Lon Chaney Passes

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 August 1930, Page 3

Lon Chaney Passes

NOTED PICTURE CHARACTER ACTOR. Received Tuesday, '11.25 p.m. NEW YORK, Aug. 26. Advice has been received from Los Angeles (California) that Lon Chaney the motion picture character actor, died to-day of pneumonia. : CHANEY—THE MYSTERY MAN. Lon Chaney was the real mystery man of the screen. He was 45 years' of age and was-known as “The Man of a thousand Faces. ’ ’ He has faced starvation—at -first the film producers did not want him—and had risen from being an eccentric dancer in a poorly paid touring company to one of the best character actors of the day. Chaney went to Hollywood in 1912 and had a curious taste for the gruesome, possessing the strangest make-up box of all the stars. Instead of the usual tricks it contained bizarre teeth, tapetor changing the shape and general cut of his ears as well as the slant of his eyes, glass tubes to alter his nose and pads of cotton to build up his mouth. His most-noted pictures included “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “The Miracle Man,” “London After Midnight,” “The Penalty” hud “Laugh Clown Laugh.” He also took the stellar role in the silent'version of “The Phantom of the Opera” and one of his latest was the talkie version of this production.