Lon Chaney was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He lived with his deaf and mute parents, Frank and Emma. Lon learned to communicate with his parents with pantomime, facial expressions and sign language. He quit school at age ten to help his dad take care of his brothers and sisters and his mother. 

When he was a young man of 19 he went on the road as an actor in a play that he also co-wrote with his brother. It was entitled "The Little Tycoon". He met his wife in Oklahoma City in 1905. His wife drank a poison and damaged her vocal chords. He divorced her in 1914.

Five years later Lon moved to California and started working at Universal. From 1913 to 1930 he starred in 150 silent movies. Some of his biggest movies were "The Miracle Man," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and "The Phantom of the Opera." In the movie, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," he put on a 50 pound hump so he could feel the pain of Quasimodo.

Lon's last movie was his first talking movie. In this movie he played a ventriloquist and he used five different voices. Sadly he died on August 26, 1930, two months after making this movie because of a throat hemorrhage.

Lon Chaney is famous because he was a good actor and a great make-up artist. He was called "The Man of a Thousand Faces."

We got our information from the web site written by his great-grandson.