name	Lon Chaney
birth name	Leonidas Frank Chaney
birth date	April 01, 1883
birth place	Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.
death date	August 26, 1930
death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S. Interred: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter
years active	1902–1930
spouse	Cleva Creighton (1906–1915)Hazel Hastings (1915–1930) }}

Lon Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor during the age of silent films. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted characters, and his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney is known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' and ''The Phantom of the Opera''. His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces."

Early life

Lon Chaney was born Leonidas Frank Chaney in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Frank H. Chaney and Emma Alice Kennedy; his father had mostly English and some French ancestry, and his mother was of Scottish, English, and Irish descent. Her father, Jonathan Ralston Kennedy, founded the "Colorado School for the Education of Mutes" (now, Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind) in 1874, and Chaney's parents met there. Both of Chaney's parents were deaf, and as a child of deaf adults Chaney became skilled in pantomime. He entered a stage career in 1902, and began traveling with popular Vaudeville and theater acts. In 1905, he met and married 16-year-old singer Cleva Creighton (Frances Cleveland Creighton) and in 1906, their first child and only son, Creighton Chaney (a.k.a. Lon Chaney, Jr.) was born. The Chaneys continued touring, settling in California in 1910.

Marital troubles developed and in April 1913, Cleva went to the Majestic Theater in downtown Los Angeles, where Lon was managing the ''Kolb and Dill'' show, and attempted suicide by swallowing mercuric chloride. The suicide attempt failed and ruined her singing career; the ensuing scandal and divorce forced Chaney out of the theater and into film.

The time spent there is not clearly known, but between the years 1912 and 1917, Chaney worked under contract for Universal Studios doing bit or character parts. His skill with makeup gained him many parts in the highly competitive casting atmosphere. During this time, Chaney befriended the husband-wife director team of Joe De Grasse and Ida May Park, who gave him substantial roles in their pictures, and further encouraged him to play macabre characters.

Chaney married one of his former colleagues in the ''Kolb and Dill'' company tour, a chorus girl named Hazel Hastings. Little is known of Hazel, except that her marriage to Chaney was solid. Upon marrying, the new couple gained custody of Chaney's 10-year-old son Creighton, who had resided in various homes and boarding schools since Chaney's divorce in 1913.

Career

By 1917 Chaney was a prominent actor in the studio, but his salary did not reflect this status. When Chaney asked for a raise, studio executive William Sistrom replied, "You'll never be worth more than one hundred dollars a week."

After leaving the studio, Chaney struggled for the first year as a character actor. It was not until 1918 when playing a substantial role in William S. Hart's picture, ''Riddle Gawne'', that Chaney's talents as a character actor were truly recognized by the industry.

In 1917 Universal presented Chaney, Dorothy Phillips, and William Stowell as a team in ''The Piper's Price''. In succeeding films, the men alternated playing lover, villain, or other man to the beautiful Phillips. They would occasionally be joined by Claire DuBrey nearly making the trio a quartet of recurring actors from film to film. So successful were the films starring this group that Universal produced fourteen films from 1917 to 1919 with Chaney, Stowell, and Phillips. The films were usually directed by Joe De Grasse or his wife Ida May Park, both friends of Chaney's at Universal. When Chaney was away branching out on films such as ''Riddle Gawne'' and ''The Kaiser, Beast of Berlin'', Stowell and Phillips would continue on as a duo until Chaney's return. Stowell and Phillips made ''The Heart of Humanity'' (1918), bringing in Eric von Stroheim for a part as the villain that could easily have been played by Chaney. ''Paid in Advance'' (1919) was the group's last film together, for the chiseled featured Stowell was sent to Africa by Universal to scout locations for a movie. En route from one city to another, Stowell was in the caboose when it was hit by the locomotive from another train; he was killed instantly. The majority of these films are lost but a few, including ''Triumph'' and ''Paid in Advance'' survive in private collections or unrestored in European or Russian archives.

In 1919, Chaney had a breakthrough performance as "The Frog" in George Loane Tucker's ''The Miracle Man''. The film displayed not only Chaney's acting ability, but also his talent as a master of makeup. Critical praise and a gross of over $2 million put Chaney on the map as America's foremost character actor.

He exhibited great adaptability with makeup in more conventional crime and adventure films, such as ''The Penalty'', in which he played an amputee gangster. Chaney appeared in 10 films directed by Tod Browning, often portraying disguised and/or mutilated characters, including carnival knife-thrower Alonzo the Armless in ''The Unknown'' (1927) opposite Joan Crawford. In 1927, Chaney co-starred with Conrad Nagel, Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall and Polly Moran in the Tod Browning horror film, ''London After Midnight'', considered one of the most legendary lost films. His final cinema role was a sound remake of his silent classic ''The Unholy Three'' (1930), his only "talkie" and the only film in which Chaney utilized his versatile voice. The actor signed a sworn statement declaring that five of the key voices in the film (the ventriloquist, the old woman, a parrot, the dummy and the girl) were his own.

In Quasimodo, the bell ringer of Notre Dame, and Erik, the "phantom" of the Paris Opera House, Chaney created two of the most grotesquely deformed characters in film history. However, the portrayals sought to elicit a degree of sympathy and pathos among viewers not overwhelmingly terrified or repulsed by the monstrous disfigurements of these victims of fate.

"I wanted to remind people that the lowest types of humanity may have within them the capacity for supreme self-sacrifice," Chaney wrote in an autobiographical article published in 1925 in ''Movie'' magazine. "The dwarfed, misshapen beggar of the streets may have the noblest ideals. Most of my roles since ''The Hunchback,'' such as ''The Phantom of the Opera'', ''He Who Gets Slapped'', ''The Unholy Three,'' etc., have carried the theme of self-sacrifice or renunciation. These are the stories which I wish to do."

"He was someone who acted out our psyches. He somehow got into the shadows inside our bodies; he was able to nail down some of our secret fears and put them on-screen," Ray Bradbury once explained. "The history of Lon Chaney is the history of unrequited loves. He brings that part of you out into the open, because you fear that you are not loved, you fear that you never will be loved, you fear there is some part of you that's grotesque, that the world will turn away from."

In his 1925 ''Movie'' magazine article, Chaney referred to his expertise in both make-up and contorting his body to portray his subjects as "extraordinary characterization." Chaney's talents extended beyond the horror genre and stage makeup. He was also a highly skilled dancer, singer and comedian. Many who did not know Chaney were surprised by his rich baritone voice and his sharp comedic skills. Chaney and his second wife Hazel led a discreet private life distant from the Hollywood social scene. Chaney did minimal promotional work for his films and for MGM Studios, purposefully fostering a mysterious image, and he reportedly intentionally avoided the social scene in Hollywood.

In the final five years of his film career (1925–1930), Chaney worked exclusively under contract to MGM, giving some of his most memorable performances. His portrayal of a tough-as-nails marine drill instructor in ''Tell It to the Marines'' (1926), one of his favorite films, earned him the affection of the US Marine Corps, who made him their first honorary member from the motion picture industry. He also earned the respect and admiration of numerous aspiring actors, to whom he offered mentoring assistance, and between takes on film sets he was always willing to share his professional observations with the cast and crew.

Death

During the filming of ''Thunder'' in the winter of 1929, Chaney developed pneumonia. In late 1929 he was diagnosed with bronchial lung cancer. This was exacerbated when artificial snow, made out of cornflakes, lodged in his throat during filming and quickly created a serious infection. Despite aggressive treatment, his condition gradually worsened, and seven weeks after the release of the remake of ''The Unholy Three'', he died of a throat hemorrhage. His death was deeply mourned by his family, the film industry and by his fans. The US Marine Corps provided a chaplain and Honor Guard for his funeral. He was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, in Glendale, California, next to the crypt of his father. His wife Hazel was interred there upon her death in 1933. For unknown reasons, Chaney's crypt has remained unmarked.

Legacy

In 1957, Chaney was the subject of a biopic titled ''Man of a Thousand Faces'', and was portrayed by James Cagney. Though much of the plot was fictional, the film was a moving tribute to Chaney and helped boost his posthumous fame. During his lifetime, Chaney had boasted he would make it difficult for biographers to portray his life, saying that "between pictures, there is no Lon Chaney." This was in line with the air of mystery he purposefully fostered around his makeup and performances.

Lon Chaney has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1994, he was honored by having his image designed by noted caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, placed on a United States postage stamp. The stage theater at the Colorado Springs Civic Auditorium is named after Lon Chaney. In 1929, Chaney built an impressive stone cabin in the remote wilderness of the eastern Sierra Nevada, near Big Pine, California, as a retreat. The cabin (designed by architect Paul Williams) still stands, and is preserved by the Inyo National Forest Service.

Chaney's son Creighton, renamed Lon Chaney, Jr., became a film actor after his father's death, and is best remembered for roles in horror films, especially ''The Wolf Man''. The Chaneys appeared on US postage stamps as the Phantom of the Opera and the Wolf Man, with the set completed by Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster and The Mummy. He and his son are mentioned in the Warren Zevon song "Werewolves of London".

Following his death, Chaney's famous makeup case was donated by his wife Hazel to the Los Angeles County Museum, where it is sometimes displayed for the public. Makeup artist and Chaney biographer Michael Blake considers Chaney's case the most important artifact in the history of film makeup.

In 1978, Gene Simmons of the rock band KISS wrote a song about Lon Chaney called "Man of 1,000 Faces" for his first solo album. Simmons had been influenced by the old black and white classic horror movies growing up in New York City.

An episode of ''The New Scooby Doo Movies'' entitled "The Exterminator" has a tribute to Lon Chaney as mysterious master of disguise actor "Lorne Chumley" and his butler "Otto" (as a tribute to Erich von Stroheim).

Horror Illogium, guitarist of the Australian extreme metal band Portal, stated that Lon Chaney in a few of his roles was the ideal figure for what the band wanted to portray to its imagery and sound.

Chaney is the subject of a documentary feature called ''Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces'' (2000), produced by silent film expert Kevin Brownlow and narrated by Kenneth Branagh.

Filmography

''The Honor of the Family'' (1912) (uncredited)

''The Ways of Fate'' (1913)

''Suspense'' (1913) (unconfirmed)

''Shon the Piper'' (1913)

''The Blood Red Tape of Charity'' (1913)

''The Restless Spirit'' (1913) (uncredited)

''Poor Jake's Demise'' (1913)

''The Sea Urchin'' (1913)

''The Trap'' (1913)

''Almost an Actress'' (1913)

''An Elephant on His Hands'' (1913)

''Back to Life'' (1913)

''Red Margaret, Moonshiner'' (1913)

''Bloodhounds of the North'' (1913)

''The Lie'' (1914)

''The Honor of the Mounted'' (1914)

''Remember Mary Magdalen'' (1914)

''Discord and Harmony'' (1914)

''The Menace to Carlotta'' (1914)

''The Embezzler'' (1914)

''The Lamb, the Woman, the Wolf'' (1914)

''The End of the Feud'' (1914)

''The Tragedy of Whispering Creek'' (1914)

''The Unlawful Trade'' (1914)

''Heartstrings'' (1914)

''The Forbidden Room'' (1914)

''The Old Cobbler'' (1914)

''The Hopes of Blind Alley'' (1914)

''A Ranch Romance'' (1914)

''Her Grave Mistake'' (1914)

''By the Sun's Rays'' (1914)

''The Oubliette'' (1914)

''A Miner's Romance'' (1914)

''Her Bounty'' (1914)

''The Higher Law'' (1914)

''Richelieu'' (1914)

''The Pipes o' Pan'' (1914)

''Virtue Is Its Own Reward'' (1914)

''Her Life's Story'' (1914)

''Lights and Shadows'' (1914)

''The Lion, the Lamb, the Man'' (1914)

''A Night of Thrills'' (1914)

''Her Escape'' (1914)

''The Sin of Olga Brandt'' (1915)

''The Star of the Sea'' (1915)

''A Small Town Girl'' (1915)

''The Measure of a Man'' (1915)

''The Threads of Fate'' (1915)

''When the Gods Played a Badger Game'' (1915)

''Such Is Life'' (1915)

''Where the Forest Ends'' (1915)

''Outside the Gates'' (1915)

''All for Peggy'' (1915)

''The Desert Breed'' (1915)

''Maid of the Mist'' (1915)

''The Grind'' (1915)

''The Girl of the Night'' (1915)

''The Stool Pigeon'' (1915 – also directed)

''For Cash'' (1915 – directed only)

''An Idyll of the Hills'' (1915)

''The Stronger Mind'' (1915)

''The Oyster Dredger'' (1915 – also directed)

''Steady Company'' (1915)

''The Violin Maker'' (1915 – also directed)

''The Trust'' (1915 – also directed)

''Bound on the Wheel'' (1915)

''Mountain Justice'' (1915)

''Quits'' (1915)

''The Chimney's Secret'' (1915 – also directed)

''The Pine's Revenge'' (1915)

''The Fascination of the Fleur de Lis'' (1915)

''Alas and Alack'' (1915)

''A Mother's Atonement'' (1915)

''Lon of Lone Mountain'' (1915)

''The Millionaire Paupers'' (1915)

''Under a Shadow'' (1915)

''Father and the Boys'' (1915)

''Stronger Than Death'' (1915)

''Dolly's Scoop'' (1916)

''The Grip of Jealousy'' (1916)

''Tangled Hearts'' (1916)

''The Gilded Spider'' (1916)

''Bobbie of the Ballet'' (1916)

''The Grasp of Greed'' (1916)

''The Mark of Cain'' (1916)

''If My Country Should Call'' (1916)

''Felix on the Job'' (1916)

''The Place Beyond the Winds'' (1916)

''Accusing Evidence'' (1916)

''The Price of Silence'' (1916)

''The Piper's Price'' (1917)

''Hell Morgan's Girl'' (1917)

''The Mask of Love'' (1917)

''The Girl in the Checkered Coat'' (1917)

''The Flashlight'' (1917)

''A Doll's House'' (1917)

''Fires of Rebellion'' (1917)

''The Rescue'' (1917)

''Pay Me!'' (1917)

''Triumph'' (1917)

''The Empty Gun'' (1917)

''Anything Once'' (1917)

''The Scarlet Car'' (1917)

''The Grand Passion'' (1918)

''Broadway Love'' (1918)

''The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin'' (1918)

''Fast Company'' (1918)

''A Broadway Scandal'' (1918)

''Riddle Gawne'' (1918)

''That Devil, Bateese'' (1918)

''The Talk of the Town'' (1918)

''Danger, Go Slow'' (1918)

''The Wicked Darling'' (1919)

''The False Faces'' (1919)

''A Man's Country'' (1919)

''Paid in Advance'' (1919)

''The Miracle Man'' (1919)

''When Bearcat Went Dry'' (1919)

''Victory'' (1919)

''Daredevil Jack'' (1920)

''Treasure Island'' (1920)

''The Gift Supreme'' (1920)

''Nomads of the North'' (1920)

''The Penalty'' (1920)

''Outside the Law'' (1920)

''For Those We Love'' (1921)

''Bits of Life'' (1921)

''The Ace of Hearts'' (1921)

''The Trap'' (1922)

''Voices of the City'' (1922)

''Flesh and Blood'' (1922)

''The Light in the Dark'' (1922)

''Oliver Twist'' (1922)

''Shadows'' (1922)

''Quincy Adams Sawyer'' (1922)

''A Blind Bargain'' (1922)

''All the Brothers Were Valiant'' (1923)

''While Paris Sleeps'' (1923)

''The Shock'' (1923)

''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1923)

''The Next Corner'' (1924)

''He Who Gets Slapped'' (1924)

''The Monster'' (1925)

''The Unholy Three'' (1925)

''The Phantom of the Opera'' (1925)

''The Tower of Lies'' (1925)

''The Blackbird'' (1926)

''The Road to Mandalay'' (1926)

''Tell It to the Marines'' (1926)

''Mr. Wu'' (1927)

''The Unknown'' (1927)

''Mockery'' (1927)

''London After Midnight'' (1927)

''The Big City'' (1928)

''Laugh, Clown, Laugh'' (1928)

''While the City Sleeps'' (1928)

''West of Zanzibar'' (1928)

''Where East is East'' (1929)

''Thunder'' (1929)

''The Unholy Three'' (1930)

References

Further reading

''The First Male Stars: Men of the Silent Era'' by David W. Menefee. Albany: Bear Manor Media, 2007.

External links

Official Chaney family website

Photographs of Lon Chaney

Category:1883 births Category:1930 deaths Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of French descent Category:American film actors Category:American silent film actors Category:American film directors Category:Silent film directors Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:People from Colorado Springs, Colorado Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Honorary United States Marines Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:American people of Irish descent

ca:Lon Chaney da:Lon Chaney de:Lon Chaney senior et:Lon Chaney el:Λον Τσάνεϊ es:Lon Chaney eu:Lon Chaney fa:لان چنی fr:Lon Chaney gl:Lon Chaney it:Lon Chaney nl:Lon Chaney sr. ja:ロン・チェイニー no:Lon Chaney sr. pl:Lon Chaney pt:Lon Chaney ru:Чейни, Лон simple:Lon Chaney, Sr. sh:Lon Chaney Senior fi:Lon Chaney, Sr. sv:Lon Chaney zh:朗·钱尼

Lon Chaney may refer to:

Lon Chaney, Sr. (1883–1930)

Lon Chaney, Jr. (1906–1973)

See also

Chaney

de:Lon Chaney sh:Lon Chaney

name	Dwight Frye
birth name	Dwight Iliff Fry
birth date	February 22, 1899
birth place	Salina, Kansas, U.S.
death date	November 07, 1943
death place	Hollywood, CA, U.S.
years active	1922-43
spouse	Laura Mae Bullivant (1928-1943) his death
child	Dwight David Frye }}

Dwight Iliff Frye (February 22, 1899 – November 7, 1943) was an American stage and screen actor, noted for his appearances in the classic horror films ''Dracula'' (1931), ''Frankenstein'' (1931), ''The Invisible Man'' (1933), and ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935).

Early life and career

Frye was born in Salina, Kansas. Nicknamed "The Man with the Thousand-Watt Stare" and "The Man of a Thousand Deaths", he specialized in the portrayal of mentally unbalanced characters, including his signature role, the madman Renfield in Tod Browning's 1931 version of ''Dracula''. Later that same year he also played the hunchbacked assistant in the film ''Frankenstein''. (This character, named Fritz, is often mistakenly referred to as Ygor, a character originated by Bela Lugosi in the later film ''Son of Frankenstein''.)

Frye also portrayed Wilmer Cook (the "gunsel") in the original movie version of Dashiell Hammett's ''The Maltese Falcon'' in 1931, the role later played by Elisha Cook, Jr. in the remake a decade later.

Frye had a prominent role in the horror film ''The Vampire Bat'' (1933), starring Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Fay Wray, in which he played Herman, a half-wit suspected of being a killer.

He also had memorable roles in ''The Invisible Man'' (1933) as a reporter, ''The Crime of Dr. Crespi'' (1935), and in the classic ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935), in which he played Karl. The part of Karl was originally much longer and many extra scenes of Frye were shot as a sub plot but were edited out of the final version to shorten the running time as well as to appease the censor boards. The most memorable of these "cut scenes" was that of Karl killing the Burgomaster portrayed by E. E. Clive. No known prints of these scenes survive today, but photographs of the scene were used to illustrate the scene's synopsis and are included in the recent Universal Studios DVD release of the film.

During the early 1940s, Frye alternated between film roles and appearing on stage in a variety of productions ranging from comedies to musicals, as well as appearing in a stage version of ''Dracula''. In 1924 he played the Son in a translation of Luigi Pirandello's ''Six Characters in Search of an Author''. There was a Dwight Frye Fan Club at one time, but it is currently dormant. He also made a contribution to the war effort by working nights as a tool designer for Lockheed Aircraft.

Death

Frye's strong resemblance to former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker helped land him what would have been a substantial role in the biopic ''Wilson'' (1944), based on the life of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, but he died of a heart attack while riding on a bus in Hollywood a few days before filming was to have begun.

Frye was interred in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

Cultural references

The shock rock group Alice Cooper included a song entitled "Ballad of Dwight Fry" (without the final "e") on their 1971 album ''Love It to Death''. It is sung from the point of view of a character such as the actor might have played.

The music company Wind-Up Entertainment Inc. houses one music publishing concern called Renfield Music Publishing, and another called Dwight Frye Music, which publishes artists such as Evanescence and Creed.

Dwight Frye, along with Helen Chandler, his co-star in the 1931 film ''Dracula'', both appear as characters in Donald Jeffries' 2007 science fiction/fantasy novel ''The Unreals''.

Jello Biafra mentions Dwight Frye in the lyrics to "BUY MY SNAKE OIL" off of the 1994 record with Mojo Nixon titled '''PRAIRIE HOME INVASION. It goes as follows, "...C'mon and buy my snake oil, til my well runs stinking dry. I'll be your Rondo Hatton, I'll be your Dwight Frye..."

References

External links

Category:American film actors Category:American stage actors Category:Actors from Kansas Category:1899 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:People from Salina, Kansas Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

da:Dwight Frye de:Dwight Frye et:Dwight Frye eo:Dwight Frye fr:Dwight Frye it:Dwight Frye pt:Dwight Frye ru:Фрай, Дуайт fi:Dwight Frye

birth name	Creighton Tull Chaney
birth date	February 10, 1906
birth place	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
death date	July 12, 1973
death place	San Clemente, California
occupation	Actor
years active	1931-1971
spouse	Dorothy Hinckley (m.1928-1937; divorced; 2 children) Patsy Beck (m.1937-1973; his death) }}

Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973), born Creighton Tull Chaney, was an American character actor. He was best known for his roles in monster films and as the son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney. He is notable for portraying Lennie Small in ''Of Mice and Men'' and Larry Talbot in ''The Wolf Man''.

Originally credited in films as Creighton Chaney, he was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935. Chaney had English, French and Irish ancestry.

Early life

Creighton was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the son of silent film star Lon Chaney and Frances Cleveland Creighton Chaney, a singing stage performer who traveled in road shows across the country with Creighton. His parents' troubled marriage ended in divorce in 1913 following his mother's scandalous public suicide attempt in Los Angeles. Young Creighton lived in various homes and boarding schools until 1916, when his father (now employed in films) married Hazel Hastings and could provide a stable home. Many articles and biographies over the years report that Creighton was led to believe his mother had died while he was a boy, and was only made aware she lived after his father's death in 1930. Lon always maintained he had a tough childhood.

From an early age, he worked hard to get out of his famous father's shadow. In young adulthood, his father discouraged him from show business, and he attended business college and became successful in a Los Angeles appliance corporation.

Career

It was only after his father's death that Chaney started acting in movies, beginning with an uncredited role in the 1932 film ''Girl Crazy''. He appeared in films under his real name until 1935, when he began to be billed as "Lon Chaney, Jr." From 1942 onward, he was billed simply as "Lon Chaney," although the "Jr." was often added by others when they referred to him. Chaney first achieved stardom and critical acclaim in the 1939 feature film version of ''Of Mice and Men'', in which he played Lennie Small. Chaney was asked to test for the role of Quasimodo for the 1939 remake of ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame''. The role went to Charles Laughton.

With his third-billed character role in ''One Million B.C.'' as Victor Mature's caveman father, Chaney began to be viewed as a character actor in the mold of his father. He had in fact designed a swarthy, ape-like Neanderthal make-up on himself for the film, but production decisions and union rules prevented him from following through on emulating his father in that fashion. Put under contract by Universal Pictures Co. Inc., Chaney was cast in ''Man Made Monster'', a science-fiction horror thriller originally written with Karloff in mind. This led to Chaney's signature role in ''The Wolf Man'' for Universal, a role which would typecast him for the rest of his life. He maintained a career at Universal horror movies over the next few years, replaying the Wolf Man in ''Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'', ''House of Frankenstein'', ''House of Dracula'', ''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'', Frankenstein's monster in ''The Ghost of Frankenstein'', Kharis the mummy in ''The Mummy's Tomb'', ''The Mummy's Ghost'' and ''The Mummy's Curse''. He also played the title character in ''Son of Dracula''. Chaney is thus the only actor to portray all four of Universal's major monsters: the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, and the vampire son of Count Dracula. Universal also starred him in a series of psychological mysteries associated with the ''Inner Sanctum'' radio series. He also played western heroes, such as in the serial ''Overland Mail'', but the imposing 6-foot 2-inch, 220-pound actor more often appeared as heavies. After leaving Universal, where he made 30 films, he worked primarily in character roles in notable films like ''High Noon'' and ''Casanova's Big Night'', and in more prominent roles in lower-budget films and television shows. He also appeared on stage, notably in productions of ''Born Yesterday'' in the role Broderick Crawford originated on stage.

He also established himself as a favorite of producer Stanley Kramer, taking key supporting roles in the western ''High Noon'' (1952) (starring Gary Cooper), ''Not as a Stranger'' (1955), a hospital melodrama featuring Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra, and ''The Defiant Ones'' (1958, starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier). Kramer told the press at the time that whenever a script came in with a role too difficult for most actors in Hollywood, he called Chaney.

One of his most talked-about roles was a live television version of ''Frankenstein'' on the anthology series ''Tales of Tomorrow'', for which he showed up drunk. During the live broadcast, Chaney, playing the Monster, apparently thought it was just a rehearsal and he would pick up furniture that he was supposed to break, only to gingerly put it back down while muttering, "I saved it for you."

He became quite popular with baby boomers after Universal released its back catalog of horror films to television in 1957 and ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' magazine regularly focused on his films. In 1957, Chaney went to Ontario, Canada, to costar in the first ever American-Canadian television production, as Chingachgook in ''Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans'', suggested by James Fenimore Cooper's stories. The series ended after 39 episodes. That same year, Universal released the popular film biography of his father, ''Man of a Thousand Faces'', featuring a semi-fictonalized version of Creighton's life story from his birth up until his father's death. Roger Smith played the young Creighton. He appeared in a 1958 episode of the western series ''Tombstone Territory'' titled "The Black Marshal from Deadwood", and appeared in westerns such as ''Rawhide''.

In the 1960s, Chaney's career ran the gamut from horror productions such as Roger Corman's ''The Haunted Palace'' and big-studio Westerns such as ''Welcome to Hard Times'', to such bottom-of-the-barrel fodder as ''Hillbillys in a Haunted House'' and ''Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors'' (both 1967). His bread-and-butter work during this decade was television — where he made guest appearances on everything from ''Wagon Train'' to ''The Monkees'' — and in a string of supporting roles in low-budget Westerns produced by A. C. Lyles for Paramount. In 1962 Chaney got a brief chance to play Quasimodo in a simulalcrum of his father's make-up, as well as return to his roles of the Mummy and the Wolf Man on the television series ''Route 66'' with friends Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. During this era, he starred in Jack Hill's ''Spider Baby'' (filmed 1964, released 1968), for which he also sang the title song.

In later years he battled throat cancer and chronic heart disease among other aliments after decades of heavy drinking and smoking. In his final horror film, ''Dracula vs. Frankenstein'' (1971), directed by Al Adamson, he played Groton, Dr. Frankenstein's mute henchman. He filmed his part in the spring of 1969, and shortly thereafter filmed his final film role, also for Adamson, in ''The Female Bunch''. Due to illness he retired from acting to concentrate on a book about the Chaney family legacy, ''A Century of Chaneys'', which remains to date unpublished in any form. His grandson, Ron Chaney, was working on completing this project.

Personal life

Married twice, Chaney had two sons, Lon Ralph Chaney (born July 3, 1928) and Ronald Creighton Chaney (born March 18, 1930), both now deceased. He is survived by a grandson, Ron Chaney, who attends film conventions and discusses his grandfather's life and film career. Ron Chaney was featured on the ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' program on October 29, 2006.

Chaney was well liked by his co-workers — "sweet" is the adjective that most commonly emerges from people who acted with him — yet he was capable of intense dislikes. For instance, he and frequent co-star Evelyn Ankers did not get along at all despite their on-camera chemistry.

Chaney is also said to have had a belligerent relationship with actor Martin Kosleck; years after the fact, Kosleck explained this as a case of jealousy over Kosleck's (self-described) superior talent.

Chaney had run-ins with actor Frank Reicher (whom he nearly strangled on camera in ''The Mummy's Ghost'') and director Robert Siodmak (over whose head Chaney broke a vase). Actor Robert Stack claimed in his 1980 biography that Chaney and drinking buddy Broderick Crawford were known as "the monsters" around the Universal Pictures lot because of their drunken behavior that frequently resulted in bloodshed.

Death

Chaney died of heart failure at age 67 on July 12, 1973 in San Clemente, California. His body was donated for medical research.

He was honored by appearing as the Wolf Man on one of a 1997 series of United States postage stamps depicting movie monsters.

Biography

'Lon Chaney JR, Horror Film Star, 1906-1973' published 1996, ISBN 0-7864-1813-3

Filmography

This is a list of known Lon Chaney, Jr. theatrical films broken down by decade. Television appearances are listed separately.

1920s

''The Trap'' (1922) (Hand Only)

1930s

''The Galloping Ghost'' (1931)

''Girl Crazy'' (1932)

''The Roadhouse Murders'' (1932)

''Bird of Paradise'' (1932)

''The Most Dangerous Game'' (1932)

''The Last Frontier'' (1932)

''The Black Ghost'' (1932)

''Lucky Devils'' (1933)

''The Three Musketeers'' (1933)

''Son of the Border'' (1933)

''Scarlet River'' (1933)

''Sixteen Fathoms Deep'' (1934)

''The Life of Vergie Winters'' (1934)

''Girl o' My Dreams'' (1934)

''The Marriage Bargain'' (1935)

''Hold 'Em Yale'' (1935)

''A Scream in the Night'' (1935)

''Accent on Youth'' (1935)

''The Shadow of Silk Lennox'' (1935)

''The Singing Cowboy'' (1936)

''Undersea Kingdom'' (1936)

''Ace Drummond'' (1936)

''Killer at Large'' (1936)

''Rose Bowl'' (1936)

''The Old Corral'' (1936)

''Cheyenne Rides Again'' (1937)

''Love Is News'' (1937)

''Midnight Taxi'' (1937)

''Secret Agent X-9'' (1937)

''That I May Live'' (1937)

''This Is My Affair'' (1937)

''Angel's Holiday'' (1937)

''Born Reckless'' (1937)

''Wild and Woolly'' (1937)

''The Lady Escapes'' (1937)

''One Mile From Heaven'' (1937)

''Thin Ice'' (1937)

''Charlie Chan on Broadway'' (1937)

''Life Begins in College'' (1937)

''Wife, Doctor, and Nurse'' (1937)

''Second Honeymoon'' (1937)

''Checkers'' (1937)

''Love and Hisses'' (1937)

''City Girl'' (1938)

''Happy Landing'' (1938)

''Sally, Irene and Mary'' (1938)

''Mr. Moto's Gamble'' (1938)

''Walking Down Broadway'' (1938)

''Alexander's Ragtime Band'' (1938)

''Josette'' (1938)

''Speed to Burn'' (1938)

''Passport Husband'' (1938)

''Straight Place and Show'' (1938)

''Submarine Patrol'' (1938)

''Road Demon'' (1938)

''Jesse James'' (1939)

''Union Pacific'' (1939)

''Charlie Chan in City in Darkness'' (1939)

''Of Mice and Men'' (1939)

''Frontier Marshal'' (1939)

1940s

''North West Mounted Police'' (1940)

''One Million B.C.'' (1940)

''Too Many Blondes'' (1941)

''Billy the Kid'' (1941)

''Man Made Monster'' (1941)

''San Antonio Rose'' (1941)

''Riders of Death Valley'' (1941)

''Badlands of South Dakota'' (1941)

''The Wolf Man'' (1941)

''North to the Klondike'' (1941)

''Overland Mail'' (1942)

''The Ghost of Frankenstein'' (1942)

''Keeping Fit'' (1942)

''Eyes of the Underworld'' (1942)

''The Mummy's Tomb'' (1942)

''Frontier Badmen'' (1943)

''Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man'' (1943)

''What We Are Fighting For'' (1943)

''Son of Dracula'' (1943)

''Crazy House'' (1943)

''Calling Dr. Death'' (1943)

''Weird Woman'' (1944)

''The Mummy's Ghost'' (1944)

''Cobra Woman'' (1944)

''The Ghost Catchers'' (1944)

''Dead Man's Eyes'' (1944)

''House of Frankenstein'' (1944)

''The Mummy's Curse'' (1944)

''Here Come The Co-Eds'' (1945)

''The Frozen Ghost'' (1945)

''Strange Confession'' (1945)

''House of Dracula'' (1945)

''The Daltons Ride Again'' (1945)

''Pillow of Death'' (1945)

''Desert Command'' (1946)

''My Favorite Brunette'' (1947)

''Laguna U.S.A.'' (1947)

''Albuquerque'' (1948)

''The Counterfeiters'' (1948)

''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'' (1948)

''16 Fathoms Deep'' (1948)

1950s

''Captain China'' (1950)

''There's a Girl In My Heart'' (1950)

''Once a Thief'' (1950)

''Inside Straight'' (1951)

''Bride of the Gorilla'' (1951)

''Only the Valiant'' (1951)

''Behave Yourself!'' (1951)

''Flame of Araby'' (1951)

''The Bushwhackers'' (1952)

''The Thief of Damascus'' (1952)

''Battles of Chief Pontiac'' (1952)

''High Noon'' (1952)

''Springfield Rifle'' (1952)

''The Black Castle'' (1952)

''Raiders of the Seven Seas'' (1953)

''Bandit Island'' (1953)

''A Lion Is in the Streets'' (1953)

''The Boy from Oklahoma'' (1954)

''Casanova's Big Night'' (1954)

''The Big Chase'' (1954)

''Passion'' (1954)

''The Black Pirates'' (1954)

''Jivaro'' (1954)

''Big House, U.S.A.'' (1955)

''I Died a Thousand Times'' (1955)

''The Indian Fighter'' (1955)

''Not as a Stranger'' (1955)

''The Silver Star'' (1955)

''The Black Sleep'' (1956)

''Indestructible Man'' (1956)

''Manfish'' (1956)

''Pardners'' (1956)

''Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer'' (1956)

''The Cyclops'' (1957)

''The Defiant Ones'' (1958)

''The Alligator People'' (1959)

''Money, Women, and Guns'' (1959)

1960s

''House of Terror'' (1960)

''The Phantom'' (1961)

''The Devil's Messenger'' (1961)

''Rebellion in Cuba'' (1961)

''The Haunted Palace'' (1963)

''Face of the Screaming Werewolf'' (1964)

''Law of the Lawless'' (1964)

''Witchcraft'' (1964)

''Stage to Thunder Rock'' (1964)

''Spider Baby'' (1964)

''House of Black Death'' (1965)

''Young Fury'' (1965)

''Black Spurs'' (1965)

''Town Tamer'' (1965)

''Johnny Reno'' (1966)

''Apache Uprising'' (1966)

''Welcome to Hard Times'' (1967)

''Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors'' (1967)

''Hillbillys in a Haunted House''(1967)

''The Far Out West'' (1967)

''Cannibal'' (1968)

''Buckskin'' (1968)

''The Fireball Jungle'' (1969)

''The Female Bunch'' (1969)

''A Stranger in Town'' (1969)

1970s

''Dracula vs. Frankenstein'' (1971)

Selected television appearances

''Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans'' (1957) - Chaney was a regular on this television series, portraying the role of Chingachgook

''Along the Mohawk Trail'' (1957)

''The Redmen and the Renegades'' (1957)

''The Pathfinder and the Mohican'' (1957)

''Rawhide'' (1958)

''13 Demon Street'' (1959) - Chaney was the host of this horror anthology series

References

External links

Lon Chaney Jr. Informative Biograph

Chaney Jr. Application's of Make-Up Through the 1940s-1960s

Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans TV Show Information

Additional Information on Chaney's Career

Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Chaney, Lon, Jr.

Category:1906 births Category:1973 deaths Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of French descent Category:American film actors Category:Actors from Oklahoma Category:People from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Category:Deaths from cirrhosis Category:American people of Irish descent

an:Lon Chaney Jr. ca:Lon Chaney Jr. da:Lon Chaney Jr. de:Lon Chaney junior et:Lon Chaney juunior es:Lon Chaney Jr. fr:Lon Chaney Jr. id:Lon Chaney, Jr. it:Lon Chaney Jr. nl:Lon Chaney jr. ja:ロン・チェイニー・ジュニア no:Lon Chaney jr. pl:Lon Chaney Jr pt:Lon Chaney Jr. ru:Чейни, Лон (младший) simple:Lon Chaney, Jr. sh:Lon Chaney Junior fi:Lon Chaney, Jr. sv:Lon Chaney, Jr. zh:小朗·钱尼

honorific prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Lord Lloyd-Webber
honorific suffix	Kt.
birth name	Andrew Lloyd Webber
birth date	March 22, 1948
birth place	Kensington, London, England
nationality	British
education	Westminster School
alma mater	Magdalen College, OxfordRoyal College of Music
occupation	Composer, panellist, television personality,businessman, songwriter, theatre director
years active	1965–present
spouse	(divorced)(divorced)
notable works
awards
networth	£700 million (est.)
parents
relatives	Julian Lloyd Webber (Brother)
children
website	AndrewLloydWebber.com }}

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber Kt. (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre.

Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of variations, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass. He has also gained a number of honours, including a knighthood in 1992, followed by a peerage from the British Government for services to Music, seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, fourteen Ivor Novello Awards, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006.

Several of his songs have been widely recorded and were hits outside of their parent musicals, notably "The Music of the Night" from ''The Phantom of the Opera'', "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" and "You Must Love Me" from ''Evita'', "Any Dream Will Do" from ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' and "Memory" from ''Cats''.

His company, the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. Producers in several parts of the UK have staged productions, including national tours, of the Lloyd Webber musicals under licence from the Really Useful Group.

Early life

Andrew Lloyd Webber was born in Kensington, London, the elder son of William Lloyd Webber (1914–1982), a composer, and Jean Hermione (née Johnstone; 1921–1993), a violinist and pianist. His younger brother, Julian Lloyd Webber, is a renowned solo cellist.

Lloyd Webber started writing his own music at a young age, a suite of six pieces at the age of nine. He also put on "productions" with Julian and his Aunt Viola in his toy theatre (which he built at the suggestion of Viola, of whom he was fond). Later, he would be the owner of a number of West End theatres, including the Palace. His aunt Viola, an actress, took him to see many of her shows and through the stage door into the world of the theatre. He also claims that he had originally set music to Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats at the age of fifteen.

In 1965, Lloyd Webber was a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School and studied history for a term at Magdalen College, Oxford, although he abandoned the course in Winter 1965 to study at the Royal College of Music and pursue his interest in musical theatre.

Professional career

Early years

Lloyd Webber's first collaboration with lyricist Tim Rice was ''The Likes of Us'', a musical based on the true story of Thomas John Barnardo. Although composed in 1965, it was not publicly performed until 2005, when a production was staged at Lloyd Webber's Sydmonton Festival. In 2008, amateur rights were released via the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) in association with the Really Useful Group. The first amateur performance was by a children's theatre group in Cornwall called "Kidz R Us". Stylistically, ''The Likes of Us'' is fashioned after the Broadway musical of the '40s and '50s; it opens with a traditional overture comprising a medley of tunes from the show, and the score reflects some of Lloyd Webber's early influences, particularly Richard Rodgers, Frederick Loewe, and Lionel Bart. In this respect, it is markedly different from the composer's later work which tends to be either predominantly or wholly through-composed and closer in form to opera than to the Broadway musical.

Around this time, Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote a number of individual pop songs that were recorded as singles for record labels. Wes Sands, Ross Hannaman, Paul Raven, and Gary Bond are among the many artists to have recorded early Lloyd Webber/Rice tunes. A selection of these early recordings were re-released on the 5-CD compilation, ''Andrew Lloyd Webber: Now and Forever'' (2003).

In 1968, Rice and Lloyd Webber were commissioned to write a piece for the Colet Court preparatory school which resulted in ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph in which Lloyd Webber and Rice humorously pastiche a number of musical styles such as Elvis-style rock'n'roll, Calypso and country music. ''Joseph'' began life as a short cantata that gained some recognition on its second staging with a favourable review in ''The Times''. For its subsequent performances, Rice and Lloyd Webber revised the show and added new songs to expand it to a more substantial length. This culminated in a two-hour long production being staged in the West End on the back of the success of ''Jesus Christ Superstar''.

In 1969 Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote a song for the Eurovision Song Contest called "Try It and See," which was not selected. With rewritten lyrics it became "King Herod's Song" in their third musical, ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' (1970).

The planned follow up to ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' was a musical comedy based on the Jeeves and Wooster novels by P. G. Wodehouse. Tim Rice was uncertain about this venture, partly because of his concern that he might not be able to do justice to the novels that he and Lloyd Webber so admired. After doing some initial work on the lyrics, he pulled out of the project and Lloyd Webber subsequently wrote the musical with Alan Ayckbourn who provided the book and lyrics. ''Jeeves'' failed to make any impact at the box office and closed after a short run of only three weeks. Many years later, Lloyd Webber and Ayckbourn revisited this project, producing a thoroughly reworked and more successful version entitled ''By Jeeves'' (1996). Only two of the songs from the original production remained ("Half a Moment" and "Banjo Boy").

Mid-1970s

Lloyd Webber collaborated with Rice once again to write ''Evita'' (1978 in London/1979 in U.S.), a musical based on the life of Eva Perón. As with ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', Evita was released first as a concept album (1976) and featured Julie Covington singing the part of Eva Perón. The song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" became a hit single and the musical was staged at the Prince Edward Theatre in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring Elaine Paige in the title role.

Patti LuPone created the role of Eva on Broadway for which she won a Tony. ''Evita'' was a highly successful show that ran for ten years in the West End. It transferred to Broadway in 1979. Rice and Lloyd Webber parted ways soon after ''Evita''.

In 1978, Lloyd Webber embarked on a solo project, the "Variations", with his cellist brother Julian based on the 24th Caprice by Paganini, which reached number two in the pop album chart in the United Kingdom. The main theme was used as the theme tune for ITV1's long-running ''South Bank Show'' throughout its 32-year run.

1980s

Lloyd Webber embarked on his next project without a lyricist, turning instead to the poetry of T. S. Eliot. ''Cats'' (1981) was to become the longest running musical in London, where it ran for 21 years before closing. On Broadway, ''Cats'' ran for eighteen years, a record which would ultimately be broken by another Lloyd Webber musical, ''The Phantom of the Opera''.

''Starlight Express'' (1984) was a commercial hit but received negative reviews from the critics. It enjoyed a record run in the West End, but ran for less than two years on Broadway. The show has also seen two tours of the US, as well as an Australian/Japanese production, a three-year UK touring production, which transferred to New Zealand later in 2009. The show also runs full-time in a custom-built theatre in Bochum, Germany, where it has been running since 1988.

Lloyd Webber wrote a Requiem Mass dedicated to his father, William, who had died in 1982. It premiered at St. Thomas Church in New York on 24 February 1985. Church music had been a part of the composer's upbringing and the composition was inspired by an article he had read about the plight of Cambodian orphans. Lloyd Webber had on a number of occasions written sacred music for the annual Sydmonton Festival. Lloyd Webber received a Grammy Award in 1986 for ''Requiem'' in the category of best classical composition. ''Pie Jesu'' from Requiem achieved a high placing on the UK pop charts.

''Cricket'' (1986), also called ''Cricket (Hearts and Wickets)'', reunited Lloyd Webber with Tim Rice to create this short musical for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday, first performed at Windsor Castle. Several of the tunes were later used for ''Aspects of Love'' and ''Sunset Boulevard''.

Lloyd Webber also premiered ''The Phantom of the Opera'' in 1986, inspired by the 1911 Gaston Leroux novel. He wrote the part of Christine for his then-wife, Sarah Brightman, who played the role in the original London and Broadway productions alongside Michael Crawford as the Phantom. The production was directed by Harold Prince, who had also earlier directed ''Evita.'' Charles Hart wrote the lyrics for ''Phantom'' with some additional material provided by Richard Stilgoe, with whom Lloyd-Webber co-wrote the book of the musical. It became a hit and is still running in both the West End and on Broadway; in January 2006 it overtook ''Cats'' as the longest-running musical on Broadway.On February 11, 2012, Phantom of the Opera played its 10,000th show on Broadway.

''Aspects of Love'' followed in 1989, a musical based on the story by David Garnett. The lyrics were by Don Black and Charles Hart and the original production was directed by Trevor Nunn. ''Aspects'' had a run of four years in London but closed after less than a year on Broadway. It has since gone on a tour of the UK, and is beginning to enjoy more acclaim than its original production.

1990s

Lloyd Webber was asked to write a song for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and composed "Amigos Para Siempre — Friends for Life" with Don Black providing the lyrics. This song was performed by Sarah Brightman and José Carreras.

Lloyd Webber had toyed with the idea of writing a musical based on Billy Wilder's critically acclaimed movie, ''Sunset Boulevard'', since the early 1970s when he saw the film, but the project didn't come to fruition until after the completion of ''Aspects of Love'' when the composer finally managed to secure the rights from Paramount Pictures The composer worked with two collaborators, as he had done on ''Aspects of Love''; this time Christopher Hampton and Don Black shared equal credit for the book and lyrics. The show opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 12 July 1993, and ran for 1,529 performances. In spite of the show's popularity and extensive run in London's West End, it lost money due to the sheer expense of the production.

In 1994, ''Sunset Boulevard'' became a successful Broadway show, opening with the largest advance in Broadway history, and winning seven Tony Awards that year. Even so, by its closing in 1997, "it had not recouped its reported $13 million investment."

In 1998, Lloyd Webber released a film version of Cats, which was filmed at the Adelphi Theatre in London. David Mallet directed the film, and Gillian Lynne choreographed the film. The cast consisted of performers who had been in the show before, including Ken Page (Original Old Deuteronomy on Broadway) as Old Deuteronomy, Elaine Paige (Original Grizabella in London) and Sir John Mills as Gus: the Theatre Cat.

In 1998 ''Whistle Down the Wind'' made its debut, a musical written with lyrics supplied by rock legend Jim Steinman. Originally opening in Washington, Lloyd Webber was reportedly not happy with the casting or Harold Prince's production and the show was subsequently revised for a London staging directed by Gale Edwards, the production is probably most notable for the Number One hit from Boyzone "No Matter What" which only left the UK charts when the price of the CD single was changed to drop it out of the official top ten. His ''The Beautiful Game'' opened in London and has never been seen on Broadway. The show had a respectable run at The Cambridge Theatre in London. The show has been re-worked into a new musical ''The Boys in the Photograph'' which had its world première at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in April 2008.

2000s

On 16 September 2004, his production of ''The Woman in White'' opened at the Palace Theatre in London. It ran for 19 months and 500 performances. A revised production opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre on 17 November 2005. Garnering mixed reviews from critics, due in part to the frequent absences of the show's star Maria Friedman due to breast cancer treatment, it closed only a brief three months later on 19 February 2006.

Lloyd Webber produced a staging of ''The Sound of Music'', which débuted November 2006. He made the controversial decision to choose an unknown to play leading lady Maria, who was found through the reality television show ''How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?'', in which he was a judge. The winner of the show was Connie Fisher.

It was announced on 25 August 2006, on his personal website that his next project would be ''The Master and Margarita'' (Lloyd Webber has stated that the project will most likely be an opera rather than a musical), however it was announced in late March 2007 that he had abandoned the project.

In September 2006, Lloyd Webber was named to be a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors with Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg, and Smokey Robinson. He was recognised for his outstanding contribution to American performing arts. He attended the ceremony on 3 December 2006; it aired on 26 December 2006. On 11 February 2007, Lloyd Webber was featured as a guest judge on the reality television show ''Grease: You're the One that I Want!'' The contestants all sang "The Phantom of the Opera".

Between April and June 2007, he appeared in BBC One's ''Any Dream Will Do!'', which followed the same format as ''How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?''. Its aim was to find a new Joseph for his revival of ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat''. Lee Mead won the contest after quitting his part in the ensemble – and as understudy in ''The Phantom of the Opera'' to compete for the role. Viewers' telephone voting during the series raised more than £500,000 for the BBC's annual ''Children in Need'' charity appeal, according to host Graham Norton on air during the final. On 1 July 2007, Lloyd Webber presented excerpts from his musicals as part of the Concert for Diana organised to celebrate the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The BBC Radio 2 broadcast a concert of music from the Lloyd-Webber musicals on 24 August 2007. Denise Van Outen introduced songs from ''Whistle Down the Wind'', ''The Beautiful Game'', ''Tell Me on a Sunday'', ''The Woman in White'', ''Evita'' and ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' – as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''The Sound of Music'', which Webber revived in 2006 at the London Palladium and 2002's Lloyd Webber-produced ''Bollywood''-style musical ''Bombay Dreams'' by A. R. Rahman and Don Black.

In April 2008, Lloyd Webber reprised his role as judge, this time in the BBC musical talent show, I'd Do Anything. The show followed a similar format to its 'Maria' and 'Joseph' predecessors, this time involving a search for an actress to play the role of Nancy in an upcoming West End production of the Lionel Bart musical ''Oliver!'' The show also featured a search for three young actors to play and share the title character's role, the show's main focus was on the search for Nancy. The role was won by Jodie Prenger despite Lloyd Webber's stated preference for one of the other contestants; the winners of the Oliver role were Harry Stott, Gwion Wyn-Jones and Laurence Jeffcoate. Also in April 2008 he was featured on the U.S. talent show American Idol, acting as a mentor when the 6 finalists had to select one of Lloyd Webber's songs to perform for the judges that week. Lloyd Webber accepted the challenge of managing the UK's entry for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Moscow. In early 2009 a series, called ''Eurovision: Your Country Needs You'', was broadcast to find a performer for a song that he would compose for the competition. Jade Ewen won the right to represent Britain, winning with It's My Time, by Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren. At the contest, Lloyd Webber accompanied her on the piano during the performance. Great Britain finished 5th in the contest. The winner was, of course, Norway's Alexander Rybak with his world record composition "Fairytale".

On 8 October 2009, Lloyd Webber launched the musical ''Love Never Dies'' at a press conference held at Her Majesty's Theatre, where the original ''Phantom'' has been running since 1986. Also present were Sierra Boggess, who has been cast as Christine Daaé, and Ramin Karimloo, who portrayed Phantom, a role he most recently played in the West End.

2010s

Following the opening of ''Love Never Dies'', Lloyd Webber again began a search for a new musical theatre performer in the BBC One series ''Over the Rainbow''. He cast the winner, Danielle Hope, in the role of Dorothy and a dog to play Toto in his forthcoming stage production of ''The Wizard of Oz''. He and lyricist and composer Tim Rice wrote a number of new songs for the production to supplement the songs from the film.

On 26 February 2010, he appeared on BBC's ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' to promote ''Love Never Dies''.

On 1 March 2011, ''The Wizard of Oz'' opened at The Palladium Theatre, starring Danielle Hope as Dorothy and Michael Crawford as the Wizard.

Accusations of plagiarism

Lloyd Webber has been accused of plagiarism in his works. The Dutch composer Louis Andriessen commented that: "There are two sorts of stealing (in music) - taking something and doing nothing with it, or going to work on what you've stolen. The first is plagiarism. Andrew Lloyd Webber has yet to think up a single note; in fact, the poor guy's never invented one note by himself. That's rather poor".

However, Lloyd Webber's biographer, John Snelson, counters such accusations. He acknowledges, for example, the strong similarity between the opening melody of the slow movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and the Jesus Christ Superstar song "I Don't Know How to Love Him", but opines that Webber:

...brings a new dramatic tension to Mendelssohn's original melody through the confused emotions of Mary Magdalene. The opening theme may be Mendelssohn, but the rhythmic and harmonic treatment along with new lines of highly effective melodic development are Lloyd Webber's. The song works in its own right as its many performers and audiences can witness."

In interviews promoting ''Amused to Death'', Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd, claimed that Lloyd Webber had plagiarised short chromatic riffs from the 1971 song "Echoes" for sections of ''The Phantom of the Opera'', released in 1986; nevertheless, he decided not to file a lawsuit regarding the matter. The songwriter Ray Repp made a similar claim about the same song, but insisted that Lloyd Webber stole the idea from him. Unlike Roger Waters, Ray Repp did decide to file a lawsuit, but the court eventually ruled in Lloyd Webber's favour.

Rick Wakeman, on his Grumpy Old Rockstar tour of 2008, accused Lloyd Webber of borrowing the main riff for the Phantom of the Opera tune from a section of his 1977 work "Judas Iscariot" from the album ''Criminal Record''.

Lloyd Webber has also been accused of plagiarising Puccini, most notably in ''Requiem'' and ''The Phantom of the Opera''. The Program Guide for the San Francisco Opera's performance (2009–2010 season) of Puccini's ''Girl of the Golden West'' states (p. 42):

:"The climactic phrase in Dick Johnson'a aria, "Quello che taceta," bears a strong resemblance to a similar phrase in the Phantom's song, "Music of the Night," in Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical ''The Phantom of the Opera''. Following the musical's success, the Puccini estate filed suit against Lloyd Webber, accusing him of plagiarism, and the suit was settled out of court."

Personal life

Lloyd Webber has married three times. First, he married Sarah Hugill on 24 July 1972, but they divorced on 14 November 1983. Together they had two children, a daughter and a son:

Hon. Imogen Lloyd Webber (born 31 March 1978)

Hon. Nicholas Lloyd Webber (born 2 July 1979)

He then married singer/dancer Sarah Brightman on 22 March 1984 in Hampshire. He cast Brightman in the lead role in his musical ''The Phantom of the Opera''. This marriage did not produce any children, and they divorced on 3 January 1990.

Thirdly, he married Madeleine Gurdon in Westminster on 9 February 1991. They have three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom were born in Westminster:

Hon. Alastair Adam Lloyd Webber (born 3 May 1992)

Hon. William Richard Lloyd Webber (born 24 August 1993)

Hon. Isabella Aurora Lloyd Webber (born 30 April 1996).

The Sunday Times Rich List 2006 ranked him the 87th-richest man in Britain with an estimated fortune of £700 million. His wealth increased to £750 million in 2007, but the publication ranked him 101st in 2008. He lives at Sydmonton Court, near Kingsclere in Hampshire, and also owns much of Watership Down. Lloyd Webber is an art collector, with a passion for Victorian art. An exhibition of works from his collection was presented at the Royal Academy in 2003 under the title ''Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters – The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection''. He is also a devoted supporter of Leyton Orient Football Club.

Politically, Lloyd Webber has supported the UK's Conservative Party, allowing his song "Take That Look Off Your Face" to be used on a party promotional film seen by an estimated 1 million people in 80 cinemas before the 2005 UK General Election to accompany pictures of Prime Minister Tony Blair allegedly "smirking", the party said. In 2009, he publicly criticised the Labour government's introduction of a new 50 per cent rate of income tax on Britain's top earners, claiming it would damage the country by encouraging talented people to leave.

In late 2009 Lloyd Webber had surgery for early-stage prostate cancer, but had to be readmitted to hospital with post-operative infection in November. In January 2010, he declared he was cancer-free.

As of March 2010, Lloyd Webber decided to sell Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto by Pablo Picasso art to benefit the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. In 2006, he withdrew the painting from auction after a claim that the previous owner was forced to sell it under duress in Nazi Germany. An out-of-court settlement was reached, where the foundation retained ownership rights. On 23 June 2010, the painting was sold at auction for £34.7 million to an anonymous telephone bidder.

Honours

Andrew Lloyd Webber was knighted by Elizabeth II in 1992.

In 1997, Elizabeth II created him a life peer as Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Sydmonton in the County of Hampshire. He sits as a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

Awards

Academy Awards

1996 – Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me" from ''Evita'' (award shared with Sir Tim Rice)

One nomination for Best Original Song Score and Adaptation: 1973 motion picture ''Jesus Christ Superstar''

One nomination for Best Original Song: "Learn to Be Lonely" from the 2004 motion picture ''The Phantom of the Opera'' .

Golden Globes

1997 – Best Original Song for "You Must Love Me" from ''Evita'' (award shared with Sir Tim Rice)

Plus one nomination for Best Original Song: "Learn to Be Lonely" from the 2004 motion picture ''The Phantom of the Opera''.

Grammy Awards

1980 – Best Cast Show Album for ''Evita''

1983 – Best Cast Show Album for ''Cats''

1986 – Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for ''Requiem''

1990 – Grammy Legend Award

Tony Awards

1980 – Best Musical for ''Evita''

1980 – Best Original Score for ''Evita''(award shared with Sir Tim Rice)

1983 – Best Musical for ''Cats''

1983 – Best Original Score for ''Cats''

1988 – Best Musical for ''The Phantom of the Opera''

1995 – Best Musical for ''Sunset Boulevard''

1995 – Best Original Score for ''Sunset Boulevard''

Olivier Awards

1978 - Best Musical for ''Evita''

1981 - Best Musical for ''Cats''

1986 - Best Musical for ''The Phantom of the Opera''

2008 - Society's Special Award

Three other Production Awards

1988 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations for ''The Phantom of the Opera''

7 Laurence Olivier Awards (including Special Award presented for his 60th birthday in 2008) 14 Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for live theatre (1993)

Kennedy Center Honors (2006)

Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service (2008) American Songwriter's Hall of Fame

Shows

:''Note: Music composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber unless otherwise noted.

''The Likes of Us'' (1965)

: Lyrics by Tim Rice : Not shown until 2005

''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'' (1968)

: Lyrics by Tim Rice

''Jesus Christ Superstar'' (1970)

: Lyrics by Tim Rice

''Jeeves'' (1975)

: Lyrics by Alan Ayckbourn : Revised in 1996 as ''By Jeeves''

''Evita'' (1976)

: Lyrics by Tim Rice

''Tell Me on a Sunday'' (1979)

: Lyrics by Don Black

''Cats'' (1981)

: Lyrics by T. S. Eliot : Additional lyrics after Eliot by Richard Stilgoe and Trevor Nunn

''Song and Dance'' (1982)

: Lyrics by Don Black (revised by Richard Maltby, Jr. for Broadway) : Combination of ''Variations'' (1978) and ''Tell Me On A Sunday'' (1979)

''Starlight Express'' (1984)

:Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe :Later revisions by Don Black and David Yazbek :Inspired by the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends books by The Rev. W. Awdry.

''Cricket'' (1986)

:Lyrics by Tim Rice : First performed for Queen Elizabeth's 60th birthday

''The Phantom of the Opera'' (1986)

: Lyrics by Charles Hart : Additional Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe : Based on the Gaston Leroux novel

''Aspects of Love'' (1989)

: Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart : Based on the David Garnett novel

''Sunset Boulevard'' (1993)

: Book and lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black : Based on the Billy Wilder film (1950)

''Whistle Down the Wind ''(1996)

: Lyrics by Jim Steinman

''The Beautiful Game'' (2000)

: Lyrics by Ben Elton : Updated as ''The Boys in the Photograph'' (2009)

''Bombay Dreams'' (2002)

: Music by A.R. Rahman : Lyrics by Don Black : Produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber

''The Woman in White'' (2004)

: Lyrics by David Zippel : Based on the Wilkie Collins novel

''Love Never Dies'' (2010)

: Book & Lyrics by Glenn Slater : Book by Ben Elton & Frederick Forsyth : Additional lyrics by Charles Hart

''The Wizard of Oz'' (2011)

: Adapted from the 1939 Motion Picture ''The Wizard of Oz'' : Music by Harold Arlen : Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg : Additional music by Andrew Lloyd Webber : Additional lyrics by Tim Rice

Film adaptations

There have been a number of film adaptations of the Lloyd Webber musicals. ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' (1973) was directed by Norman Jewison, ''Evita'' (1996) was directed by Alan Parker, and ''The Phantom of the Opera'', in 2004, was directed by Joel Schumacher and co-produced by Lloyd Webber. Cats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and ''By Jeeves'' have been adapted into made for television films that have been released on DVD and VHS and often air on BBC.

Lloyd Webber produced ''Bombay Dreams'' with Indian composer A. R. Rahman in 2002.

A special performance of "Phantom of the Opera" for the 25th anniversary was broadcast live to cinemas from the Royal Albert Hall in early October 2011 and later released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2012.

Other works

''Variations'' (1978) – A set of musical variations on Niccolò Paganini's Caprice in A minor that Lloyd Webber composed for his brother, cellist Julian. This album featured fifteen rock musicians including guitarist Gary Moore and pianist Rod Argent and reached number 2 in the UK album chart upon its release. It was later combined with ''Tell Me on a Sunday'' to form one show, ''Song and Dance''. Lloyd Webber also used variation five as the basis for ''Unexpected Song'' in Song and Dance. The main theme is used as the theme music to ''The South Bank Show''.

''Requiem'' (1985) – A classical choral work composed in honour of his father, William.

Discography

See also

''Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection'' – Royal Academy of Arts, London 2003 ISBN 1-903973-39-2

''View of Geelong'', 1856 painting once owned by Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Official website

''Cats on a Chandelier'' – Coveney, M (1999), Hutchinson, London

Biography at the Really Useful Group

''Oh What a Circus'' – Rice, Tim (1999), Hodder & Stoughton, London

''Andrew Lloyd Webber'' – Snelson, John (2004), Yale University Press, New Haven CT. ISBN 0-300-10459-6

''Andrew Lloyd Webber: His Life and Works'' – Walsh, Michael (1989, revised and expanded, 1997), Abrams: New York

References

External links

Official website

Biography at SBGMusic.com

Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters—The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection – article by Christopher Wood at the Art Renewal Center

Ladyghost's site

Performance of Variations by Julian Lloyd Webber and Colosseum II

Cat Destroys Lloyd Webber's Phantom Sequel Score

Andrew Lloyd Webber Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

fan-site: biography, gallery, articles, musical samples

Andrew Lloyd Webber interviewed on NYC-ARTS

Category:West End theatre Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:British racehorse owners and breeders Category:Cancer survivors Lloyd-Webber Category:Drama Desk Award winners Category:English art collectors Category:English Christians Category:English composers Category:English television personalities Category:British businesspeople Category:British billionaires Category:English musical theatre composers Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:English theatre managers and producers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Composers awarded knighthoods Category:Old Westminsters Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners Category:People from Hampshire Category:Reality television judges Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:Tony Award winners Category:Cats (musical) Category:Grammy Legend Award

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