Lon Chaney Jr.

Lon Chaney Jr.'s father told him he was too tall for a successful career in cinema.

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

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In the 1960s he made headlines when he criticized "Fractured Flickers" for showing disrespect to old film classics such as his father's film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).

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

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His career was later damaged by alcoholism in his final years.

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He was the only person to play 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) (the mummy Kharis) and Son of Dracula (1943) (Count Anthony Alucard, son of Count Dracula).

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The well-known character actor William Smith, who started out as a child actor, said in an interview with a horror film magazine that during breaks on the set of The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Chaney treated all the children on set to ice cream.

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He wanted to reprise his father's role as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and screen-tested for the second version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), but the role went to Charles Laughton instead. Chaney recreated the role in an episode of the series Route 66 (1960).

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After his death, he was honored with a Golden Palm star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California, on January 11, 1999.

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In his later years he battled throat cancer and heart disease.

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He appeared in five films with Bela Lugosi: 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).

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

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He is pictured on one of a set of five 32¢ U.S. commemorative postage stamps issued on September 30, 1997, celebrating "Famous Movie Monsters," shown as the title character in The Wolf Man (1941). The other actors honored in the set and the classic monsters they played 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).

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He once said that his father did everything he could to discourage him from following in his professional footsteps.

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

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Despite his frustration, throughout his time at Universal he found himself billed only as "Lon Chaney."

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He mostly accompanied his father, Lon Chaney, to the studio and waited with the car on a bench at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Years later, after the bench was removed, a monument dedicated to his father was erected in its place.

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He developed his skills as a makeup artist from his father, but strict union rules meant he could make little use of those skills.

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The 10-day tour planned for Bride of the Gorilla (1951) stretched to 4 1/2 months and covered 4,500 miles.

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

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In 1945 he was dropped from his contract with Universal. The reason was the actor's alcohol-related problems.

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He does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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He appeared in 13 films with John Carradine: 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), Perili Evdeki Köylüler (1967), Korku Galerisi (1967) and Kara Ölüm Evi (1971).

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

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He embarked on an early career as a songwriter.

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He shares two roles with Bela Lugosi: (1) while Lugosi played Count Dracula in Dracula (1931) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), 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.

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He made 13 horror films for Universal in a single year.

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He was an avid hunter and outdoorsman.

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Lon Chaney, Jr. "Star Fund" was established to help the Chaney estate raise funds and awareness to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered. Other reports say his body was donated to the University of Southern California for medical research.

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He appeared in all six films of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" film series; however, he appeared only once in the original radio program on which these films were based.

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He shares three roles 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 the Mummy Kharis 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).

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He is the grandfather of Ron Chaney.

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