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