Erik (also known as The Phantom of the Opera, commonly referred to as The Phantom) is the title character fromGaston Leroux's novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra (1910), best known to English speakers as The Phantom of the Opera. He is also the protagonist and antagonist of many film adaptations of the novel, notably the 1925 film adaptationstarring Lon Chaney, Sr., and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.[citation needed]