He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup.
His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname " The Man of a Thousand Faces ". Chaney a barber and Emma Alice Kennedy. His father was of English and French ancestry, and his mother was of Scottish, English, and Irish descent. Both of Chaney's parents were deaf and, as a child of deaf adults , Chaney became skilled in American Sign Language. He entered a stage career in , and began traveling with popular vaudeville and theater acts.
The Chaneys continued touring, settling in California in Marital troubles developed and on April 30, , Cleva went to the Majestic Theatre , where Lon was managing the " Kolb and Dill " show, and attempted suicide by swallowing mercuric chloride.
The time spent there is not clearly known, but between the years and , Chaney worked under contract for Universal Studios doing bit or character parts. His skill with makeup gained him many parts in the highly competitive casting atmosphere. During this time, Chaney befriended the husband-wife director team of Joe De Grasse and Ida May Park , who gave him substantial roles in their pictures and further encouraged him to play macabre characters. In , Chaney married one of his former colleagues in the Kolb and Dill company, a recently divorced chorus girl named Hazel Hastings.
The new couple gained custody of Chaney's year-old son Creighton, who had resided in various homes and boarding schools since Chaney's divorce from Cleva in By , Chaney was a prominent actor in the studio, but his salary did not reflect this status. When Chaney asked for a raise, studio executive William Sistrom replied, "You'll never be worth more than one hundred dollars a week.
