Editing Lon Chaney Jr. (section)

==Early life==

[[File:Lon Chaney, Sr. The Miracle Man.jpg|right|thumb|175px|[[Lon Chaney]], Creighton's father]]

Creighton Tull Chaney was born on February 10, 1906, in Oklahoma City, the son of then-stage performer [[Lon Chaney]] and Frances Cleveland Creighton, a singing stage performer who traveled in road shows across the country with Chaney. In a 1965 interview, Chaney Jr. revealed that he was a stillborn baby. "I was all black and not breathing when I was born," he shared. "My father ran out of the house with me and broke a hole in the ice in a nearby lake, and dunked me in time after time until he revived me".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rogers |first1=Ricky |title='Wolf Man' actor tells Nashville readers he was born 'dead' |url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2015/04/16/nashville-then-lon-chaney-march-of-dimes-1965/25584979/ |website=The Tennessean}}</ref> His parents' troubled marriage ended in divorce in 1913 following his mother's scandalous public [[suicide attempt]] in Los Angeles. Many articles and biographies over the years report that Creighton was led to believe his mother had died while he was a boy, and he only learned that she was still alive after his father's death. Creighton always maintained he had a tough childhood.

Young Creighton lived in various homes and [[boarding school]]s until 1916, when his father (now employed in the film industry) married Hazel Hastings and could provide a stable home.

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. Creighton, who had begun working for a plumbing company, married Dorothy Hinckley, the daughter of his employer Ralph Hinckley. They had two sons: Lon Ralph Chaney and Ronald Creighton Chaney.

Creighton's life changed when his father was diagnosed with throat cancer and died on August 26, 1930, at the age of 47.