
Bull Montana
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1887-05-15
Day of Death
1950-01-24 (62 years old)
Place of Birth
Voghera, Lombardy, Italy
Bull Montana
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
Acting
(1966)
Spaceship to the Unknown
as Monkey-Man (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1937)
Big City
as Bull Montana
(1936)
Flash Gordon
as Monkey Man
(1935)
Never Too Late
as Monte, an escaped convict
(1935)
Palooka from Paducah
as Bullfrog Kraus
(1929)
Loud Soup
as Convict
(1929)
Tiger Rose
as Joe
(1929)
Glorifying the American Girl
as Customer Requesting "Baby Face" (uncredited)
(1928)
Good Morning, Judge
as First Crook
(1928)
Limousine Love
as The Chauffer
(1928)
(1928)
How to Handle Women
as The Turk
(1927)
Many Scrappy Returns
as Zozo's Husband
(1927)
The Sting of Stings
as Bull Montana
(1926)
Vanishing Millions
as The Gorilla
(1926)
The Skyrocket
as Film Comedian
(1926)
On the Front Page
as Private Secretary
(1926)
The Son of the Sheik
as Mountebank
(1925)
The Lost World
as Ape Man
(1925)
(1925)
No Father to Guide Him
as Wanted Kidnapper in Photo (uncredited)
(1925)
Dick Turpin
as Bully Boy
(1924)
The Fire Patrol
as Fireman
(1924)
Hello, 'Frisco
as Bull Montana
(1924)
Laughing at Danger
as Killer Murphy
(1924)
Painted People
as Ed Decker
(1923)
Hollywood
as Bull Montana
(1923)
Held to Answer
as 'Red' Lizard
(1922)
(1922)
The Three Must-Get-Theres
as Li'l Cardinal Richie-Loo
(1922)
Gay and Devilish
as Tony
(1921)
Crazy to Marry
as Dago Red (a crook)
(1921)
Hard Luck
as Virginia's Husband
(1921)
One Wild Week
as Red Mike
(1921)
The Foolish Age
as Bubbs
(1920)
(1920)
Go and Get It
as The Gorilla
(1920)
Treasure Island
as Morgan
(1919)
Cowardice Court
as Flash Morton
(1919)
Victory
as Pedro
(1919)
The Unpardonable Sin
as The Brute
(1919)
His Majesty, the American
as Undetermined Role
(1919)
Brass Buttons
as Jake the Priest
(1919)
When the Clouds Roll By
as The Nightmare
(1918)
He Comes Up Smiling
as Baron Bean
(1918)
Fair Enough
as 'Happy' Flanigan
(1918)
Johanna Enlists
as Brakeman (uncredited)
(1918)
The Border Legion
as Red Pierce
(1917)
Snap Judgment
as Bull Montana
(1917)
Down to Earth
as Wild Man
(1917)
Wild and Woolly
as Bartender (Uncredited)
Crew
(1990)
Venere Paura
Original Music Composer