Lon Chaney, Jr. Of "The Wolf Man" Quiz

Answer: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Lon Chaney, Jr. was born on Feb. 10, 1906, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to vaudeville performers Lon Chaney and Francis Cleveland Creighton (Cleva). As a young child, he alternated between travelling throughout the United States and Canada with his parents or staying with various relatives. He made his stage debut at age six months in one of his father's stage shows.

Answer: False

By 1927, Lon Chaney was one of the biggest stars of the silver screen, but he never forgot the long, lean years when he travelled the vaudeville circuit. Life on the road was not only hard, but the family had sometimes been stranded if a show had closed early. Lon Chaney did not want this uncertain life for his son and always discouraged him from going into acting.

Answer: His mother, Cleva Creighton Chaney, tried to commit suicide.

Cleva Chaney swallowed bichloride of mercury while her husband was on stage at the Majestic Theater on April 30, 1913. Although it did not kill her, it ruined Cleva's singing voice so that she could not longer perform. Lon and Cleva Chaney separated shortly afterwards and divorced in 1915. Lon Chaney was given sole custody of his son.

In 1915, he married Hazel Hastings. Creighton Chaney often stayed with his grandparents, Frank and Emma Chaney, which were both profoundly deaf.

Answer: Two

In 1926, Creighton Chaney (he was not known as Lon Chaney, Jr. until 1935) married Dorothy Hinchley, and had two sons: Lon Ralph Chaney, born on July 3, 1928, and Donald Creighton Chaney, born on Mar. 18, 1930. They divorced in 1936, and he married Patricia Beck on Oct. 1, 1937. They were together until his death in 1973.

Answer: Selling illegal liquor to speakeasies

Lon Chaney had taught his son Creighton the value of hard work from a child. Among the jobs he held before his acting career took off were: newsboy, ice delivery man, farmhand, metal worker, clothing salesman, and a plumber's helper. After his marriage to Dorothy Hinchley, Creighton Chaney worked at the General Water Heater Company for his father-in-law.

In 1932, he signed with RKO Studios and made his movie debut in "Girl Crazy" as an extra, and he appeared in several films for RKO during the 1930's.

Answer: Of Mice and Men

Creighton Chaney wanted to follow his father, Lon Chaney, into acting, but he refused to ask for his father's help or trade on his famous name. He did learn makeup techniques from his famous father but was never really given the chance to create his own makeup.

It was not until 1935 that he finally gave in to pressure from RKO and allowed himself to be billed as Lon Chaney, Jr. In 1939, he played Lennie in the west coast production of "Of Mice and Mice". He so impressed director Hal Roach with his portrayal of the childlike Lennie Small that Roach cast him as Lennie in the movie version.

Answer: No

Lon Chaney was born Leonidas Chaney on April 1, 1883. He was known as "the man of a thousand faces" for his brilliance in creating makeup for the characters he portrayed. Chaney passed away on Aug. 26, 1930, of throat cancer at the height of his career and had just began the crossover from silent movies to "talkies".

Some of his most famous roles where as Quasimodo in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1922) and the Phantom in "Phantom of the Opera" (1925).

Answer: Five

Lon Chaney, Jr. signed with Universal in 1941. He appeared in five Universal movies in the dual roles of Larry Talbot and the werewolf. They are : "The Wolf Man" (1941), "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" (1943), "House of Frankenstein" (1944), "House of Dracula", (1945), and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948).

Answer: True

Lon Chaney, Jr. portrayed the werewolf and Larry Talbot in five films for Universal. He played the Frankenstein monster in "Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942). (When Glenn Strange injured his leg during the filming of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", Lon Chaney, Jr. donned the makeup and filled in as the Frankenstein monster but was not credited).

He played Kharis the mummy in "The Mummy's Tomb" (1942), "The Mummy's Curse", "The Mummy's Ghost" (1944), and he played Count Alucard in "Son of Dracula" (1943).

He was so successful in playing the monster characters that he was nicknamed "the screen's master character creator".

Answer: Their horror characters appeared on United States postage stamps.

A set of five commemorative stamps celebrating the famous Universal monsters were released by the United States Postal Service on Sept. 30, 1997. Featured on the stamps were: Lon Chaney, Jr. as "The Wolf Man", Lon Chaney as the "Phantom of the Opera", Bela Lugosi as "Dracula", and Boris Karloff as "The Mummy", and the monster from "Frankenstein". Lon Chaney, Jr. never reached the stardom of his famous father, but he made several films after his Universal monster films.

He had a very successful television career during the 1950's and 1960's, guest starring on such shows as "Route 66", "The Red Skelton Show", "Rawhide", "Have Gun Will Travel", "Bat Masterson", "Wagon Train", "The Rifleman, and "The Monkees". Lon Chaney, Jr. passed away on July 2, 1973, at San Clemente, California.

As he had requested, his body was donated to USC for scientific research. I hope you have enjoyed my quiz on Lon Chaney, Jr. of "The Wolf Man".