Died Today (August 26th): Lon Chaney (1883–1930)

Lon Chaney (1883–1930)

Born: April 1, 1883 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Died: August 26, 1930 (age 47) in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

With the exception of Charles Chaplin, Chaney was the last major silent film star to make a talkie. Assaying five different voices in his first talkie, Chaney signed a notarized statement attesting to the fact that the different voices were his: “I, Lon Chaney, being first duly sworn, depose and say: In the photoplay entitled The Unholy Three (1930), produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation, all voice reproductions which purport to be reproductions of my voice, to wit, the ventriloquist’s, the old woman’s, the dummy’s, the parrot’s, and the girl’s, are actual reproductions of my own voice, and in no place in said photoplay or in any of the various characters portrayed by me in said photoplay was a ‘double’ or substitute used for my voice. Subscribed and…