Bull Montana
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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
Credits
Down to Earth (1917)
as Wild Man
The Lost World (1925)
as Ape Man
Flash Gordon (1936)
as Monkey Man
Victory (1919)
as Pedro
Treasure Island (1920)
as Morgan
Hello, 'Frisco (1924)
as Bull Montana
Hard Luck (1921)
as Virginia's Husband
The Son of the Sheik (1926)
as Mountebank
Limousine Love (1928)
as The Chauffer
Brass Buttons (1919)
as Jake the Priest
Jealous Husbands (1923)
as Portland Kid
Big City (1937)
as Bull Montana
Wild and Woolly (1917)
as Bartender (Uncredited)
Painted People (1924)
as Ed Decker
Tiger Rose (1929)
as Joe
The Unpardonable Sin (1919)
as The Brute
His Majesty, the American (1919)
as Undetermined Role
In for Thirty Days (1919)
as 'Hot Stove' Kelly
He Comes Up Smiling (1918)
as Baron Bean
The Three Must-Get-Theres (1922)
as Li'l Cardinal Richie-Loo
Spaceship to the Unknown (1966)
as Monkey-Man (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hollywood (1923)
as Bull Montana
Glorifying the American Girl (1929)
as Customer Requesting "Baby Face" (uncredited)
Dick Turpin (1925)
as Bully Boy
Gay and Devilish (1922)
as Tony
Go and Get It (1920)
as The Gorilla
The Fight Pest (1928)
Actor
Crazy to Marry (1921)
as Dago Red (a crook)
No Father to Guide Him (1925)
as Wanted Kidnapper in Photo (uncredited)
When the Clouds Roll By (1919)
as The Nightmare
Easy to Make Money (1919)
as Charles 'Kid' Miller
The Timber Queen (1922)
Actor
The Foolish Age (1921)
as Bubbs
On the Front Page (1926)
as Private Secretary
Cowardice Court (1919)
as Flash Morton
Palooka from Paducah (1935)
as Bullfrog Kraus
The Uneasy Three (1925)
Actor
Good Morning, Judge (1928)
as First Crook
The Adventures of Daredevil Jack (1920)
Actor
The Bashful Buccaneer (1925)
as Second Mate
How to Handle Women (1928)
as The Turk
The Skyrocket (1926)
as Film Comedian
The Fire Patrol (1924)
as Fireman
In Again, Out Again (1917)
as Quenton Auburn - The Burglar
Many Scrappy Returns (1927)
as Zozo's Husband
Johanna Enlists (1918)
as Brakeman (uncredited)
Fair Enough (1918)
as 'Happy' Flanigan
What Women Love (1920)
as Jose
The Sting of Stings (1927)
as Bull Montana
Never Too Late (1935)
as Monte, an escaped convict
One Wild Week (1921)
as Red Mike
Laughing at Danger (1924)
as Killer Murphy
Snap Judgment (1917)
as Bull Montana
Held to Answer (1923)
as 'Red' Lizard
The Border Legion (1918)
as Red Pierce
Vanishing Millions (1926)
as The Gorilla
Hearts Are Trumps (1920)
as Jake
Loud Soup (1929)
as Convict