Lon Chaney Jr. (born Creighton Tull Chaney; February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973) was a beloved American character actor who, while following in the footsteps of his legendary father, became a horror icon in his own right, forever immortalized as the tormented Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man.
Though initially reluctant to trade on his father’s fame, he rose to stardom under the Chaney name. He delivered his most critically acclaimed performance as the tragic migrant worker Lennie Small in the 1939 classic Of Mice and Men. Soon after, he became the face of Universal’s second wave of monster movies, most famously as the cursed Wolf Man, a role he would reprise multiple times.
His status as a horror legend is unique, as he is the only actor to have portrayed all four of Universal’s major monsters: the Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s Monster (in The Ghost of Frankenstein), the Mummy, and a vampire (in Son of Dracula). This incredible run cemented his legacy as a true king of the creature feature.
