Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973) was an American character actor, known mainly for his roles in monster movies and as the son of an famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney. Originally credited in films as Creighton Chaney, he was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935. Chaney had English, French and Irish ancestry.

Born Creighton Tull Chaney in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the son of Lon Chaney and Frances Cleveland Creighton Chaney, a singing stage performer who traveled in road shows across the country with Lon. His parents' troubled marriage ended in divorce in 1913 following a scandalous public suicide attempt by his mother 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 Cleva had died while he was a boy, and was only made aware she lived after his father's death in 1930.

From an early age he worked hard to avoid 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. No film or photographs seem to exist of the two Chaneys together in the same frame as adults, which is remarkable since the senior Chaney had attained a career level of global fame exceeded only by Charles Chaplin.