@dht23 No, they don't. Not that I know of, Michael wrote in his autobiography that he wore the contacts for some time, and one night the legendary Lucille Ball came to see the show and she met him backstage and he told her the contacts were starting to damage his vision. She then told him to take them out and never use them again and added, "And I don't want to hear that you put them back in the minute I left!" :)
Brit actors of his generation were consummate pros who don't let roles go to their heads. He could have gone the Wm. Shatner route of self-parody, but he simply moved on when the job was over. Don't forget he had decades of stage/screen experience behind him when he got this role and just felt lucky to have a steady gig.
@phantomcrawford Agreed. So often people label Chaney's Phantom as a horror character, a monster, and he isn't that at all. He's an amazingly real, fully-rounded human being--every emotion of the human heart comes through Chaney's performance. Michael has Erik's voice and passion and I love him for that, but Lon is the only actor I think who has ever completely captured Erik's heart, a heart that "could have held the empire of the world, but in the end, he had to content himslef with a cellar."
@PittsBurghFuzz I know! People would had a much different view of chaneys phantom if the kept the Los Angeles preview version, were the phantom got his kiss and dies of a broken heart..... I would have loved to see that version!
@CD6494 No, they don't. Michael quit doing it during his run, as it was actually bad for the eyes and dangerous to keep it up because of the vision impairment.
Cliff Works A long time has passed, but there are 3 parts, and when I clicked on part 1, the others showed up below. Also, click to view the content of this RU-vidr and all 3 parts should be there.
