1,000 Faces But Only One Lon Chaney Quiz

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?

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.

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".

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.