Lon Chaney

Authentic genius of pantomime, the man who was rightly nicknamed "the man with 1000 faces" was one of the most versatile actors at the dawn of cinema. Long assimilated - wrongly - by critics and the public to a register of tortured, disfigured and often grotesque characters, Lon Chaney was nevertheless an authentic chameleon actor throughout his brief career, rich in nearly 160 films. Gangsters, clowns, historical figures, Asian, pirate… He was capable of playing everything, to the point of becoming a trademark of which he was the sole representative. He was helped in this by his deep knowledge of makeup, even going so far as to sign the article relating to this art in the prestigious Encyclopaedia Britannica. Far from sinking into oblivion, his extraordinary work on his compositional roles has notably inspired a whole generation of professional film make-up artists, such as Tom Savini or the inevitable Rick Baker.

Second in a family of four children, Lon Chaney - Leonidas Frank Chaney by his real name - born April 1, 1883 in Colorado Springs, of deaf and dumb parents. From this handicap and parental nonconformity from which he suffers, his art of pantomime is born, which he develops from an early age. In 1902, he took the stage and traveled across the United States to play in vaudevilles. He also took advantage of this experience to work on directing, costumes and make-up, and even became an impresario for a very popular comic duo at the time, Kolb & Dill. In contrast to the roles he played a few years later, Chaney was a fan of light comedies, and even proved to be an excellent dancer. In 1910, he moved to California, then, following serious marital problems,Universal , in 1912-1913. This is how he made his first film, The Way of Fate . He also plays in many westerns, where his sinister expression limits him to the jobs of service traitors.

The studio is highly demanding of his physique and his versatility, whether it is to play a caveman to the owner of a plantation. But no matter what role he takes on, Chaney never leaves his makeup bag. Brilliant autodidact, it is during these years that the actor experiments the most, even borrows cameras to film his own tests. He not only studies makeup, but also the relationships between lighting, the actor's face, and the way he is viewed through the eyes of the audience. This is how he took Boris Karloff under his wing at the end of the 1920s; another big face of cinema: "the trick in this job is to do something totally different from others, so that they end up noticing you", he will give him as advice. By 1917, with over 80 films already on the record, Chaney became a leading actor for the studio. But this status is not reflected in his salary. When he asked for a raise in 1918, William Sistrom, an executive of the studio, replied humiliatingly: "You will never be worth more than a hundred dollars a week" .

1919 was a pivotal year for him. He breaks through with his role as a misshapen false beggar, aka "The Frog", in The Miracle Man, directed by George Loane Tucker. Rave reviews and revenues of over $ 2 million, a colossal sum for the time, propelled Lon Chaney to the rank of the most important genre actor in the United States. The same year, he toured for the first time under the direction of Tod Browning with The Wicked Darling; first of their ten collaborations. The physical aspect of Chaney's game, his contortions and acrobatics strike everyone's mind, as much as his tragic mask. With Maurice Tourneur, he plays a scoundrel in Victory (1919), and not one but two pirates in the adaptation of Treasure Island(1920). The same year, he plays an extraordinary legless gangster in The Penalty, which is arguably his most personal film of this period. More importantly, he finally gets his revenge on William Sistrom there: for this film, he earns $ 500 per week. But he will later learn that Universal was finally ready to pay him triple: a hard lesson that Chaney will not forget. The acme of his Universal periodis undoubtedly achieved with Notre-Dame de Paris (1923), and even more with Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (1925). Two films in which her absolute sense of makeup triumphs. Although he created two of the most misshapen characters in the history of cinema, Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre-Dame, and Erik, the phantom of the Paris opera, Chaney nevertheless manages through his compositions to arouse in the public a real feeling of compassion and sympathy.

"I wanted to remind people that those at the bottom of the ladder of humanity may have within them the resource for supreme self-denial , " he wrote in an autobiographical article which appears in Movie magazine, in 1925."The shortened, misshapen street beggar may have the noblest ideas. Most of my roles since Notre-Dame-de-Paris, Tears of Clown, Le Club des Trois, etc. have been about self-denial and renunciation. These are the stories I want to do . " The actor's wishes are fulfilled beyond his expectations: Notre-Dame de Paris is, for example, sold out in New York for 20 weeks, at the Astor cinema (one of the largest venues in the city), capable of accommodating 1500 people.

From 1925, he entered into contract with MGM. Within the Major, he imposes the originality of his universe with even more force than at Universal, as in Tell it to the Marines(1927). A film that not only the actor esteemed very much, but which even earned him the sympathy of the US Marine Corps, of which he was made an honorary member. In addition to the seven films he made with Tod Browning (including the formidable L 'Inconnu, in 1927, or the role of Scotland Yard detective disguised as a vampire to track down a killer in London After Midnight), he reached a peak with Ris , paillasse (1928), edited by Herbert Brenon. In 1928 and 1929, he was voted the most popular actor, while MGM extended his nickname a little more: "the man with 1000 faces and 100 million fans".

His last film, in 1930, is a sound remake of his classic from the silent era, The Club of 3. It is his only talking film, where the actor even has five vocal roles. He turns, even though he knows he is condemned by cancer in the throat, which ends up preventing him from speaking, and wins at the age of 47 on August 26, 1930. Like a sad and cruel irony for the one who was one of the greatest actors of silent cinema, even as the 7th Art begins to change with the arrival of the speaking.

Author: Olivier Pallaruelo

Lon Chaney 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Lon Chaney in 2021?

Lon Chaney Net Worth 2022

Lon Chaney 's revenue is $1.9M in 2022. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Lon Chaney and could vary in the range between $651.8K - $1.1M.

Lon Chaney Net Worth 2021

Lon Chaney 's revenue is $1.1M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Lon Chaney and could vary in the range between $549.2K - $1.9M.

Lon Chaney Net Worth 2020

Lon Chaney 's revenue is $1.4M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Lon Chaney and could vary in the range between $733.6K - $1.5M.

Lon Chaney Net Worth 2019

Lon Chaney 's revenue is $1.3M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Lon Chaney and could vary in the range between $605.5K - $2M.

Lon Chaney Net Worth 2018

Lon Chaney 's revenue is $1.8M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Lon Chaney and could vary in the range between $928.3K - $1.9M.

Lon Chaney Net Worth 2017

Lon Chaney 's revenue is $1.2M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Lon Chaney and could vary in the range between $612.1K - $2M.

Lon Chaney Net Worth 2016

Lon Chaney 's revenue is $1.4M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Lon Chaney and could vary in the range between $677.5K - $1.8M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Lon Chaney. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Lon Chaney makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Lon Chaney's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.