Trivia

His career suffered in his later years due to alcoholism.

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

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 on Halloween; actually, he was suffering from throat cancer.

He wanted to reprise his father's role of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and underwent a screen test for the second version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), but the role went to Charles Laughton instead. Chaney did recreate this role in an episode of the TV series Route 66 (1960).

He was the only person to have played all four of the Universal Classic Monsters: The Wolf Man (1941) (Lawrence Talbot/the Wolf Man), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) (the Frankenstein Monster), The Mummy's Tomb (1942) (Kharis the Mummy) and Son of Dracula (1943) (Count Anthony Alucard, the son of Count Dracula).

His favorite role was that of Lenny Small in Of Mice and Men (1939). After a few drinks at parties, he would recite scenes from that film.

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

Fay Wray and Joel McCrea were classmates of his at Hollywood High School.

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

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 (Of Mice and Men (1939)) and eventual stardom.

He officially played the role of the Frankenstein Monster only twice: once in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and then again in an episode of the TV series Tales of Tomorrow (1951). It was not until 1957 when Frankenstein (1931) starring Boris Karloff would debut on TV; also in 1957, Christopher Lee would play the role of the Monster in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). Chaney "unofficially" played the role of the Monster with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello also twice: in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) in which he stood in for Glenn Strange for one scene while Strange recovered from a broken ankle, and in an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950) where, in a mock opera sketch, Chaney appeared (for some reason) in full Frankenstein Monster regalia and danced the Charleston with Lou Costello, then hung around for the finale. Shortly before his death, Chaney complained in an interview that the serious horror film genre had been ruined by both Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.

Pictured on one of a set of five 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps that were issued on September 30, 1997 and celebrated "Famous Movie Monsters". He is shown as the title character in The Wolf Man (1941). Other actors that were honored in this set of stamps, and the classic monsters that they portrayed, are Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera (1925); Bela Lugosi as Dracula (1931); and Boris Karloff on two stamps as both The Mummy (1932) and the Frankenstein Monster in Frankenstein (1931).

The 6-foot-tall Chaney wanted to play football in Hollywood High School, but was turned down because he only weighed 125 pounds.

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

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

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

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

He appeared with Bela Lugosi in five films: The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) and The Black Sleep (1956).

He appeared with John Carradine in 13 films: This Is My Affair (1937), Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Submarine Patrol (1938), Frontier Marshal (1939), Jesse James (1939), House of Frankenstein (1944), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), House of Dracula (1945), Casanova's Big Night (1954), The Black Sleep (1956), Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967), Gallery of Horror (1967) and House of the Black Death (1971).

Battled throat cancer and heart disease in his later years.

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

He was born prematurely and weighed only 2 1/2 pounds at birth. The illnesses that he suffered from at the end of his life may have been partially a 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, this 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.

Like his father before him, he created his own make-up for the role of Akhoba in One Million B.C. (1940), but union regulations forced him to abandon this practice.

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.

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

He once mentioned how his father did all that he could to dissuade him from following in his professional footsteps.

Was well-known for his love of animals and would frequently have his dogs on his film sets with him. There is a famous picture of him in his Wolf Man make-up playing with his German Shepherd Dog, "Wolf".

His scheduled 10-day tour on behalf of Bride of the Gorilla (1951) spiraled to 4 1/2 months and covered 4,500 miles.

To his despair, he found himself being billed as just "Lon Chaney" during his time at Universal.

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

Son of Lon Chaney.

He has two roles in common with Bela Lugosi: (1) Lugosi played Count Dracula in Dracula (1931) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) while Chaney played him in Son of Dracula (1943) and (2) Chaney played the Frankenstein Monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), in which Lugosi also appeared, while Lugosi played him in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), in which Chaney also appeared.

His last film might have been in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972). In "Conversations With Woody Allen" by Eric Lax, Allen recalled feeling like a fan "sitting across from the Wolf Man!" as he interviewed Chaney for a role. Chaney did not appear in the film's final cut and he died the year after it was released.

Attempted an early career as a songwriter.

Was an avid hunter/outdoorsman.

Was mentioned by name along with that of his father, Lon Chaney, in Warren Zevon's song "Werewolves of London" (1978).

Does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Chaney's World War II draft registration card indicates his height was 6' 3". Some sources argue against this. According to Calvin Thomas Beck in "Heroes of the Horrors" (Macmillan, 1975), Chaney wore special shoes in Of Mice and Men (1939) to increase his height by six inches. Beck writes, "In reality, he was just six feet tall." According to Beck, Chaney said that "from that film on, people thought I was much taller" (Beck, p. 235). Early publicity accounts from the 1930s describe Chaney as a strapping six-footer. In Gregory W. Mank's books, Chaney is described as being 6' 2" (though Mank reproduces press material for The Wolf Man (1941) which describes Chaney as being five inches taller than Claude Rains, who was 5' 7").

Body cremated, ashes scattered. Other reports say that his body was donated to the University of Southern California for medical research.

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

The Lon Chaney, Jr. "Star Fund" was established in order to help the Chaney estate raise funds and awareness to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for him.

He has three roles in common with Christopher Lee: (1) Chaney played the Frankenstein Monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), while Lee played him in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), (2) Chaney played Kharis the Mummy in The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1944) and The Mummy's Curse (1944), while Lee played him in The Mummy (1959) and (3) Chaney played Count Dracula in Son of Dracula (1943), while Lee played him in 10 films from Horror of Dracula (1958) to Dracula and Son (1976).

He made 13 horror films in one year for Universal.

It took him 6 1/2 hours every day to get made-up as the Wolf Man, which meant leaving home at 2:00 A.M. to be ready for work at 9:00 A.M. He worked until 5:00 P.M., then spent 1 1/2 hours having the make-up taken off,.

Grandfather of Ron Chaney.

He starred in all six films of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" film series; however, he was featured on the original radio show that these films were based on only once.

He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) & High Noon (1952).