Lon Chaney(1883-1930)

Actor
Director
Writer

Play trailer2:46

The Phantom of the Opera (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 The Hunchback of Notre Dame (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 The Unholy Three (1930). His son, Lon Chaney Jr., became a famous actor of the horror genre.

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Awards
- 11 wins

Photos491

484

Known for

He Who Gets Slapped

7.8

Paul Beaumont
HE

1924

The Phantom of the Opera

7.5

The Phantom

1925

The Unholy Three

7.1

Echo - The Ventriloquist

1925

Tell It to the Marines

7.1

Sergeant O'Hara

1926

Credits

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Actor

The Unholy Three
6.7
- Echo
- 1930
Thunder
6.8
- Grumpy Anderson
- 1929
Where East Is East
6.6
- Tiger Haynes
- 1929
West of Zanzibar
7.2
- Phroso
- 1928
While the City Sleeps
6.5
- Dan Coghlan
- 1928
Laugh, Clown, Laugh
7.5
- Tito
- 1928
The Big City
6.9
- Chuck Collins
- 1928
London After Midnight
6.6
- Professor Edward C. Burke
- 1927
Mockery
6.8
- Sergei
- 1927
The Unknown
7.7
- Alonzo
- 1927
Mr. Wu
6.3
- Mr. Wu
- Wu's Grandfather
- 1927
Tell It to the Marines
7.1
- Sergeant O'Hara
- 1926
The Road to Mandalay
6.3
- Singapore Joe
- 1926
The Blackbird
6.7
- Dan - The Blackbird
- The Bishop
- 1926
The Tower of Lies
7.5
- 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
- 5′ 7″ (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.