Born on April 1, 1883, he was no April Fool's Joke.
On April 1, 1883, in Colorado Springs, CO. one of the most famous movies stars of the silent era was born.
Besides his skill as an actor, he was also a makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. He had a contract with Max Factor in which the company would provide all new products for his use.
Who are we speaking of?
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney....aka The Man of 1000 Faces.
His parents were both deaf mutes, and as a result, he became adept in American Sign Language.
Chaney's maternal grandfather, Jonathan Ralston Kennedy, founded the "Colorado School for the Education of Mutes" (now Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind) in 1874, and Chaney's parents met there. His great-grandfather was congressman John Chaney from Ohio.
Chaney's most famous films are The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Phantom of the Opera, but he played a variety of characters during his career.
Chaney exhibited great adaptability with makeup in more conventional crime and adventure films, such as The Penalty (1920), in which he played a gangster with both legs amputated. Chaney appeared in ten films directed by Tod Browning, often portraying disguised and/or mutilated characters, including carnival knife-thrower Alonzo the Armless in The Unknown (1927) opposite Joan Crawford. Around the same time, Chaney also co-starred with Conrad Nagel, Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall, and Polly Moran in the Tod Browning horror film London After Midnight (1927), one of the most sought after lost films. His final film role was The Unholy Three (1930), a sound remake of his 1925 silent film of the same name. The 1930 remake was his only "talkie" and the only film in which Chaney utilized his powerful and versatile voice. Chaney signed a sworn statement declaring that five of the key voices in the film (the ventriloquist, the old woman, a parrot, the dummy and the girl) were his own.
In a 1925 autobiographical article for Movie magazine, he wrote: "I wanted to remind people that the lowest types of humanity may have within them the capacity for supreme self-sacrifice. The dwarfed, misshapen beggar of the streets may have the noblest ideals. Most of my roles since The Hunchback, such as The Phantom of the Opera, He Who Gets Slapped, The Unholy Three, etc., have carried the theme of self-sacrifice or renunciation. These are the stories which I wish to do." Chaney referred to his expertise in both makeup and contorting his body to portray his subjects as "extraordinary characterization". Chaney's talents extended beyond the horror genre and stage makeup. He was also a highly skilled dancer, singer and comedian.
Ray Bradbury once said of Chaney, "He was someone who acted out our psyches. He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen. The history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from." Chaney and his second wife Hazel led a discreet private life distant from the Hollywood social scene. Chaney did minimal promotional work for his films and for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, purposefully fostering a mysterious image, and he reportedly intentionally avoided the social scene in Hollywood.
He once said, "Between films, there is no Lon Chaney" adding to his mystique and desire to maintain a very private life away from films.
Publicity byline of the day:
Look out! Don't step on it! It might be Lon Chaney!
A song: Lon Chaney 's Gonna Get Ya, If You Don't Watch Out!
In the final five years of his film career (1925–1930), Chaney worked exclusively under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, giving some of his most memorable performances. His portrayal of a tough-as-nails marine drill instructor in Tell It to the Marines (1926), one of his favorite films, earned him the affection of the Marine Corps, who made him their first honorary member from the motion picture industry.
He also earned the respect and admiration of numerous aspiring actors, to whom he offered mentoring assistance, and between takes on film sets he was always willing to share his professional observations with the cast and crew. During the filming of The Unknown (1927), Joan Crawford stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work than from anyone else in her career. "It was then," she said, "I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera, and acting."
Approximately 102 of the 157 films made by Chaney are currently classified as lost films. A number of the remaining 55 films exist only in extremely truncated form or suffer from severe decomposition.
Two of Chaney’s films (The Phantom of the Opera and He Who Gets Slapped) are inducted into Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
During the filming of Thunder in the winter of 1929, Chaney developed pneumonia. In late 1929, he was diagnosed with bronchial lung cancer. This was exacerbated when fake snow lodged in his throat during filming and caused a serious infection. Despite aggressive treatment, his condition gradually worsened, and he died of a throat hemorrhage on August 26, 1930, in a Los Angeles, California hospital.
His funeral was held on August 28 in Glendale, California. Honorary pallbearers included Paul Bern, Hunt Stromberg, Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Tod Browning, Lew Cody, and Ramon Novarro. The U.S. Marine Corps provided a chaplain and Honor Guard for his funeral. While his funeral was being conducted, all MGM studios and offices observed two minutes of silence.
Happy Birthday to The Man of 1000 Faces!
**************
Wikipedia and my own observations and thoughts aided in creation of this post.
A final note: He had one child, a son, Creighton Tull Chaney, who is best known as Lon Chaney Jr. His roles as Lenny in Of Mice and Men, and Lawrence Talbot/The Wolf Man are his signature roles. For a reason that I can't fully understand, after the success of Man Made Monster, Universal studios decided to drop the Jr. from his name. As a result, starting with The Wolf Man, he was billed as Lon Chaney for the remainder of his career. This often causes some confusion, when we hear the name Lon Chaney, are we referring to the famous father, or his son?
I personally use Jr. for the films prior to The Wolf Man, and for his films that followed, note him as Lon Chaney.
I probably am adding to the confusion.
Besides his skill as an actor, he was also a makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. He had a contract with Max Factor in which the company would provide all new products for his use.
Who are we speaking of?
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney....aka The Man of 1000 Faces.
His parents were both deaf mutes, and as a result, he became adept in American Sign Language.
Chaney's maternal grandfather, Jonathan Ralston Kennedy, founded the "Colorado School for the Education of Mutes" (now Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind) in 1874, and Chaney's parents met there. His great-grandfather was congressman John Chaney from Ohio.
Chaney's most famous films are The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Phantom of the Opera, but he played a variety of characters during his career.
Chaney exhibited great adaptability with makeup in more conventional crime and adventure films, such as The Penalty (1920), in which he played a gangster with both legs amputated. Chaney appeared in ten films directed by Tod Browning, often portraying disguised and/or mutilated characters, including carnival knife-thrower Alonzo the Armless in The Unknown (1927) opposite Joan Crawford. Around the same time, Chaney also co-starred with Conrad Nagel, Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall, and Polly Moran in the Tod Browning horror film London After Midnight (1927), one of the most sought after lost films. His final film role was The Unholy Three (1930), a sound remake of his 1925 silent film of the same name. The 1930 remake was his only "talkie" and the only film in which Chaney utilized his powerful and versatile voice. Chaney signed a sworn statement declaring that five of the key voices in the film (the ventriloquist, the old woman, a parrot, the dummy and the girl) were his own.
In a 1925 autobiographical article for Movie magazine, he wrote: "I wanted to remind people that the lowest types of humanity may have within them the capacity for supreme self-sacrifice. The dwarfed, misshapen beggar of the streets may have the noblest ideals. Most of my roles since The Hunchback, such as The Phantom of the Opera, He Who Gets Slapped, The Unholy Three, etc., have carried the theme of self-sacrifice or renunciation. These are the stories which I wish to do." Chaney referred to his expertise in both makeup and contorting his body to portray his subjects as "extraordinary characterization". Chaney's talents extended beyond the horror genre and stage makeup. He was also a highly skilled dancer, singer and comedian.
Ray Bradbury once said of Chaney, "He was someone who acted out our psyches. He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen. The history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from." Chaney and his second wife Hazel led a discreet private life distant from the Hollywood social scene. Chaney did minimal promotional work for his films and for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, purposefully fostering a mysterious image, and he reportedly intentionally avoided the social scene in Hollywood.
He once said, "Between films, there is no Lon Chaney" adding to his mystique and desire to maintain a very private life away from films.
Publicity byline of the day:
Look out! Don't step on it! It might be Lon Chaney!
A song: Lon Chaney 's Gonna Get Ya, If You Don't Watch Out!
In the final five years of his film career (1925–1930), Chaney worked exclusively under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, giving some of his most memorable performances. His portrayal of a tough-as-nails marine drill instructor in Tell It to the Marines (1926), one of his favorite films, earned him the affection of the Marine Corps, who made him their first honorary member from the motion picture industry.
He also earned the respect and admiration of numerous aspiring actors, to whom he offered mentoring assistance, and between takes on film sets he was always willing to share his professional observations with the cast and crew. During the filming of The Unknown (1927), Joan Crawford stated that she learned more about acting from watching Chaney work than from anyone else in her career. "It was then," she said, "I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera, and acting."
Approximately 102 of the 157 films made by Chaney are currently classified as lost films. A number of the remaining 55 films exist only in extremely truncated form or suffer from severe decomposition.
Two of Chaney’s films (The Phantom of the Opera and He Who Gets Slapped) are inducted into Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.
During the filming of Thunder in the winter of 1929, Chaney developed pneumonia. In late 1929, he was diagnosed with bronchial lung cancer. This was exacerbated when fake snow lodged in his throat during filming and caused a serious infection. Despite aggressive treatment, his condition gradually worsened, and he died of a throat hemorrhage on August 26, 1930, in a Los Angeles, California hospital.
His funeral was held on August 28 in Glendale, California. Honorary pallbearers included Paul Bern, Hunt Stromberg, Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Tod Browning, Lew Cody, and Ramon Novarro. The U.S. Marine Corps provided a chaplain and Honor Guard for his funeral. While his funeral was being conducted, all MGM studios and offices observed two minutes of silence.
Happy Birthday to The Man of 1000 Faces!
**************
Wikipedia and my own observations and thoughts aided in creation of this post.
A final note: He had one child, a son, Creighton Tull Chaney, who is best known as Lon Chaney Jr. His roles as Lenny in Of Mice and Men, and Lawrence Talbot/The Wolf Man are his signature roles. For a reason that I can't fully understand, after the success of Man Made Monster, Universal studios decided to drop the Jr. from his name. As a result, starting with The Wolf Man, he was billed as Lon Chaney for the remainder of his career. This often causes some confusion, when we hear the name Lon Chaney, are we referring to the famous father, or his son?
I personally use Jr. for the films prior to The Wolf Man, and for his films that followed, note him as Lon Chaney.
I probably am adding to the confusion.
