Lon Chaney, Jr.
Lon Chaney Jr. ( born February 10, 1906 in Oklahoma City, † 13 July 1973 in San Clemente, California; Creighton Tull Chaney actually ) was an American theater, film and television actor.
Life
He was the son of silent film star Lon Chaney senior. Like his father, was primarily known for his roles in horror films and Lon Chaney Jr..
The film career of Lon Chaney Jr. began only after the death of his father. He became known in 1940 through the role of simple-minded Lennie in Of Mice and Men, an adaptation of the novel by John Steinbeck. His first horror film turned Lon Chaney Jr. 1941, created by the human monster he played a young fairground artist who is transformed by a mad scientist into a monster that is immune to power. The mad scientist portrayed Lionel Atwill.
He was immortalized in Lon Chaney Jr. in 1941 through the role of Larry Talbot, who turns into a werewolf in the horror film The Wolf Man, which also Bela Lugosi and Claude Rains participated. Lon Chaney Jr. reiterated the role of the werewolf in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in Frankenstein's house, in Dracula's house in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Frankenstein's monster, he played in 1942 in Frankenstein returns and the Count Dracula 1943 Dracula's son.
Even in the 1950s and 1960s Lon Chaney Jr. joined again and again in horror movies. In The Black Castle, he was seen on the side of Boris Karloff, in The Chamber of Horrors Dr. Thosti on the side of Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone and John Carradine. With Vincent Price, he turned the torture chamber of the Witch Hunter, directed by Roger Corman. However, it was difficult to work for his colleagues and directors from the mid-1950s, increasingly with Chaney because he suffered from a serious alcohol addiction, "Get up at noon out of me what is going on, then I guarantee for nothing ," advised he on the authority of Forrest J Ackerman, who in his last film, the horror - drama Dracula's blood Wedding with Frankenstein was involved in Chaney's side, the film crew. For the keen actor himself, the disease-related restrictions were hard to bear, which in turn led to new and heavier drinking.
Otherwise took Lon Chaney Jr. small supporting roles as a villain or petty bourgeoisie in Western as twelve clock noon starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, To the last gasp with Gregory Peck, in retaliation seven balls with Kirk Douglas or incendiaries of Arkansas with Henry Fonda.
1973 Lon Chaney Jr. died of lung cancer. Only a few months later, the same disease also called for the life of Glenn Strange, junior with the Chaney had made several horror films for Universal Studios in the 1940s. The death of both actor marked the final completion of the " golden era " of classic horror cinema.
Lon Chaney Jr. is still the only actor besides Paul Naschy, of Dracula ( Dracula's son ), Frankenstein's Monster ( Frankenstein returns ), the Mummy ( The Mummy's Tomb ) and its parent roll the Wolf Man ( The Wolf Man ) has played.