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Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July
12, 1973) was an American character actor, well-known mainly for his
roles in monster movies and as the son of Lon Chaney. He was born
Creighton Tull Chaney, began acting under that name, and was first
credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." only in 1935, as a studio marketing ploy
by a small production outfit.
****
Birth name Creighton Tull Chaney
Born February 10, 1906
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Died July 12, 1973
San Clemente, California
Height 1.89 m
Other name(s) Lon Chaney Junior, Lon Chaney
Spouse(s) Dorothy Hinckley (1928 - 1937)
Patsy Beck (October 1, 1937 - July 12,
1973)
Notable roles Groton in Dracula vs.
Frankenstein, The Wolf Man in Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein
****
Biography
Chaney was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
to his father and Cleva Creighton Chaney, a singer and stage performer
who traveled on 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 to Hazel Hastings and could provide a
stable home. Many sources report he 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. It was only after his father's death that Chaney
began 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.; later in his
career he appeared as Lon Chaney. 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., which characterization
and company would typecast him for the rest of his life. He maintained a
career in Universal horror movies over the next few years, replaying the
Wolf Man in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein,
House of Dracula and 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 and Dracula in
Son of Dracula, generally regarded as his most significant performance
in a Universal picture after the original The Wolf Man. Universal also
starred him in a series of psychological mysteries tied in with the
Inner Sanctum radio series. There were also attempts to star him in
western hero roles, such as the serial Overland Mail, but the six-foot,
220-pound actor often just appeared as mundane heavies. After leaving
Universal, he worked mostly in character parts in low-budget films, due
to typecasting and a heavy drinking problem. In later years he largely
played mute or brutish roles, in part because of the ravages of throat
cancer, the same disease that had claimed his father's life. In his
final feature film, Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), he played a mute
zombie named Groton who was Dr. Frankenstein's assistant.
Chaney played supporting roles in the
classic western High Noon (starring Gary Cooper) and The Defiant Ones
(starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier.)
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; and he was honoured by appearing on one of a
series of United States postage stamps portraying movie monsters, as the
Wolf Man, in 1997 (Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein's monster and The
Mummy, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the
Opera made up the rest of that series).
Married twice, he died in San Clemente,
California. He had two sons (both deceased), and is survived by a
grandson, Ron Chaney, who attends film conventions and graciously
discusses his grandfather's life and film career. Ron Chaney was
featured on the CBS Sunday Morning program on October 29, 2006.
Selected Filmography
A Scream in the Night (1935)
Mr. Moto's Gamble (1938)
Charlie Chan in City in Darkness (1939)
Of Mice and Men
One Million B.C. (1940)
Man Made Monster (1941)
The Wolf Man (1941)
The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
Son of Dracula (1943)
Calling Dr. Death
Weird Woman
The Mummy's Ghost
Dead Man's Eyes
House of Frankenstein (1944)
The Mummy's Curse
The Frozen Ghost
Strange Confession
House of Dracula (1945)
Pillow of Death
My Favorite Brunette
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
The Black Sleep
13 Demon Street
The Alligator People
The Haunted Palace
House of Black Death
Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors
Hillbillys In A Haunted House
Spiderbaby
The Female Bunch
Dracula vs. Frankenstein
Trivia
He, along with his father, is mentioned in
the Warren Zevon song Werewolves of London.
In the movie Jackass:_The_Movie, Johnny
Knoxville's senior citizen character states, "I was Lon Chaney's lover"
after he is thrown out of the convenience store for shoplifting,
although he actually had no idea who Lon Chaney was at the time. He only
exclaimed this statement spontaneously after noticing his celebrity star
nearby on the sidewalk.
****
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URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney%2C_Jr.
Date Article Copied:
January 2007
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