Editing Lon Chaney Jr. (section)

===Leaving Universal===
Despite being typecast as the Wolf Man, the 6-foot 2-inch, 220-pound actor managed to carve out a secondary niche as a supporting actor and villain.

He was in a Bob Hope comedy, ''[[My Favorite Brunette]]'' (1947), supported [[Randolph Scott]] in ''[[Albuquerque (film)|Albuquerque]]'' (1948) and had a supporting role in ''[[The Counterfeiters (1948 film)|The Counterfeiters]]'' (1948); he played a villain in ''[[16 Fathoms Deep]]'' (1948) for [[Monogram Pictures]], a remake of his 1934 film.

He reprised his Wolf Man role to great effect in ''[[Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein]]'' (1948) but it did not cause a notable boost to his career. In April 1948 Chaney was hospitalized after taking an overdose of sleeping pills.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Lon Chaney Jr. Takes Too Many Sleeping Pills|work=Los Angeles Times|date=Apr 23, 1948|page=1}}</ref> He recovered and played Harry Brock in a Los Angeles theatre production of ''[[Born Yesterday (play)|Born Yesterday]]'' in 1949.<ref>{{cite news|title=Kanin's 'Born Yesterday' Well Acted at Biltmore|author=Scheuer, Philip K.|date=Jan 18, 1949|work=Los Angeles Times|page=A7}}</ref>

Chaney kept busy in support roles: ''[[Captain China]]'' (1950), ''[[Once a Thief (1950 film)|Once a Thief]]'' (1950), ''[[Inside Straight (film)|Inside Straight]]'' (1951), ''[[Bride of the Gorilla]]'' (1951), ''[[Only the Valiant]]'' (1951), ''[[Behave Yourself!]]'' (1951), ''[[Flame of Araby]]'' (1952), ''[[The Bushwackers (film)|The Bushwackers]]'' (1952), ''[[Thief of Damascus]]'' (1952), ''[[Battles of Chief Pontiac]]'' (1952) (in the title role), ''[[High Noon]]'' (1952), ''[[Springfield Rifle (film)|Springfield Rifle]]'' (1952), ''[[The Black Castle]]'' (1952) (a return to horror), ''[[Raiders of the Seven Seas]]'' (1953), ''[[A Lion Is in the Streets]]'' (1953) with [[James Cagney]], ''[[The Boy from Oklahoma]]'' (1954), ''[[Casanova's Big Night]]'' (1954), ''[[Passion (1954 film)|Passion]]'' (1954), ''[[The Black Pirates]]'' (1954), ''[[Jivaro (film)|Jivaro]]'' (1955), ''[[Big House, U.S.A.]]'' (1955), ''[[I Died a Thousand Times]]'' (1955), ''[[The Indian Fighter]]'' (1955), and ''[[The Black Sleep]]'' (1956)

He had a leading role in ''[[Indestructible Man]]'' (1956) then was back to supporting parts: ''[[Manfish]]'' (1956); a [[Martin and Lewis]] comedy, ''[[Pardners]]'' (1956); ''[[Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer]]'' (1957); ''[[The Cyclops (film)|The Cyclops]]'' (1957) and ''[[The Alligator People]]'' (1959).

Chaney established himself as a favorite of producer [[Stanley Kramer]]; in addition to playing a key supporting role in ''[[High Noon]]'' (1952) (starring [[Gary Cooper]]), he also appeared in ''[[Not as a Stranger]]'' (1955)—a hospital melodrama featuring [[Robert Mitchum]] and [[Frank Sinatra]]—and ''[[The Defiant Ones (film)|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.

He became quite popular with [[baby boomer]]s after Universal released its back catalog of horror films to television in 1957 (''[[Shock Theater]]'') and ''[[Famous Monsters of Filmland]]'' magazine regularly focused on his films.
[[File:Money, Women and Guns - 09 - Lon Chaney Jr.jpg|thumb|left|Chaney Jr. in ''[[Money, Women and Guns]]'' (1958)]]
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. Universal released their film biography of his father, ''[[Man of a Thousand Faces (film)|Man of a Thousand Faces]]'' (1957), featuring a semi-fictionalized version of Creighton's life story from his birth up until his father's death. [[Roger Smith (actor)|Roger Smith]] was cast as Creighton as a young adult.

He appeared in an episode of the western series ''[[Tombstone Territory]]'' titled "The Black Marshal from [[Deadwood, South Dakota|Deadwood]]" (1958), and appeared in numerous western series such as ''[[Rawhide (TV series)|Rawhide]]''. He also hosted the 13-episode television [[anthology]] series ''[[13 Demon Street]]'' in 1959, which was created by [[Curt Siodmak]].