Actor Lon Chaney is known as "The Man With A Thousand Faces," playiing such diverse horror movie characters as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Phantom of the Opera." Chaney's uncanny physical ability to express himself through his physical movements in playing such deformed characters was developed during his childhood while communicating with his deaf parents.
Because of his skills in pantomime, Chaney, 20, gravitated towards theater and vaudeville in 1902. Marrying two years later, Chaney's marriage broke down when his wife attempted suicide in 1913. The scandal rocked his stage career, forcing him to seek employment in film. As an obscure bit player employed by Universal Pictures, Chaney would become adept at transforming into whatever character role he was given by applying his own makeup.
Unfortunately, the first 30 movies he appeared in are lost. His earliest existing film viewable today is July 1914's "By The Sun's Rays." Chaney plays a clerk at a mining company who tips off his gang friends as to when shipments of high quality gold are taking place. He's a villain who also takes advantage of being alone with the mine's superintendent's daughter, who shows no romantic interest in him.
Most of Chaney's early films at Universal Pictures are considered lost, either through intentionally destroyed by the studio to free up space in its storage facility or by a series of accidental fires Universal had experienced throughout the years burning precious reels of nitrate film. It's not until 1920 that the films he starred in are known largely to exist and have been preserved. That's why viewing "By The Sun's Rays" is such a rare treat to see how the acting of Lon Chaney developed in his early days in cinema.
