Name
Bull Montana
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1887-05-15
Deathday
1950-01-24 (63 years old)
Place of Birth
Voghera, Lombardy, Italy
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lewis Montagna (born Luigi Montagna, May 16, 1887 – January 24, 1950), better known as Bull Montana, was an Italian-American professional wrestler and actor.
Montagna was born on May 16, 1887 in Voghera, Italy and came to the United States as a child.
He became a professional wrestler under the name of Bull Montana. He gravitated to films in 1917, appearing first in several of the vehicles of his close pal Douglas Fairbanks. In 1919 he appeared as a gruesome villain in Maurice Tourneur's masterpiece Victory alongside Lon Chaney. Numbered among his many friends was Abe "The Newsboy" Hollandersky, boxer, wrestler, and movie extra, who claimed Montagna offered to help him finance his 1930 autobiography.
In the early 1920s Montana, as he was known, often wrestled with his friend Jack Dempsey prior to some of Dempsey's larger fights to help entertain the press and spectators.
Montagna was usually cast as a thug, henchman or something not quite sympathetic, and sometimes not quite human (he was the apelike cave dweller in 1925's The Lost World opposite Wallace Beery as Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger). Tempering his on-screen brutishness with humor, Montana starred in his own series of two-reel comedies in the early 1920s, spoofing everyone from Robin Hood (Rob 'Em Good) to the Corsican Brothers (The Two Twins). He appeared in two Buster Keaton films including a role as a professional wrestler in the film Palooka from Paducah. He continued playing movie bits into the 1940s, notably as one of Buster Crabbe's antagonists in the 1936 series Flash Gordon. Like many mashed-face musclemen of the movies, Bull Montana is reputed to have been as gentle as a lamb in real life.
Known For
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- 1925 The Lost World as Ape Man
- 1922 Gay and Devilish as Tony
- 1919 The Unpardonable Sin as The Brute
- 1920 Treasure Island as Morgan
- 1928 Good Morning, Judge as First Crook
- 1921 Crazy to Marry as Dago Red (a crook)
- 1922 The Timber Queen
- 1918 The Border Legion as Red Pierce
- 1929 Tiger Rose as Joe
- 1927 Many Scrappy Returns as Zozo's Husband
- 1928 The Fight Pest
- 1929 Loud Soup as Convict
- 1935 Palooka from Paducah as Bullfrog Kraus
- 1926 The Skyrocket as Film Comedian
- 1923 Hollywood as Bull Montana
- 1922 The Three Must-Get-Theres as Li'l Cardinal Richie-Loo
- 1935 Never Too Late as Monte, an escaped convict
- 1923 Held to Answer as 'Red' Lizard
- 1928 How to Handle Women as The Turk
- 1928 Limousine Love as The Chauffer
- 1918 He Comes Up Smiling as Baron Bean
- 1920 Go and Get It as The Gorilla
- 1926 The Son of the Sheik as Mountebank
- 1924 The Fire Patrol as Fireman
- 1917 Down to Earth as Wild Man
- 1925 The Uneasy Three
- 1920 The Adventures of Daredevil Jack
- 1919 When the Clouds Roll By as The Nightmare
- 1919 Victory as Pedro
- 1926 On the Front Page as Private Secretary
- 1918 Johanna Enlists as Brakeman (uncredited)
- 1921 One Wild Week as Red Mike
- 1924 Painted People as Ed Decker
- 1919 His Majesty, the American as Undetermined Role
- 1924 Hello, 'Frisco as Bull Montana
- 1927 The Sting of Stings as Bull Montana
- 1937 Big City as Bull Montana
- 1921 Hard Luck as Virginia's Husband
- 1919 Brass Buttons as Jake the Priest
- 1925 Dick Turpin as Bully Boy
- 1966 Spaceship to the Unknown as Monkey-Man (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1921 The Foolish Age as Bubbs
- 1929 Glorifying the American Girl as Customer Requesting "Baby Face" (uncredited)
- 1917 Wild and Woolly as Bartender (Uncredited)
- 1925 No Father to Guide Him as Wanted Kidnapper in Photo (uncredited)
- 1924 Laughing at Danger as Killer Murphy
- 1917 Snap Judgment as Bull Montana
- 1919 Cowardice Court as Flash Morton
- 1926 Vanishing Millions as The Gorilla
- 1918 Fair Enough as 'Happy' Flanigan
- 1936 Flash Gordon as Monkey Man
- 1920 What Women Love as Jose
- 1919 Easy to Make Money as Charles 'Kid' Miller
- 1923 Jealous Husbands as Portland Kid
- 1919 In for Thirty Days as 'Hot Stove' Kelly
- 1917 In Again, Out Again as Quenton Auburn - The Burglar
- 1920 Hearts Are Trumps as Jake
- 1925 The Bashful Buccaneer as Second Mate
