Happy Birthday, Lon Chaney!
Happy Birthday to the Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney Sr.!
Lon Chaney was, without a doubt, cinema’s greatest chameleon. With primitive material and tremendous ability, he transformed himself into the most curious and bizarre figures in cinema. Master of makeup and maker of monsters, Chaney was the Ho-rror film’s first true icon. Having been born to deaf-mute parents, Chaney mastered non-verbal communication and possessed an innate compassion for unusual individuals. These qualities made him the greatest character actor of the silent era and one of pop culture’s most enduring boogeymen. Throughout his career, Chaney played a wide variety of misfits, monsters, and disabled men, all of whom he created with ingenious makeup he himself. His creations were grotesque, but Chaney gave them great depth and pathos. Even his most sinister creations had a sensitivity that endeared them to us. Lon saw the beauty in the beast. Happy Birthday, Chaney! And remember: Don’t step on that spider… it might be Lon Chaney!
