Overview (5)

Mini Bio (1)

American character actor whose career was influenced (and often overshadowed) by that of his father, silent film star Lon Chaney. The younger Chaney was born while his parents were on a theatrical tour, and he joined them onstage for the first time at the age of six months. However, as a young man, even during the time of his father's growing fame, Creighton Chaney worked menial jobs to support himself without calling upon his father. He was at various times a plumber, a meatcutter's apprentice, a metal worker, and a farm worker. Always, however, there was the desire to follow in his father's footsteps. He studied makeup at his father's side, learning many of the techniques that had made his father famous. And he took stage roles in stock companies. It was not until after his father's death in 1930 that Chaney went to work in films. His first appearances were under his real name (he had been named for his mother, singer Frances Chaney). He played number of supporting parts before a producer in 1935 insisted on changing his name to Lon Chaney Jr. as a marketing ploy. Chaney was uncomfortable with the ploy and always hated the "Jr". addendum. But he was also aware that the famous name could help his career, and so he kept it. Most of the parts he played were unmemorable, often bits, until 1939 when he was given the role of the simple-minded Lennie in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's Von Mäusen und Menschen (1939). Chaney's performance was spectacularly touching; indeed, it became one of the two roles for which he would always be best remembered. The other came within the next year, when Universal, in hopes of reviving their horror film franchise as well as memories of their great silent star, Chaney Sr., cast Chaney as the tortured Lawrence Talbot in Der Wolfsmensch (1941). With this film and the slew of horror films that followed it, Chaney achieved a kind of stardom, though he was never able to achieve his goal of surpassing his father. By the 1950s, he was established as a star in low-budget horror films and as a reliable character actor in more prestigious, big-budget films such as Zwölf Uhr mittags (1952). Never as versatile as his father, he fell more and more into cheap and mundane productions which traded primarily on his name and those of other fading horror stars. His later years were bedeviled by illness and problems with alcohol. When he died from a variety of causes in 1973, it was as an actor who had spent his life chasing the fame of his father, but who was much beloved by a generation of filmgoers who had never seen his father.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Spouse (2)

Trade Mark (8)

Deep baritone voice



Often played hulking monsters or victims of mad scientists



Often played sympathetic or tormented characters



Often played the average, everyday man



Frequently portrayed father figures, particularly in his later years



Was a friendly person, despite playing many villains in horror movies



Friendly teddy bear face with heavy eyebrows



His large, bearlike build



Trivia (41)

His career suffered in his later years due to alcoholism.



Attempted an early career as a songwriter.





Broderick Crawford , who had played Chaney's role of Lennie 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.



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 Frankenstein kehrt wieder (1942), Chaney treated all of the children on the set to ice cream.

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



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



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





His favorite role was that of Lennie Small in Von Mäusen und Menschen (1939). After a few drinks at parties, he would recite scenes from that film.

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



He was born prematurely, only 2-1/2 pounds at birth. The illnesses he suffered at the end of his life may have been partially the 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, the story is complete fiction.



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





Was mentioned in Warren Zevon 's 1978 song "Werewolves of London".

Was an avid hunter/outdoorsman.



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





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.



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 ( Von Mäusen und Menschen (1939)) and eventual stardom.



Like his father, Chaney created his own make-up for the role of Akhoba in Tumak, der Herr des Urwalds (1940), but union regulations forced him to abandon this.



His scheduled ten-day tour on behalf of Die Braut des Gorilla (1951) spiraled to 4-1/2 months and covered 4500 miles.



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

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



Battled throat cancer and heart disease in later years.





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 at Halloween. In reality, he was suffering from throat cancer.

Body cremated, ashes scattered. Other reports say his body was donated to USC for medical research.



The actor once said how his father did all he could to dissuade him from following in his professional footsteps.



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



To the actor's despair, he found himself being billed as just "Lon Chaney" during his tenure at "Universal" studios.



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



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



Personal Quotes (6)

My father would be horrified if he knew I was making it in the pictures and that I'm not billed as Creighton Chaney.



I am most proud of the name Lon Chaney. I am not proud of Lon Chaney Jr., because they had to starve me to make me take this name.



Nothing is more natural to me than horror.





All the best of the monsters played for sympathy. That goes for my father, [ Lon Chaney ], myself and all the others. They all won the audience's sympathy. The Wolf Man didn't want to do all those bad things. He was forced into them.

The trouble with most of the monster pictures today is that they go after horror for horror's sake. There's no motivation for how monsters behave. There's too much of that science-fiction baloney.



[on his makeup for The Wolf Man (1941)] What gets me is after work when I'm all hot and itchy and tired . . . [I've still] got to sit in that chair for 45 minutes while [makeup artist Jack P. Pierce] just about kills me, ripping off all the stuff he put on me in the morning.



Salary (3)