Despite their similar personalities, Lon Chaney Jr. said that he was a very different actor than his father
The phrase "like father, like son" was only partially true.
Although the Chaney men made a name for themselves in the horror genre, the father and son were not exactly alike, no matter how much people wanted them to be. The elder Chaney starred in early films like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. His son would commonly appear as the monstrous star in films like The Wolf Man (1941) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). He also co-starred in more serious films like Of Mice and Men (1939).
Chaney Jr. discussed his father during an interview with The Commercial Appeal and explained why they were vastly different as actors. "My father and I are physically different and in other ways entirely different individuals," said Chaney. "I could not do many of the things he did. But, on the other hand, with my size and appearance, many roles are open to me that he could not have attempted."
One thing Chaney did share with his father was a great deal of grit and determination. The younger Chaney was willing to do whatever it took to become a star, no matter how difficult the road to get there became. In fact, it seemed that Chaney thrived under stress, like his father before him.
"I want to be a great actor more than anything else in the world," said the actor. "And knowing my father's career as well as my own, I'm plenty convinced that poverty is a great spur to the young actor. I know now why my father used to tell me of such relish of the days when he used to resole his own shoes with cardboard shirt boards from the laundry. When I was a baby, my father and mother were only a couple of jumps ahead of starvation time after time. Such privation never stopped my folks. It simply kept them striving to get on 'better time.'"
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