# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/lon-chaney
# Generated: 2026-09-07T19:58:45.467Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/lon-chaney"
name: "Lon Chaney"
slug: "lon-chaney"
description: "He made himself unrecognizable before CGI existed — contorting his body, wiring his eyes open, building faces from greasepaint and fish skin. Silent horror's first true monster, and the man inside every mask."
tagline: "American actor (1883–1930)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Lon_Chaney%2C_Sr._The_Miracle_Man.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Actors"
  slug: "actors"
profileType:
  name: "Actor"
  slug: "actor"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q33999"
birthDate: "1883-04-01"
deathDate: "1930-08-26"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           56.24
  momentum:             0
  historical:           23.80464133333334
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     70
  profileCompleteness:  80
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Actors"
    slug: "actors"
  - name: "Actor"
    slug: "actor"
  - name: "Movies"
    slug: "movies"
  - name: "Television"
    slug: "television"
  - name: "Theatre"
    slug: "theatre"
  - name: "Screenwriting"
    slug: "screenwriting"
  - name: "Film Directing"
    slug: "film-directing"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0151606/"
    handle:    "nm0151606"
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "https://lonchaney.com/"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q312656"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Lon%20Chaney"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A"
    title: "لون تشاني"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%AA%D8%B4%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%89"
    title: "لون تشانى"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86_%DA%86%DB%8C%D9%86%DB%8C"
    title: "لان چینی"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney_senior"
    title: "Lon Chaney senior"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9B%CE%BF%CE%BD_%CE%A4%CF%83%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%B5%CF%8A"
    title: "Λον Τσάνεϊ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86_%DA%86%DB%8C%D9%86%DB%8C"
    title: "لان چینی"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney%2C_Sr."
    title: "Lon Chaney, Sr."
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9F_%D7%A6'%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%99"
    title: "לון צ'ייני"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D4%BC%D5%B8%D5%B6_%D5%89%D5%A5%D5%B5%D5%B6%D5%AB"
    title: "Լոն Չեյնի"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/470447"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://an.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon_Chaney"
    title: "Lon Chaney"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4072"
    title: "Lon Chaney Jr."
    type:  "DATABASE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Leonidas Frank Chaney was born April 1, 1883, and spent the silent era proving that transformation was an art form. He developed makeup techniques no one had seen, earning the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces" by becoming characters so tortured and grotesque that audiences forgot the actor underneath. The starring turns that defined him came in 1923's The Hunchback of Notre Dame and 1925's The Phantom of the Opera — roles that demanded he disappear into affliction and disfigurement. His power wasn't just in the prosthetics but in the humanity he found inside them. Chaney died August 26, 1930, and every film he made now sits in the public domain, free to watch.