Happy Birthday Creighton Chaney!
February 10, 1906 is the birthday of Creighton Tull Chaney. He was born in Oklahoma City, Ok.
Who the heck is Creighton Chaney, you ask?
He was an actor who appeared in a number of western and comedy films, trying his best to 'make it' in the movies. After several years of scraping by, he was forced into taking a new stage name, Lon Chaney Jr.
Creighton was the son of The Man of 1000 Faces, the great silent film icon, Lon Chaney.
Stardom was not immediate, but securing the role of Lennie Small in the film version of the Steinbeck novel Of Mice and Men, opposite Burgess Meredith's George Milton, gained him accolades. Chaney had played the role numerous times before in west coast companies, opposite Wallace Ford.
Though the film was a success, Chaney still struggled. Universal cast him as Dan McCormick in their scifi/horror film Man Made Monster, also starring Lionel Atwill, but it would be his next trip into horror films that would cement his legacy and provide him his signature role...with a slight change.
Universal studio heads made the decision to drop the Jr. from his name. He would be billed as Lon Chaney! The film? '41 The Wolf Man. Released only days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, it became the highest grossing film for the studio that year.
Now Lon was carrying the full weight of his famous father's legacy upon his shoulders at the very studio in which The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera were filmed! He would be billed as Lon Chaney for the rest of his career.
Success of The Wolf Man was such, that Universal dubbed him "The Master Character Creator, and placed him firmly into the horror genre. He ran the gamut of Universal monsters. He followed in the steps of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster* in The Ghost of Frankenstein. He followed Tom Tyler as Kharis* the mummy in The Mummy's Tomb. He donned the cape of the vampire made famous by Bela Lugosi, in Son of Dracula, and played his signature role as Lawrence Talbot, the doomed lycanthrope, 4 more times.* He also starred in a series of films based upon The Inner Sanctum radio program.
His filmography also includes appearances in High Noon, The Defiant Ones, and Welcome to Hard Times.
Lon Chaney died on July 12, 1973.
Monday, February 10 would have been his 119th birthday.
*Chaney donned the Frankenstein makeup during Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein, standing in for Glen Strange who had injured his foot. Lon can be seen carrying the stunt woman for Lenore Aubert, and tossing her through a huge glass window.
Lon was Lawrence Talbot in The Wolf Man, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, and House of Dracula, in addition to the Route 66 television show, Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing (season 3, episode 6) in 1962, Chaney doned his Wolf Man garb, the bandaged Mummy Kharis....and even the makeup of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, made famous by his father.
Who the heck is Creighton Chaney, you ask?
He was an actor who appeared in a number of western and comedy films, trying his best to 'make it' in the movies. After several years of scraping by, he was forced into taking a new stage name, Lon Chaney Jr.
Creighton was the son of The Man of 1000 Faces, the great silent film icon, Lon Chaney.
Stardom was not immediate, but securing the role of Lennie Small in the film version of the Steinbeck novel Of Mice and Men, opposite Burgess Meredith's George Milton, gained him accolades. Chaney had played the role numerous times before in west coast companies, opposite Wallace Ford.
Though the film was a success, Chaney still struggled. Universal cast him as Dan McCormick in their scifi/horror film Man Made Monster, also starring Lionel Atwill, but it would be his next trip into horror films that would cement his legacy and provide him his signature role...with a slight change.
Universal studio heads made the decision to drop the Jr. from his name. He would be billed as Lon Chaney! The film? '41 The Wolf Man. Released only days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, it became the highest grossing film for the studio that year.
Now Lon was carrying the full weight of his famous father's legacy upon his shoulders at the very studio in which The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera were filmed! He would be billed as Lon Chaney for the rest of his career.
Success of The Wolf Man was such, that Universal dubbed him "The Master Character Creator, and placed him firmly into the horror genre. He ran the gamut of Universal monsters. He followed in the steps of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster* in The Ghost of Frankenstein. He followed Tom Tyler as Kharis* the mummy in The Mummy's Tomb. He donned the cape of the vampire made famous by Bela Lugosi, in Son of Dracula, and played his signature role as Lawrence Talbot, the doomed lycanthrope, 4 more times.* He also starred in a series of films based upon The Inner Sanctum radio program.
His filmography also includes appearances in High Noon, The Defiant Ones, and Welcome to Hard Times.
Lon Chaney died on July 12, 1973.
Monday, February 10 would have been his 119th birthday.
*Chaney donned the Frankenstein makeup during Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein, standing in for Glen Strange who had injured his foot. Lon can be seen carrying the stunt woman for Lenore Aubert, and tossing her through a huge glass window.
Lon was Lawrence Talbot in The Wolf Man, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, and House of Dracula, in addition to the Route 66 television show, Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing (season 3, episode 6) in 1962, Chaney doned his Wolf Man garb, the bandaged Mummy Kharis....and even the makeup of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, made famous by his father.
