Movie Credits
The Unholy Three	(1930)
Thunder	(1929)
Where East Is East	(1929)
West of Zanzibar	(1928)
[ Lionel Barrymore ]
While the City Sleeps	(1928)
Laugh, Clown, Laugh	(1928)
The Big City	(1928)
London After Midnight	(1927)
Mockery	(1927)
The Unknown	(1927)
Mr. Wu	(1927)
Tell It to the Marines	(1926)
The Road to Mandalay	(1926)
The Blackbird	(1926)
The Phantom of the Opera	(1925)
The Unholy Three	(1925)
The Monster	(1925)
The Tower of Lies	(1925)
He Who Gets Slapped	(1924)
[ Bela Lugosi ]
The Next Corner	(1924)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame	(1923)
The Shock	(1923)
While Paris Sleeps	(1923)
All the Brothers Were Valiant	(1923)
A Blind Bargain	(1922)
Quincy Adams Sawyer	(1922)
Shadows	(1922)
Oliver Twist	(1922)
The Light in the Dark	(1922)
Flesh and Blood	(1922)
The Trap	(1922)
[ Lon Chaney Jr. ]
Voices of the City	(1921)
Bits of Life	(1921)
The Ace of Hearts	(1921)
For Those We Love	(1921)
Outside the Law	(1920)
Nomads of the North	(1920)
The Penalty	(1920)
The Gift Supreme	(1920)
Treasure Island	(1920)
Daredevil Jack	(1920)
The False Faces	(1919)
Victory	(1919)
When Bearcat Went Dry	(1919)
Paid in Advance	(1919)
The Miracle Man	(1919)
A Man's Country	(1919)
The Wicked Darling	(1919)
Danger, Go Slow	(1918)
The Talk of the Town	(1918)
That Devil, Bateese	(1918)
Riddle Gawne	(1918)
A Broadway Scandal	(1918)
Fast Company	(1918)
The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin	(1918)
Broadway Love	(1918)
The Grand Passion	(1918)
The Rescue	(1917)
Fires of Rebellion	(1917)
A Doll's House	(1917)
The Flashlight	(1917)
The Girl in the Checkered Coat	(1917)
The Mask of Love	(1917)
Hell Morgan's Girl	(1917)
The Piper's Price	(1917)
The Scarlet Car	(1917)
Bondage	(1917)
Anything Once	(1917)
The Empty Gun	(1917)
Triumph	(1917)
Pay Me!	(1917)
The Gilded Spider	(1916)
Tangled Hearts	(1916)
The Grip of Jealousy	(1916)
Dolly's Scoop	(1916)
The Price of Silence	(1916)
Accusing Evidence	(1916)
The Place Beyond the Winds	(1916)
Felix on the Job	(1916)
If My Country Should Call	(1916)
The Mark of Cain	(1916)
The Grasp of Greed	(1916)
Bobbie of the Ballet	(1916)
Bound on the Wheel	(1915)
When the Gods Played a Badger Game	(1915)
The Trust	(1915)
The Threads of Fate	(1915)
The Violin Maker	(1915)
The Measure of a Man	(1915)
Steady Company	(1915)
A Small Town Girl	(1915)
Stronger Than Death	(1915)
The Oyster Dredger	(1915)
The Star of the Sea	(1915)
Father and the Boys	(1915)
The Stronger Mind	(1915)
The Sin of Olga Brandt	(1915)
Under a Shadow	(1915)
An Idyll of the Hills	(1915)
The Millionaire Paupers	(1915)
The Stool Pigeon	(1915)
Lon of Lone Mountain	(1915)
The Girl of the Night	(1915)
A Mother's Atonement	(1915)
The Grind	(1915)
Alas and Alack	(1915)
Maid of the Mist	(1915)
The Fascination of the Fleur de Lis	(1915)
The Desert Breed	(1915)
The Pine's Revenge	(1915)
All for Peggy	(1915)
The Chimney's Secret	(1915)
Outside the Gates	(1915)
Quits	(1915)
Where the Forest Ends	(1915)
Mountain Justice	(1915)
Such Is Life	(1915)
A Miner's Romance	(1914)
Remember Mary Magdalen	(1914)
The Oubliette	(1914)
The Honor of the Mounted	(1914)
By the Sun's Rays	(1914)
The Lie	(1914)
Her Grave Mistake	(1914)
A Ranch Romance	(1914)
The Hopes of Blind Alley	(1914)
Her Escape	(1914)
The Old Cobbler	(1914)
A Night of Thrills	(1914)
The Forbidden Room	(1914)
The Lion, the Lamb, the Man	(1914)
Heart Strings	(1914)
Lights and Shadows	(1914)
The Unlawful Trade	(1914)
Her Life's Story	(1914)
The Tragedy of Whispering Creek	(1914)
Virtue Is Its Own Reward	(1914)
The End of the Feud	(1914)
The Pipes o' Pan	(1914)
The Lamb, the Woman, the Wolf	(1914)
Richelieu	(1914)
The Embezzler	(1914)
The Higher Law	(1914)
The Menace to Carlotta	(1914)
Her Bounty	(1914)
Discord and Harmony	(1914)
Bloodhounds of the North	(1913)
Red Margaret, Moonshiner	(1913)
Back to Life	(1913)
An Elephant on His Hands	(1913)
Almost an Actress	(1913)
The Restless Spirit	(1913)
The Trap	(1913)
Shon the Piper	(1913)
The Blood Red Tape of Charity	(1913)
The Sea Urchin	(1913)
Poor Jake's Demise	(1913)
Suspense	(1913)
The Ways of Fate	(1913)
The Honor of the Family	(1912)

Even after 65 years, the phrase "Man of a Thousand Faces" brings to mind only one name: Lon Chaney Sr. The son of deaf-mute parents, he learned at an early age to rely on pantomime as a communication skill. The stagestruck Chaney worked in a variety of backstage positions at the opera house in his hometown of Colorado Springs; he was eventually allowed to appear on stage, and, before his 17th birthday, was on tour with a play he'd co-written with his brother. Sensitive about his youth and plain features, Chaney hid behind elaborate makeup when appearing on-stage. Forced into single parenthood after divorcing his first wife Cleva Creighton (the mother of his son Creighton, Lon Chaney Jr.), Chaney had to find a more steady source of income than the theater. He began picking up extra work at Universal Studios in 1912, making himself valuable — and ultimately indispensable — with his expertise with character makeup. He rose from featured player to star at Universal between 1913 and 1920, sometimes doubling as director and scriptwriter. Chaney's breakthrough film was 1919's The Miracle Man, in which he played a phony cripple. It was the first of many films in which he underwent severe physical discomfort to achieve a convincing screen effect; in The Penalty (1920), for example, he not only bound his legs to play a double amputee, but also contrived to jump from great heights and land on his knees. As Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), Chaney wore a rubber hump weighing as much as 70 pounds, and the film made him a bona fide star. After Universal's Phantom of the Opera (1925), the actor moved to MGM, where he starred in several highly successful Grand Guignol horror films directed by Tod Browning. Some of Chaney's best work during this period was actually done without makeup, in such bread-and-butter vehicles as Tell It to the Marines (1926) and The Big City (1928). Offscreen, he was a loner, preferring to live far from Hollywood with his son and second wife. When sound pictures took hold in 1929, Chaney initially refused to participate, concerned that he'd have to come up with a different voice for each performance; he finally acquiesced with 1930s The Unholy Three (a remake of his 1925 silent film success), in which he not only utilized four different vocal characterizations but also proved to be a superior performer in his natural voice.), but a growth in his throat developed into bronchial cancer. He died in 1930 at the age of 47; in his last days, his illness rendered him unable to speak, forcing him to rely on the pantomimic gestures of his youth in order to communicate with his friends and loved ones.