70 Years Later, Fans Remember the Face of Hollywood’s ‘First Character Star’

Lon Chaney, one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era in the 1920s, is best remembered for his grotesque but tragic Quasimodo in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and the disfigured Phantom in “The Phantom of the Opera.”

But even in roles that didn’t warrant extensive makeup, Chaney had a remarkable command of his expressive face, athletic body and graceful hands. And Chaney’s performances remain fresh and exhilarating to watch even now, 70 years after his death.

His career and life are the subject of a new documentary “Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces,” premiering today on cable’s Turner Classic Movies. TCM will also air eight classic Chaney films today and on Halloween.

Directed by noted film historian Kevin Brownlow and produced by Patrick Stanbury, the documentary chronicles Chaney’s life from his birth to deaf parents in 1883 to his untimely death of cancer at 47, shortly after the release of his first talkie, “The Unholy Three.”

The documentary features rare film clips, personal photos and letters as well as new and vintage interviews with author Ray Bradbury; Orson Welles; author and makeup artist Michael F. Blake, who has written three books about Chaney including “The Films of Lon Chaney”; actresses Patsy Ruth Miller and Loretta Young; and members of the Chaney family.

Chaney is often misidentified as a “horror” actor, especially since his son, Lon Chaney Jr., came to fame in the 1940s in such horror films as “The Wolf Man.” According to Blake, the elder Chaney was really Hollywood’s “first character star. You have people lumping him as a horror actor, but they never saw ‘Laugh, Clown, Laugh’ or ‘Tell It to the Marines” or ‘While the City Sleeps.’ ”

Brownlow finds Chaney’s range astonishing. “He was able to do something like the old detective whose feet ache in ‘While the City Sleeps’--a rather brutal, old-fashioned detective. I thought that was amazing. And the parts that didn’t call for him to play the tortured character but were profoundly human like the old train driver you glimpse in ‘Thunder.’ Or in ‘Tell It to the Marines’ [in which he plays a stern Marine sergeant]--what he does with his face without any makeup at all. He seems so tense and iron-willed. He sort of is bursting out of his face.”

Chaney, who was born in Colorado Springs, Colo., quit school in the fourth grade to take care of his invalid mother and younger siblings. To cheer up his mother, he began mimicking his friends and neighbors. These early experiences would transform Chaney into one of the greatest pantomimists of the screen.

He got his first taste of show business at 14 when he became a prop boy at the local opera house. Five years later, he made his debut in a musical comedy called “The Little Tycoon” and toured with musical comedy troupes the next 12 years. In 1905, he married Cleva Creighton, and the following year his only son, Creighton, later known as Lon Chaney Jr., was born.

But it was a troubled marriage. After a suicide attempt by his wife in 1912, Chaney filed for divorce and got custody of his son. In 1915, he married Hazel Hastings, a former chorus girl. To support his family, he began working at Universal Studios as an extra, working his way up to supporting roles.

Chaney found his niche in character parts. His first big hit was 1919’s “The Miracle Man,” for which he received great notices for his performance as a fake cripple. The following year, he gave an even more remarkable performance in the dark melodrama “The Penalty,” as a sadistic double-amputee crime boss with revenge on his mind. To appear legless, Chaney created a leather harness that allowed him to strap his legs behind him and walk on his knees. He achieved international renown in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in 1923; his landmark “The Phantom of the Opera” followed two years later.

In 1925, Chaney signed a long-term contract with MGM and became one of the studio’s top stars turning out one extraordinary performance after another in such films as “He Who Gets Slapped,” “While the City Sleeps” and three films with director Tod Browning: the silent version of “The Unholy Three,” “West of Zanzibar” and “The Unknown.”

Chaney made 151 films, seven of which he directed. Only four of the 110 films he made for Universal survive today. There are also notable MGM films missing and presumed lost including Browning’s “London After Midnight,” in which Chaney played a vampire, and “Tower of Lies,” with Norma Shearer.

He was a favorite among male moviegoers, but Blake points out the actor, who was not traditionally handsome, had a huge female fan base. “They wanted him to get the girl,” Blake explains. “He was able to do these outlandish characters, yet his fans in the audience felt sorry for him. They figured he was just misunderstood, and if he just had the girl he would be happy.”

Chaney, a notoriously private man, eschewed the Hollywood lifestyle. He almost never attended premieres or parties and rarely gave interviews, preferring to spend his free time at a cabin he built in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains that was only accessible by foot or pack horse.

In a clip from 1925 featured in the documentary, MGM’s galaxy of stars is lined up on the studio lawn smiling for the movie cameras. That is, all except Chaney, who has his back to the camera and is in a highly animated conversation with the actor standing next to him. Eventually, the bespectacled Chaney gives a quick turn toward the camera, offering just a glimpse of himself.

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“Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces” will be shown tonight at 5 and 8:30 and next Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Turner Classic Movies.

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Chaney on TCM

Here is a schedule of the Lon Chaney movies being shown on Turner Classic Movies:

Today

6:30 p.m.: “Tell It to the Marines” (TV premiere with new score by Robert Israel)

10 p.m.: “The Ace of Hearts” (TV premiere, score by Young Film Composer contest winner)

Midnight: “The Unholy Three” (Chaney’s only talkie)

1 a.m.: “West of Zanzibar”

Next Tuesday

5 p.m.: “The Phantom of the Opera”

8:30 p.m.: “Mr. Wu” (TV premiere with original score by Maria Newman)

10 p.m.: “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”

Midnight: “The Unknown” (score by the Alloy Orchestra)