- His career suffered in his later years due to alcoholism.
- His father told him he was too tall for a successful career in film.
- He wanted to reprise his father's role of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and underwent a screen test for the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), but the role went to Charles Laughton. Chaney did recreate this in an episode of the television series Route 66 (1960).
- Near the end of his life, he made an appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. He claimed that his weak voice was the result of his playfully growling at children at Halloween. In reality, he was suffering from throat cancer.
- His favorite role was that of Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men (1939). After a few drinks at parties, he would recite scenes from that film.
- He was the only person to have played all four of the classic movie monsters: The Wolf Man (1941) (Laurence Talbot/The Wolf Man); The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) (Frankenstein's Monster); The Mummy's Tomb (1942) (Kharis, the mummy); Son of Dracula (1943) (Count Anthony Alucard, Dracula's son).
- He made headlines in the 1960s when he criticized "Fractured Flickers" for desecrating old film classics like his father's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).
- Broderick Crawford, who had played Chaney's role of Lennie in "Of Mice and Men" on Broadway in 1937, worked with Chaney at one time and shared a dressing room with him. Apparently, both men were such heavy drinkers that they would get drunk together and take turns beating each other up.
- Fay Wray and Joel McCrea were classmates of his at Hollywood High School.
- When Broderick Crawford left the stage production of "Of Mice and Men", Chaney was eager to play the role. He credits the kindness of Wallace Ford, the original "George", for getting him the role, which, of course, led to the screen version (Of Mice and Men (1939)) and eventual stardom.
- He only officially played the role of Frankenstein's Monster twice: once in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and then again in an episode of the television series Tales of Tomorrow (1951). It wasn't until 1957 when the 1931 version of Frankenstein (1931) staring Boris Karloff would debut on television. Also in 1957, Christopher Lee would assume the role of the monster in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). Chaney played the role "unofficially" twice for Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) in which he stood in for Glenn Strange for one scene while Strange recovered from a broken ankle, and for an episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950) where, in a mock-opera sketch, Chaney appears (for some reason) in full monster regalia and dances a Charleston with Lou Costello, then hangs around for the finale. Shortly before his death, Chaney complained in an interview that the serious horror film genre had been ruined by Abbott and Costello.
- Pictured on one of a set of five 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps, issued 30 September 1997, celebrating "Famous Movie Monsters". He is shown as the title character in The Wolf Man (1941). Other actors honored in this set of stamps, and the classic monsters they portray, are Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera (1925); Bela Lugosi as Dracula (1931); and Boris Karloff on two stamps as The Mummy (1932) and the monster in Frankenstein (1931).
- Had two sons with his wife Dorothy Hinckley: Lon Ralph (born July 3, 1928) and Ronald Creighton (born March 18, 1930).
- Well-known character actor William Smith started out as a child actor, and in an interview with a horror-film magazine stated that during breaks on the set of The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Chaney treated all of the children on the set to ice cream.
- The six-foot-tall Chaney wanted to play football in Hollywood High School but was turned down because he only weighed 125 pounds.
- He was posthumously awarded a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California on January 11, 1999.
- He appeared with John Carradine in thirteen films: This Is My Affair (1937), Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Submarine Patrol (1938), Jesse James (1939), Frontier Marshal (1939), House of Frankenstein (1944), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), House of Dracula (1945), Casanova's Big Night (1954), The Black Sleep (1956), House of the Black Death (1971), Gallery of Horror (1967) and Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967).
- Battled throat cancer and heart disease in later years.
- He appeared with Bela Lugosi in five films: The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) and The Black Sleep (1956).
- Like his father, he often refused requests for autographs, though when he did sign he usually wrote "Luck, Lon Chaney", using a very large "L" as the first letter for both "Luck" and "Lon".
- He was born prematurely, only 2-1/2 pounds at birth. The illnesses he suffered at the end of his life may have been partially the result of this. In fact, he was born, in his own words, "black and dead". His father took him outside to an ice-covered lake, broke the ice and put him into the ice-cold water to jump-start his breathing. However, according to his son Lon Ralph Chaney as well as Cleva's daughter by her second marriage, Stella George, the story is complete fiction.
- In 1930, he resided at 735 North Laurel Avenue in Los Angeles, California, while working as an advertising manager for a water-heater company.
- Like his father, Chaney created his own make-up for the role of Akhoba in One Million B.C. (1940), but union regulations forced him to abandon this.
- Often he would accompany his father Lon Chaney to the studio and wait for the trolley on a bench at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. After the bench was removed years later, a special memorial to his father replaced it.
- From his father, he developed skills as a makeup artist. He was not able to make much use of these skills due to strict union rules.
- His relationship with his father over the years, was described as distant at best.
- His scheduled ten-day tour on behalf of Bride of the Gorilla (1951) spiraled to 4-1/2 months and covered 4500 miles.
- The actor once said how his father did all he could to dissuade him from following in his professional footsteps.
- To the actor's despair, he found himself being billed as just "Lon Chaney" during his tenure at Universal studios.
- He was released from his contract with Universal in 1945. The reason given for this was due to the actor's problem with alcohol.
- Was well known for his love of animals, and would frequently have his dogs on his movie sets with him. There's a famous picture of him in his Wolf Man makeup playing with his German Shepherd "Wolf".
- Chaney's WWII Draft Registration card indicates his height as 6' 3". Some sources argue against this. According to Calvin Thomas Beck in "Heroes of the Horrors" (Macmillan, 1975), Chaney wore special shoes in Of Mice and Men (1939) to increase his height by six inches. Beck writes, "In reality, he was just six feet tall." According to Beck, Chaney said that "from that film on, people thought I was much taller" (Beck, p. 235). Early publicity accounts from the 1930s describe Chaney as a strapping six-footer. In Gregory W. Mank's books, Chaney is described as being 6' 2" (though Mank reproduces press material for The Wolf Man (1941) which describes Chaney as being five inches taller than Claude Rains, who was 5' 7").
- Was an avid hunter/outdoorsman.
- Son of Lon Chaney.
- He has two roles in common with Bela Lugosi: (1) Lugosi played Count Dracula in Dracula (1931) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) while Chaney played him in Son of Dracula (1943) and (2) Chaney played Frankenstein's Monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), in which Lugosi also appeared, while Lugosi played him in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), in which Chaney also appeared.
- Attempted an early career as a songwriter.
- His last film might have been in Woody Allen's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972). In "Conversations With Woody Allen" by Eric Lax, Allen recalls feeling like a fan, "sitting across from the Wolf Man!" as he interviewed Chaney for a role. Chaney did not appear in the final cut, and passed away the year after this was released.
- Was mentioned in Warren Zevon's 1978 song "Werewolves of London".
- Body cremated, ashes scattered. Other reports say his body was donated to USC for medical research.
- Does not have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- Even though they appeared in several films together, there was little love lost between Lon Chaney Jr and Evelyn Ankers. They would frequently clash.
- He has three roles in common with Christopher Lee: (1) Chaney played Frankenstein's Monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) while Lee played him in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), (2) Chaney played Kharis the Mummy in The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mummy's Ghost (1944) and The Mummy's Curse (1944) while Lee played him in The Mummy (1959) and (3) Chaney played Count Dracula in Son of Dracula (1943) while Lee played him in ten films from Horror of Dracula (1958) to Dracula and Son (1976).
- The Lon Chaney, Jr. "Star Fund" was established to help the Chaney estate raise funds and awareness to procure a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- Grandfather of Ron Chaney.
- He starred in all six films of Universal's "Inner Sanctum" series. He was featured on the original radio show only once.
- It took him 6 and a half hours every day to get made up as the Wolf Man which meant leaving home at 2 am to be ready for work at 9am. He worked til 5 then spent an hour and a half to take the make up off,.
- He made 13 horror films one year for Universal.
- He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) & High Noon (1952).
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