An outstanding American silent film actor who knew how to transform into many personalities, his acting shocked many viewers with his gorgeous cinema images, best of all he was able to play the images of people lonely, unhappy, rejected, often embittered, and even received the nickname "Man of a Thousand Faces." about the legendary Lon Cheney.
Childhood and family
Leonidas Frank Cheney was born on April 1, 1883 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U. S. His father, Frank H. Chain, was of English and French ancestry, and his mother, Emma, Alicia Kennedy, was of Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry. Also, his parents were deaf and dumb, so the boy learned from childhood to communicate using sign language and facial expressions. He also worked part-time in the opera house as a set worker, decorator and property manager, rarely got a role in extras. At the age of 17, he began to play in various theaters, mostly in itinerant variety shows. In 1902, he began to earn money at the Vaudeville Theater and travel with the actors.
First novel and leaving the theater
He found his first love at 22 with the singer Cool Creighton, and soon got married. A year later, their only child was born, the son of Creighton Tull Cheney (later known as Lon Cheney Jr.), who will follow in his father's footsteps. Cheney continued to tour. In 1910, the Cheney family settled in California. But after 8 years of marriage, the relationship between Lon and Kleva began to deteriorate and their marriage finally broke up. Then the ex-wife tried to commit suicide by drinking mercury dichloride. She survived, but could no longer sing. This caused a great resonance in society, and after such a scandalous incident, Lon Cheney had to leave the theater stage and then began working in the cinema. The time interval between 1912 and 1917 is not known for certain, but it is known that Cheney began to make makeup for the Universal studio, where he stood out even in the face of strong competition. Then he began acting in short comedies and met the directors, husband and wife Joe De Grasse and Ida May Park, who gave him significant roles in their films and prompted him to play creepy characters. Subsequently, Lone wrote scripts and directed some of the films in which he starred. Cheney married one of his former Kolb and Dill co-stars, Hazel Hastings. After marriage, the couple received custody of Cheney's 10-year-old son Creighton, who lived in various orphanages and boarding schools after Chani's divorce from Cool in 1913.
Career
He played a wide variety of roles, but best of all he succeeded in the images of people unhappy, lonely, rejected, often embittered and disfigured. His ability to transform and work with makeup was incredible (he even wrote an article about makeup for one of the editions of Encyclopedia Britannica), which, as a result, became one of the sources of his resounding success.
The actor was especially interested in the roles of not only cripples, but also monsters. In the film "Blind Deal", he played the roles of both the experimental professor and the half-man-half-monkey he created. In Notre Dame Cathedral, he played the role of Quasimodo and was undoubtedly the main reason for the tremendous success of this expensive and impressive production. For this role, Cheney built himself an artificial hump weighing more than 20 kilograms; the rest of the pads and fixtures added another 15 kilograms to its weight. Even with such a heavy weight, he moved with incredible dexterity over the huge set, depicting the famous facade of Notre Dame Cathedral.
But the greatest success was accompanied by the film "The Phantom of the Opera", in which Cheney played the role of Eric, as usual, having developed a unique make-up for himself, unprecedented in complexity and, according to eyewitnesses, extremely painful (for example, metal braces inserted into the nostrils caused the actor constant bleeding).
Cheney himself developed a unique make-up, unprecedented in complexity and, according to eyewitnesses, extremely painful, for example, metal braces inserted into the nostrils caused constant bleeding in the actor. However, his imagery sought to evoke sympathy for the characters in viewers, rather than horror or rejection due to an unpleasant appearance. Lon Cheney was also interested in the roles of not only cripples, but also monsters.
Cheney's talents went beyond horror and stage makeup. He was also a highly skilled dancer, singer, and comedian. Ray Bradbury once said of Cheney: “He was the one who influenced our psyche. He somehow penetrated into the dark corners of our soul, he was able to capture our secret fears and show them on the screen. Lon Cheney's story is a story of unrequited love. He openly talks about what you are afraid of, that you are not loved, you are afraid that you will never be loved, you are afraid that there is some part of you, grotesque, from which the whole world will turn its back."
Cheney and his second wife, Hazel, were not in public private life. Cheney has done very little ad campaigns for his films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, deliberately encouraging the mysterious image, and he has reportedly deliberately avoided the social scene in Hollywood.
During the last five years of his film career (1925-1930), Cheney worked exclusively under a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, bringing to life some of his best characters on screen. His role in the film Tell It to the Seamen. (1926), according to Cheney himself, one of his favorite films, in which he played the sailor, Sergeant O'Hare, brought Lone great love to the United States Marine Corps and made him their first honorary member of the film industry. He also earned the respect and admiration of numerous aspiring actors to whom he offered mentorship, and during his breaks on set he always wanted to share his professional insights with the cast and crew.
With the advent of the talkie era, Cheney, unlike many of the stars of the silent era, enthusiastically set about developing new possibilities. He made a dubbed version of The Phantom of the Opera (a new cut was made with specially filmed episodes). Lon Cheney often worked with director Tod Browning, who was associated with the similarity of his biography - Browning lived for a long time in his youth among traveling circus performers. After working together on the film "London After Midnight", which involved the theme of vampirism, they were going to co-produce the film adaptation of "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. This project was carried out by Browning after the death of Cheney - the film "Dracula" was released in 1931. Cheney also developed the chicken-man "special effect" that Browning used in the movie Freaks.
Death
At the age of 47, the actor was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. Fate seemed to punish him for the fact that, being a silent film actor, he suddenly spoke on the screen. The outstanding actor passed away on August 26, 1930 in Los Angeles, his body was buried in the Forest Lawn cemetery. But the memory of the work of the great and unique actor does not fade away in society to this day. In 1957, the film "The Man with a Thousand Faces" was shot based on the facts from the life of the actor, where the role of Cheney was played by James Cagney. And in 1994, the star Lona Cheney appeared on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Heritage
In 1957, a biopic about Lon Cheney, The Man with a Thousand Faces, was released; the role of Cheney in it was played by James Cagney. The son of Lon Cheney Creighton, later began to act in films taking the pseudonym Lon Cheney Jr. A series of 10 stamps dedicated to silent film actors, whose portraits were drawn by the illustrator cartoonist El Hirschfeld, was released in the same year. In October 1997, commemorative postage stamps were issued in the United States featuring characters from classic horror films, including Otsez and Cheney's son, as the Phantom of the Opera and The Wolf Man, respectively. Musician Warren Zivon mentions Cheney's father and son in his song "Werewolves of London." The film is narrated by Kenneth Branagh and produced by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow. In 1994, Lona Cheney was installed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (7046 Hollywood Blvd.)
