Lon Chaney was Hollywood's first major horror star, but he didn't come by it easily. Years of dedication and hard work payed off and he became world-famous after his roles in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923) and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925). Known by his fans and the media as "The Man of a Thousand Faces", a legendary story cemented his fame as a great actor and make-up artist: in the 1920's, director Marshall Neiland warned a studio workman who was about ready to crush a spider under his boot with the phrase, "Don't step on it: it may be Lon Chaney".
Many of the makeups that Chaney devised for his roles were painful, but frighteningly realistic. Speaking about his character in THE PENALTY (1920), he said, "Every moment before the camera was one of excruciating agony, yet I must not let it show in my face. I had to be the character I was portraying, and disregard the pain. I could only wear the harness 10 minutes at a time, as the pain soon became intolerable, but after a brief rest I'd put it on again and go on with the scene. I've never gotten over the strain that I was put to in this picture. In fact, every grotesque character I've played on the screen has taken its toll of me, physically."
Orson Welles said that "Chaney was a great deal more than a make-up artist. He was an actor of great power." Ray Bradbury commented that "Chaney acted out our psyches: he somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies. He was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on the screen."
This collection of articles from various film magazines of the day pay tribute to "The Man of a Thousand Faces".
From MOTION PICTURE, August 24, 1924:
From MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC, March 1929:
From TALKING SCREEN, March 1930:
From SCREENLAND, November 1930:
From THE MODERN SCREEN, Vol. 1 No.1, November 1930:
I knew Chaney only from Hunchback and Phantom for most of my life, but a few years ago I picked up some of his other silent flicks. "The Unknown" was truly disturbing. That stuff could have real power.
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