The Mummy’s Tomb wasn’t Lon Chaney Jr.’s first rodeo. The actor had made a statement as a horror actor after starring in Universal’s The Wolf Man (1941) as the titular character himself. Like his father before him, Chaney demonstrated an aptitude for playing frightening characters. He continued this trend in films like The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and Son of Dracula (1943).

Though Chaney became a well-known actor in the horror genre, his face wasn’t so recognisable as one might assume. Because of his penchant for playing the frightening and grotesque, Chaney was often covered in special effects makeup and costuming. Though this made him a great deal more frightening, it also limited his actions as an actor.

Turhan Bey, who starred alongside Chaney in the 1942 film The Mummy’s Tomb, said that he felt compassion for his co-star. “I felt terribly sorry for this excellent actor, Lon Chaney, who had to wrap himself every day, even in the greatest heat, in that fabulous costume of his,” Bey said during an interview for Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946, written by Tom Weaver, Michael Brunas, and John Brunas. “Except to speak with his body, he couldn’t do anything.”

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Luckily, Chaney had plenty of experience playing characters shrouded in mystery. He used his body and movements to express himself as Kharis. “He was a real professional,” said Bey. “He may have felt that he couldn’t do any acting [as the Mummy], but when you watched the way he moved, the rhythm of his various movements, he did do some acting with his body, as his father did.”