Chaney divorced her and prevented her from having any contact with their son Creighton. He married Hazel Bennett Hastings, a union that lasted until his death. Chaney remained an intensely private person throughout his career. Rather than attend film openings, he preferred to go trout fishing. He rarely gave interviews. His own face without makeup was so seldom seen in photographs that Chaney was often unrecognized in public. Like his father, Chaney discouraged his son from becoming an actor. In 1912, Chaney attempted to find work at Universal Studios in Hollywood. At that time, the studio was a converted corral with a single building where filming took place. Chaney was hired as an extra, which meant that he did everything from occasional bit parts to moving scenery. His first film appearance was in the 1913 film, Poor Jake's Demise. During the next few years he played small parts in about 70 short films and a few feature films at Universal Studios. Notable among these was 1919's The Wicked Darling, -- not for the quality of his performance, but because it marked his first recorded film appearance with director Tod Browning, with whom Chaney would make ten films. Chaney remained with Universal Studios for six years, and recalled later how he fought to get his salary raised above one hundred dollars per week. He left that studio (although he later returned to it several times to star in feature films), and soon made his "breakthrough" in 1919's The Miracle Man. In this film he played a beggar who could dislocate his limbs at will. Although the director wanted to hire a contortionist, Chaney won the part at his audition. As he told Movie Magazine in 1925, "I flopped down, rolled my eyes up in my head like a blind man, and started dragging my body along the ground."

Career Peaked in Two Famous Films After The Miracle Man, Chaney was in demand for roles that highlighted both his talents as a character actor and his ability to endure sometimes extreme physical pain to portray a maimed or deformed character.