The movies' "Man of a Thousand Faces" is still a legendary figure, and although the relatively recent rediscovery of many of his starring filmspreviously thought lost-has somewhat deflated his reputation, there's no denying that he was one of the foremost talents of the silent screen. Born to deaf-mute parents, he honed his ability to communicate via pantomime at an early age. Eager to escape the obvious limitations of his home life, the young Chaney worked at the local opera house, painting flats, collecting props, and learning how to apply makeup. He left home at 17 to tour as an actor, traveling across the country before settling in Hollywood in 1912 to begin his film career. (His first film appearance is credited to 1913's Poor Jake's Demise although he may have worked as an extra before that.)

Chaney's features-craggy and severedisqualified him from romantic leads, but he quickly became a versatile supporting player. He became proficient in creating elaborate makeups and prosthetic devices, and frequently withstood pain or discomfort to create an illusion. One such characterization, that of a phony cripple in The Miracle Man (1919), won him special notice. The following year, he played a legless master criminal in The Penalty (1920), the first of many starring vehicles tailored to his peculiar talents. He fashioned a 20-pound harness to simulate a hump for his role as Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). Chaney's genius lay not only in the creation of such bizarre and grotesque disguises, but his ability to project his emotions through the heaviest makeups. His Quasimodo is one such example of that ability, and Hunchback became his biggest hit to date. For the same studio, Universal, he starred as The Phantom of the Opera (1925), designing an even more horrific countenance to shock movie audiences that came to this lavishly produced thriller about the ghost of the Paris Opera House. Phantom which many contemporary critics thought too repugnant for 1920s moviegoers, went on to become Chaney's most popular film (and the most frequently revived).

For many years, Chaney's reputation depended to a great extent upon his work for director Tod Browning at MGM. Based upon Browning's surviving horror films, including Dracula (1931) and Mark of the Vampire (1935), the silent Chaney vehicles he directed were presumed to have the same value. As these films resurfaced, one by one, in the late 1960s and 1970s, they were reevaluated and, in many cases, found lacking. While some of them-He Who Gets Slapped (1924), The Road to Mandalay (1926), Mr. Wu (1927), and West of Zanzibar (1928)-did indeed feature Chaney in impressive makeups, they proved to be rather conventional melodramas. On the plus side, rediscovered MGMs such as Tell It to the Marines (1926) and While the City Sleeps (1928), which offered the star "straight" roles, showed him to possess considerable personality and charm not readily apparent in his "character" parts.

Chaney, initially fearful of sound films, made his first talkie, The Unholy Three (a remake of his 1925 hit) in 1930. It was an overnight success, and Tod Browning immediately announced that Chaney would play the title role in his upcoming production of Dracula. But the Man of a Thousand Faces died of throat cancer just one month later. His son Creighton had a long film career, billed for most of it as Lon Chaney, Jr.

OTHER FILMS INCLUDE: 1919: False Faces, Victory 1920: Treasure Island (as Blind Pew); 1922: Shadows, Oliver Twist (in the latter as Fagin); 1923: All the Brothers Were Valiant 1925: The Monster 1926: The Black Bird 1927: The Unknown, Mockery 1928: The Big City, Laugh, Clown, Laugh 1929: Where East Is East.