Lon Chaney Trivia

1. Which physical challenge did both of Lon Chaney's parents share?

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: Both were deaf

Though Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (1883-1930) was able to hear, both his father Frank and his mother Emma were deaf. They had, in fact, met at the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind, founded by Lon Chaney's maternal grandfather. As a consequence of growing up with two deaf parents, Lon Chaney became very skilled at pantomime. Did this skill--communicating without talking--aid in his silent film career?

From Quiz Lon Chaney Sr. Lexicon

Answer: Leonidas

His middle name was Frank after his father.

From Quiz Lon Chaney, Jr. Of "The Wolf Man"

Answer: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Lon Chaney, Jr. was born on Feb. 10, 1906, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to vaudeville performers Lon Chaney and Francis Cleveland Creighton (Cleva). As a young child, he alternated between travelling throughout the United States and Canada with his parents or staying with various relatives. He made his stage debut at age six months in one of his father's stage shows.

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: Cleva Creighton

Cleva Creighton (1889-1967) was as a skilled singer. She and Lon married in 1905 and their son Creighton Cheney was born a year later. The marriage grew increasingly troubled and in 1913, Cleva attempted to commit suicide by swallowing mercuric choloride. Although Cleva survived the suicide attempt, the damage to her throat ended her singing career. Cleva and Lon divorced soon after and Cleva signed over full custody of Creighton to Lon. Lon had Creighton placed in a series of boarding schools until he (Lon) remarried and felt he could provide Creighton with a more stable home life.

From Quiz Clap for the Wolfman - Lon Chaney, Jr.'s Films

Answer: Lennie Small

Lennie was a mentally handicapped person guided through life by his friend, George Milton. Tom Joad and Preacher Casey are characters in Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath", adapted to the screen in 1940 by director John Ford.

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: Stage Makeup

The article appeared in the 14th Edition (1929) of the "Encyclopedia Britannica". Chaney was legendary for his skill in creating the make-up for many of his most famous film roles. Chaney honed this skill in his years working as a stage actor. This skill helped earn Chaney his nickname, the "Man of a Thousand Faces".

From Quiz Clap for the Wolfman - Lon Chaney, Jr.'s Films

Answer: Lawrence Talbot

The other choices were well-known actors in Universal films of the 1930s.

From Quiz Lon Chaney, Jr. Of "The Wolf Man"

Answer: His mother, Cleva Creighton Chaney, tried to commit suicide.

Cleva Chaney swallowed bichloride of mercury while her husband was on stage at the Majestic Theater on April 30, 1913. Although it did not kill her, it ruined Cleva's singing voice so that she could not longer perform. Lon and Cleva Chaney separated shortly afterwards and divorced in 1915. Lon Chaney was given sole custody of his son. In 1915, he married Hazel Hastings. Creighton Chaney often stayed with his grandparents, Frank and Emma Chaney, which were both profoundly deaf.

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: Marine Corps

The film was "Tell It To The Marines", one of Chaney's personal favorite films. The film portrays the relationship between a drill instructor (Chaney) and one of his recruits. The film was popular with audiences and with the Marines in particular. "Leatherneck Magazine" stated that "few of us who observed Chaney's portrayal of his role were not carried away to the memory of some sergeant we had known whose behavior matched that of the actor in every minute detail."

From Quiz Clap for the Wolfman - Lon Chaney, Jr.'s Films

Answer: Bela Lugosi

Chaney and Lugosi would meet again when Lugosi played the Frankenstein Monster in 1943's "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man". They would also fall to their deaths together as the Wolf Man and Dracula, respectively, in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein".

From Quiz Lon Chaney Sr. Lexicon

Answer: 9

This was no sacrifice for him, however. He hated school!

From Quiz Lon Chaney, Jr. Of "The Wolf Man"

Answer: Two

In 1926, Creighton Chaney (he was not known as Lon Chaney, Jr. until 1935) married Dorothy Hinchley, and had two sons: Lon Ralph Chaney, born on July 3, 1928, and Donald Creighton Chaney, born on Mar. 18, 1930. They divorced in 1936, and he married Patricia Beck on Oct. 1, 1937. They were together until his death in 1973.

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: The Phantom of the Opera

Chaney's role as the Phantom (1925) highlighted his skill with make-up. He used wire to twist his nose up and black makeup to enlarge his nostrils. He painted his eye sockets black and used a set of false teeth. The stamp featuring Chaney as the Phantom was part of a series featuring movie monsters than included Chaney's son as the Wolfman.

From Quiz Clap for the Wolfman - Lon Chaney, Jr.'s Films

Answer: Louisiana

Chaney's character was a "descendant" of Count Dracula named Count Alucard. Try spelling that one backwards!

From Quiz Lon Chaney Sr. Lexicon

Answer: The Little Tycoon

He co-wrote it with his older brother; he was 19 years old at the time and made his debut at what is now called the "Chaney" theater.

From Quiz Lon Chaney, Jr. Of "The Wolf Man"

Answer: Selling illegal liquor to speakeasies

Lon Chaney had taught his son Creighton the value of hard work from a child. Among the jobs he held before his acting career took off were: newsboy, ice delivery man, farmhand, metal worker, clothing salesman, and a plumber's helper. After his marriage to Dorothy Hinchley, Creighton Chaney worked at the General Water Heater Company for his father-in-law. In 1932, he signed with RKO Studios and made his movie debut in "Girl Crazy" as an extra, and he appeared in several films for RKO during the 1930's.

From Quiz The Talented Mr. Lon Chaney

Answer: one

He spoke in only one movie, the remake of 'The Unholy Three' (MGM 1930). Chaney played five characters, including an old lady, and he gave each a distinctive voice. He died August 26, 1930 of throat cancer that had been aggravated by shards of material, used as artificial snow, that had lodged in his throat during the making of 'Thunder In Wisconsin' in 1929.

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: One character shot the other character

In the thriller, "Outside the Law", Chaney portrayed two supporting characters. The first was Black Mike Silva, a gangster. The second was Ah Ling, a student of Confucian philosophy. The film was one of Chaney's early collaborations with director Tod Browning. The shooting and killing of Ah Ling occurs in a large fight scene towards the end of the film. "Outside the Law" was thought to be a "lost picture" until a print from the 1926 re-release of the film was discovered in a private collection in the 1970s.

From Quiz Lon Chaney Sr. Lexicon

Answer: Francis

She got her nickname of "Cleva" from her middle name, "Cleveland".

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: Fly fishing

In 1929, Chaney built a stone cabin in the wilderness near Big Pine, California in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The cabin is preserved by the National Forest Service. Designed by architect Paul Williams, the cabin cost $12,000. Chaney chose a site for the cabin near an area known for trout fishing. Chaney was a fly fishing enthusiast, practicing the catch and release method. Unfortunately, Chaney was only able to enjoy the cabin for less than a year since he died in 1930.

From Quiz The Talented Mr. Lon Chaney

Answer: The look on the faces of wounded veterans

Chaney said the inspiration was the faces of wounded WWI veterans. Chaney's skill with makeup was his forte, as seen in his breakthrough success in 1919 as a fraudulent cripple called the frog.

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: The Trap

Creighton Chaney appeared in the 1922 film in the role "Hands of a Boy". He did not receive on-screen credit for this role of which audiences only saw his hand and not his face. In the film, Chaney portrays a miner named Gaspard who seeks to reclaim control of his mine from a rival (played by Alan Hale, Sr.) who stole the mine from him. Creighton Chaney (1906-1973), accepting his father's wishes of not making a career in film, went to college and began working for an appliance company. After the senior Chaney's, Creighton began appearing in films. At first he appeared as "Creighton Cheney" in the credits but within a few years he began to be listed as "Lon Chaney" or "Lon Chaney, Jr.", at the instruction of the studios.

From Quiz Lon Chaney Sr. Lexicon

Answer: Creighton

His name stems from his mother's surname.

From Quiz Lon Chaney, Jr. Of "The Wolf Man"

Answer: Five

Lon Chaney, Jr. signed with Universal in 1941. He appeared in five Universal movies in the dual roles of Larry Talbot and the werewolf. They are : "The Wolf Man" (1941), "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943), "House of Frankenstein" (1944), "House of Dracula", (1945), and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948).

From Quiz The Talented Mr. Lon Chaney

Answer: He told him Cleva, Creighton's mother, was dead.

Lon Chaney divorced Cleva Creighton Chaney after she drank poison backstage during his performance. He sought and was given sole custody of their son. Chaney always told his son that Cleva was dead. When Creighton found out it was not true, it caused a riff between the two that lasted for years.

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: The Unholy Three

"The Unholy Three" (1930) was a remake of a 1925 silent film with the same title. Lon, who had shown such talent in using makeup and other tools to create many faces for himself also used several distinct voices in the film. In "The Unholy Three", Lon Chaney portrays Echo, a ventriloquist, who along with a strongman and a character described as the "twenty inch man", leave a sideshow and embark on a life of crime. Lon Chaney and several of the other actors had appeared in the 1925 film portraying the same (or essentially the same) characters. Interestingly, Chaney was also described as a skilled singer. I find it interesting that he resisted playing parts in "talking pictures" as long as he had.

From Quiz Lon Chaney Sr. Lexicon

Answer: She refused to because she wanted to work her job as a night club singer

The arguement was so hotly debated that Lon and Cleva never fully reconciled and this marked the beginning of the end of their relationship.

From Quiz 1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney

Answer: Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery

Hazel Hastings, his second wife, was interred next to him when she died in 1933. Cleva died in 1967 and is buried in Live Oak Memorial Park in Monrovia, CA. Creighton (Lon, Jr.) Cheney, Lon's only child, died in 1973 and donated his body for medical research. Next to Lon's crypt is the crypt of his father. Lon's crypt is private and unmarked.

From Quiz Clap for the Wolfman - Lon Chaney, Jr.'s Films

Answer: Dracula vs. Frankenstein

This film marked a reunion of sorts with old Universal stablemate J. Carrol Naish, who had worked with Chaney in "House of Frankenstein". It was also probably the nadir of Chaney's once-promising career.

From Quiz Lon Chaney Sr. Lexicon

Answer: the theater press that slandered his name after his and Cleva's divorce

His name was mucked so badly, that he never worked on or off the stage again.

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