The Phantom of the Opera…1925

At the Paris Opera House a new season was opening with a production of “Faust”…and a strange ghostly presence in the cellars. Viscount Raoul de Chagny was hoping his sweetheart, Christine Daae, understudy for the prima donna, Carlotta, would get her chance to sing. The strange cellar-dweller, Erik wanted the same thing but decided to make it happen by dropping a huge chandelier on the audience. Christine takes over for the frightened Carlotta only to be carried off by the Phantom (Erik). He also catches Raoul and Leroux, the police chief, in one of his death traps. When Christine offers herself to save them, Erik releases all three, only to be killed by a mob in the street.

Born:  April 1st, 1883 in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Died:  August 26th, 1930 in Hollywood, California at age 47
Cause of death:  lung cancer
Real name:  Leonidas Frank Chaney
Marriages:  Two. The first to actress Clevas Creighton lasted 9 years before ending in divorce. It produced his only child, a son, Creighton (Lon Chaney, Jr.). The second to Hazel Hastings lasted 16 years until his death.

Remarks:     Born to deaf-mute parents, Chaney developed his fine talent for pantomime in his efforts to inform and entertain them. But it was his genius for make-up and use of prosthetic devices (often painful) to create his characters that gained Chaney worldwide fame as “The Man of a Thousand Faces”(James Cagney played Chaney in a film of the same name). For his Phantom role, he actually used wires to
make his eyeballs bulge out and then painted the sockets black!

Born:  July 16th,1902 in Chicago, Illinois.
Died:   May 7th, 1993 in Huntington Beach, California at age 90
Cause of death:   pneumonia
Real name:  Mary L. Philbin
Marriage:  None. She was engaged to producer Paul Kohner but they broke up because of  her parents’ objections.

Remarks:  Onscreen the camera literally brought Mary to life while off screen shewas shy, reserved and under the thumb of her very watchful mother. Her only friend was Rebecca (Carla) Laemmle, daughter of Universal
owner Carl Laemmle. Her marriage to the love of her life was overruled by  her Irish Catholic parents because Paul was a Czech Jew. Paul later married actress Lupita Tovar and the union lasted until his
death in 1988 at 85. When workers were cleaning out his office desk, they found Mary’s love letters tucked in a top drawer where he had kept them for over 60 years. Mary never married and spent her life taking care of her aging parents until their death.
Note: What a movie this would make!

Born:   June 18th, 1894 in Rochester, New York
Died:  January 12th, 1956 in Los Angeles, California at age 81
Cause of death:   none listed
Real name:   Arnold Kaiser
Marriages:  Three all ending in divorce. Only his third was to an actress, Kay English.

Remarks:     Kerry’s career was on the high road until sound came in and crushed it. He had a large following of enamored female fans giving him matinee idol status. But when he reunited with Mary Philbin to do a soundtrack for a “Phantom…” reissue in 1930, they both sounded awkward and exaggerated,  ultimately ending both careers. Some years later, Kerry joined the French Foreign Legion and only came back after the Germans invaded France. 

Norman Kerry….as Raoul

The Phantom … 1943

There was a few changes in this version of Leroux’s novel. Anatole Garron, a baritone, takes center stage at the Paris Opera House and as one of Christine’s suitors. Raoul D’Aubert, the other suitor, is the police inspector, suspecting Anatole of the Phantom’s crimes. The Phantom was Eric Claudin, a violinist dismissed from the opera company because he had literally lost his “touch”. His face disfigured when a tray of etching acid was thrown on him, Claudin fled into the sewers under the Opera House. He also loved Christine and kidnaps her with Anatole and Raoul in pursuit. They rescue her before the lair caves in but Erik’s fate remains a mystery. (Note: This film used the same set as the 1925 original and parts of that set still stand today.)

Born:  June 29th, 1901 in Providence, Rhode Island
Died:  March 7th, 1967 in Miami, Florida
Cause of death:  massive stroke
Real name:  Nelson Ackerman Eddy
Marriages:  One to Ann Denitz Franklin that lasted until his death. However, his love for Jeanette MacDonald lasted until the day he died.

Remarks:   This was the only film Nelson ever made where he didn’t “get the girl”. In fact, no one got the girl....she ran off to get her close-up! Nelson had left MGM after 10 years and signed with Universal for
this  musical.  However, the studio planned to make a sequel to this film  called “The Climax” with the original cast so the demise of the Phantom was left open. However script problems and the unavailability of Claude Rains sunk the idea.
  (Also see the Baritone’s Corner Issue #20)

Born:  December 6th, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois
Real name:  Susanna De Lee Flanders Larson
Marriages:  One to actor Wilbur Evans that lasted 8 years before ending in divorce. It produced two sons, Philip (since deceased) and Michael.

Remarks: MGM took an interest in her at age 11 (her vocal range was F over High C) to replace Deanna Durbin and, when their vocal coach almost ruined her untrained voice, they dropped her option.   After a short stint at Paramount, Susanna signed with Universal to do the Phantom role that Deanna turned down (she became known as the soprano who “followed” Durbin). But her career was short and she made only 12 films before leaving Hollywood in 1948. She returned to California later after her children had grown (two sons to her marriage to singer Wilbur Evans) and still  resides there. (Also see the Baritone’s Corner Issue #20)

Susanna Foster ….as Christine 

Born:  November 10th, 1889 in London, England
Died:   May 30th, 1967 in Laconia, New Hampshire at age 77
Cause of death:  cancer
Real name:  William Claude Rains
Marriages:   Six, five ending in divorce. His last wife preceded him in death. Three of his marriages were to actresses…Isabel Jeans (1913-1915), Marie Hemingway (1920 –one month), and Beatriz Thomas (1924-1935).

Remarks:   Claude came to Universal Studio from the London stage in 1932 and they made him “disappear”! Swathed in bandages or literally transparent through his entire first film, “The Invisible Man”,  Rains went on to a wide range of character parts creating characters, good or bad, with an urbane civility and wit. One of his most memorable was the role of Captain Louis Renault in “Casablanca”   (also see Issue 17)

The Phantom…1962

The British brought Leroux’s story home to the London Opera house. In this  horror drama, a corrupt opera patron, Lord D’Arcy has stolen the work of a destitute music professor and plans to stage it as an opera under his own name. The professor, horribly disfigured in a fire, returns as the Phantom to stop the production. However, with the aid of the stage manager Harry Hunter who is in love with the prima donna Christine, the Phantom stays instead to teach her the composition. When a falling chandelier threatens Christine in the opening scene, the Phantom leaps to her rescue and is crushed to death.

Born:  September 11th, 1917 in Prague, Austria-Hungary(Czech Republic)
Real name: Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich ze Schluderpacheru
Marriages: Supposedly two but only one is noted…to Dina Schea from 1948 to 1971 ending in divorce.

Remarks:  Lom made his debut in the Czech film “Zena pod krizen” in 1937 but by the 1940s, he was doing both British and American pictures. In the 1960s he played opposite Peter Sellers in the “Pink Panther” series and, 
in 1961, Captain Nemo in “Mysterious Island”. Moving from feature films to television , he wowed British audiences as Dr. Roger Corder in“The Human Jungle”. Lom’s last film was “Son of the Pink Panther” in
1993. He is 90 years old.

Born:  September 28th, 1935 in London, England
Died: January 3rd, 1994 at age 58 (no place listed)
Cause of death:   None listed
Marriages:  Two. Her first to production designer Anthony Masters lasted 33 years until his death. They had 3 children. Another marriage is mentioned with possibly another child but no data is available.
Remarks:  What happened to Heather Sears? No one seems to know how or where she died and many British fans blame the lack of information about her private life on the fact she never became prominent in American
films. Her last film was “Saturday Night Out” in 1964 but she made  her final television appearance in “Tales of the Unexpected” in 1981. Heather’s sister, actress Ann Sears, also died at 58 in 1992 of a heart
condition. Could that be a clue? If any one out there knows, let me (and those British fans) know what happened.

Heather Sears…as Christine

Born:  September 4th, 1932 (no birthplace given)
Real name:  Edward James de Souza
Marriages:  None listed

Remarks:  Edward was one of the actors who worked on the “Loose Cannon” project to reconstruct missing or lost episodes on the “Dr. Who” series.He also starred in “Mission to the Unknown” the only single episode in
the original run that did not feature any of the original cast including the doctor. De Souza’s best known films are “Phantom….” and “Kiss of the Vampire” in 1963.

Born:  November 23rd, 1914 in Malaya
Marriages:  Three to actresses ( Diane Graves, Anne Leone and Anneke Wills ) all ending in divorce. There were 2 children born to his union with Wills.

Remarks:  Gough made over 77 films and 83 television appearances to date and is the only actor besides Pat Hingle to have appeared in the first 4“Batman” films. He came out of retirement to play Notary Hardenbrook in the 1999 movie “Sleepy Hollow” and again to add his voice to “Corpse Bride”. He is 94.

The Phantom….(2004)

 Gaston Leroux’s novel takes on another incarnation with this adaptation by Andrew Lloyd Webber for his 1986 stage production and revised by Webber and Joel Schumacher for the screen. Again the Phantom, a horribly disfigured composer who lives in the watery caverns under a Paris opera house, is in love with the lovely soprano, Christine. He yearns to make her a star on center stage but Christine loves her childhood sweetheart, Raoul. He holds Raoul captive but Christine’s kindness and affection wins him over. He lets them both go and disappears into the underground caves, leaving only his mask behind.
(Note: In this version, the chandelier accident is switched from the opening of the opera to the finale).

Born:  November 13th, 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland (38)
Real name:  Gerard James Butler
Marriages: None listed

Remarks:  Gerry has now made 25 films with 5 more in production…a great resume for a 38-year old actor who was supposed to be a lawyer (see Legends, Issue #24). While it was “Phantom..” that brought him
international fame, he recently starred with Hilary Swank in “P.S. I Love You” and the talk around town is that it is another winner. He is also no stranger to television. In 1999, while on the set of his first lead role as “Attila”, a television mini-series filmed in Lithuania, they had to stop production so he could do his second lead role in “Dracula 2000” on location in the US, UK and Canada.

Born:  September 12th, 1986 in New York City, New York (21)
Real name:  Emmanuelle Grey Rossum
Marriages:  None listed

Remarks:  Although Emmy has been working professionally since the age of 7 on  stage and television, her first major screen role was Katie Markum in “Mystic River” whose tragic death propels the film.  She almost missed her audition for “Phantom..” because of a family gathering….a role that won her a Golden Globe nomination and a succession of deals to record classical albums. She resisted, preferring to do contemporary
music instead. Watch for “Dragonball” to be released later this year.

Born: July 3rd, 1973 in Norfolk, Virginia (34)
Real name:  Patrick Joseph Wilson
Marriages:  One to Polish-American actress Dagmara Dominczyk on June 18th, 2005. They have one son, Kalin Patrick .

Remarks:   With a mother who is a voice teacher and professional singer and a
father who is a news anchor for FOX, there is no doubt where Patrick got that beautiful voice. He has a graduate degree from Carnegie    Mellon University (his wife has one, too) and has been twice- nominated for a Tony (“Full Monty” and “Oklahoma”) for his work on
Broadway plus Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the television mini-series “Angels in America” (2003). With 11 films on record and 4 in production, there is going to be a lot of Patrick Wilson to enjoy.

Patrick Wilson …as Raoul