Lon Chaney, Jr.

References

Images

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Lon Chaney, Jr., as a werewolf in The Wolf Man (1941).

Lon Chaney, Jr.

American actor

Also known as: Creighton Chaney

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

June 24, 2026

Quick Summary

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man — Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man Lon Chaney, Jr. (left), and Bela Lugosi in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), directed by Roy William Neill.

Lon Chaney, Jr. was an American actor who rose to fame with his role as the Wolf Man in the 1941 Universal Pictures horror film of the same name. He is the son of the legendary silent film star Lon Chaney.12

Chaney, Jr. reprised his role as the Wolf Man in four subsequent films. His portrayal of the werewolf significantly influenced popular conceptions of werewolves and lycanthropy. The transformation sequences in these films were complex and required extensive makeup work by artist Jack Pierce.1

Chaney, Jr. also starred in other notable films for Universal Studios. His father, Lon Chaney, was renowned for his versatility and transformative performances in silent films, earning him the nickname "Man of a Thousand Faces".2

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

2 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Lon Chaney
…after changing his name to Lon Chaney, Jr., and portraying notable horror roles for Universal Studios, in particular the title character in The Wolf Man (1941).
Read More
…after changing his name to Lon Chaney, Jr., and portraying notable horror roles for Universal Studios, in particular the title character in The Wolf Man (1941).
Read More

Elliott Nugent
…client, and Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney, Jr., were cast as two thugs. Less successful was Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949), with Clifton Webb reprising his role from Walter Lang’s Sitting Pretty (1948). The Great Gatsby (1949) was Nugent’s well-intentioned but plodding adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel,…
Read More
…client, and Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney, Jr., were cast as two thugs. Less successful was Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949), with Clifton Webb reprising his role from Walter Lang’s Sitting Pretty (1948). The Great Gatsby (1949) was Nugent’s well-intentioned but plodding adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel,…
Read More

The Defiant Ones

Read More

Read More

The Wolf Man
…released in 1941, that made Lon Chaney, Jr., son of legendary silent film star Lon Chaney, a Hollywood celebrity in his own right. The film, one of the many popular monster movies of the 1930s and ’40s produced by Universal Pictures, greatly influenced popular conceptions of werewolves and lycanthropy.
Read More
…released in 1941, that made Lon Chaney, Jr., son of legendary silent film star Lon Chaney, a Hollywood celebrity in his own right. The film, one of the many popular monster movies of the 1930s and ’40s produced by Universal Pictures, greatly influenced popular conceptions of werewolves and lycanthropy.
Read More