#IconosMacabros: Lon Chaney "The Man of a Thousand Faces"

Lon Chaney was born on April 1, 1883, in Colorado Springs, the son of a deaf-mute couple, Frank and Emma Chaney, which is why he learned from childhood to communicate through gestures, signs, and facial expressions. In 1901, he began his acting career in a play he co-wrote with his brother, titled "The Little Tycoon." After modest success, the company was sold, and Lon stayed on with the new owner.

While touring with this company, he met the singer Cleva (Francis Cleveland Creighton), who would become his girlfriend and later give birth to Creighton Tull Chaney, which led Lon to take on various jobs; however, he couldn't resist the call of the stage for long and returned with Cleva and Creighton to continue his career in show business.

In 1910 they arrived in California, where Lon found work as a choreographer and actor, while Cleva gained more fame as a singer in cabaret shows, which led the marriage into trouble over work, money, and jealousy. In April 1913, Cleva went to the Majestic Theater where Lon was working, and after the marital disputes continued, she attempted suicide by poison, which damaged her vocal cords and put an end to both her career and their marriage. The scandal also ended Lon's stage career, so he sought work in the nascent silent film industry. That was when the legend was born.

Between 1913 and 1930 he played more than 150 characters, mainly strange and macabre villains. After making more than 100 films for Universal, he requested a raise that was denied, so Lon left the studio and from then on became a freelance actor.

Lon suffered greatly to play his characters. In the 1920 film "The Penalty," he bound his legs back to fit prosthetics over his knees, which caused him circulation problems in his legs.

For "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in 1923, he wore a hump weighing more than 50 pounds, bending over enough to feel Quasimodo's pain. That performance earned him worldwide fame. In 1925, Lon created the makeup for the character that secured his immortality, Eric in "The Phantom of the Opera." He was dubbed "The Man of a Thousand Faces."

The arrival of sound film seemed to spell the end of a career built on his skill as a mime and his talent for makeup. In 1930, he made his only talking picture, a remake of "The Unholy Three," in which he played a ventriloquist performing five different voices. Unfortunately, two months after the film's premiere in August 1930, he died of a throat hemorrhage.

With information from The Official Lon Chaney Site: lonchaney.com (abre en nueva pestaña)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN0T2S4q9so (abre en nueva pestaña)