only to gingerly put it back down while muttering, "Break
later." A kinescope of the January 18, 1952 broadcast is available for public
viewing at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City and Los Angeles.
Remarkably, Chaney's bald and scarred makeup in this show closely resembles that
worn by Robert De Niro in a 1994 big-screen treatment.
He became quite popular with baby boomers, however, after Universal released its
backlog of horror films to television in 1956 and Famous Monsters of Filmland
magazine regularly focused on his films. He was honored by appearing as the Wolf
Man on one of a 1997 series of United States postage stamps depicting movie
monsters, as was Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy, Bela
Lugosi as Dracula, and Lon Chaney, Sr. as The Phantom of the Opera.
In the 1960s, Chaney's career ran the gamut from decent horror productions, such
as Roger Corman's The Haunted Palace and big-studio Westerns such as 1967's
Welcome to Hard Times, to such bottom-of-the-barrel fodder as Hillbillys in a
Haunted House and Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors (both 1967). His bread-and-butter
work during this decade was television - where he put in guest shots on
everything from Wagon Train to The Monkees - and a string of supporting roles in
low-budget but entertaining and very traditional Westerns featuring middle-aged
casts and produced by A. C. Lyles for Paramount.
From a personal standpoint, Chaney seemed to have been well-liked by his co-workers
- "sweet" is the adjective that most commonly emerges from people who acted with
him - yet he was capable of intense dislikes. For instance, he and frequent co-star
Evelyn Ankers did not get along at all (he called her "Shankers" and she once
characterized him as "The Mad Ghoul"), despite their undeniable on-camera
chemistry. Chaney is also said to have had a belligerent relationship with actor
Martin Kosleck. Years after the fact, Kosleck explained this as a case of
jealousy over Kosleck's (self-described) superior talent. All the people with
whom Chaney purportedly conflicted — Kosleck; actor Frank Reicher (whom Chaney
nearly strangled on camera in The Mummy's Ghost) and director Robert Siodmak (over
whose head Chaney broke a vase) — were all German, and all the incidents
occurred during World War II. There seems little doubt that Chaney's basic
geniality, even his professional intensity, could be greatly altered through the
introduction of alcohol.
Chaney always projected a peculiar childlike quality on screen, no matter how
old he was, which meant that his best roles tended to be those for which a
childish, helpless or subservient quality was requisite, such as "Lenny," "Larry
Talbot," and even in later years some of his roles as weak and/or alcoholic
parents. Only rarely did this quality drop, as was the case with his performance
as "Dracula" in Son of Dracula and years later as "Simon Orne" in The Haunted
Palace. Chaney never for a moment escaped the long shadow of his father, one of
the screen's greatest actors.