Discover
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.
Birth Name
Luigi Montagna
Born
Monday, 16 May 1887
Died
Tuesday, 24 January 1950
Actor Filmography
Title | Character | Year |
---|
Spaceship to the Unknown | Monkey-Man | 1966 |
Rocket Ship | Monkey Man | 1938 |
Big City | Bull Montana | 1937 |
When's Your Birthday? | Salvador Slayer | 1937 |
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand | Slug, Nellie D Sailor [Chs. 2, 11-14] | 1936 |
Flash Gordon | Monkey Man | 1936 |
Song and Dance Man | Acrobat | 1936 |
Never Too Late | Monte, an escaped convict / Monte - Escaped Convict | 1935 |
Palooka from Paducah | Bullfrog Kraus | 1935 |
March of the Movies | Self - film clip | 1933 |
Actor Filmography
Title | Character | Year |
---|
Spaceship to the Unknown | Monkey-Man | 1966 |
Rocket Ship | Monkey Man | 1938 |
Big City | Bull Montana | 1937 |
When's Your Birthday? | Salvador Slayer | 1937 |
The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand | Slug, Nellie D Sailor [Chs. 2, 11-14] | 1936 |
Flash Gordon | Monkey Man | 1936 |
Song and Dance Man | Acrobat | 1936 |
Never Too Late | Monte, an escaped convict / Monte - Escaped Convict | 1935 |
Palooka from Paducah | Bullfrog Kraus | 1935 |
March of the Movies | Self - film clip | 1933 |
My Lips Betray | Hamlet | 1933 |
I Loved You Wednesday | Doorman at Speakeasy | 1933 |
Tiger Rose | Joe | 1929 |
Glorifying the American Girl | Customer Requesting 'Baby Face' | 1929 |
Show of Shows | Performer in 'The Pirate' Number | 1929 |
How to Handle Women | The Turk | 1928 |
Limousine Love | The Chauffer / The Chauffeur | 1928 |
On the Front Page | Private Secretary | 1926 |
The Son of the Sheik | Mountebank | 1926 |
The Skyrocket | Film Comedian | 1926 |
Stop, Look and Listen | Strong Man | 1926 |
The Uneasy Three | Willie - the Moll's Brother | 1925 |
Bashful Buccaneer | Second Mate | 1925 |
No Father to Guide Him | Wanted Kidnapper in Photo | 1925 |
The Lost World | Ape Man / Ape-man | 1925 |
Dick Turpin | Bully Boy | 1925 |
Secrets of the Night | The Killer | 1924 |
Hello, 'Frisco | Self - Bull Montana / Bull Montana | 1924 |
The Fire Patrol | Fireman | 1924 |
Painted People | Ed Decker | 1924 |
Held to Answer | 'Red' Lizard | 1923 |
Hollywood | Bull Montana | 1923 |
The Three Must-Get-Theres | Li'l Cardinal Richie-Loo | 1922 |
The Timber Queen | 1922 | |
Gay and Devilish | Tony | 1922 |
The Foolish Age | Bubbs | 1921 |
One Wild Week | Red Mike | 1921 |
Hard Luck | Virginia's Husband | 1921 |
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | The French Butler | 1921 |
Hearts Are Trumps | Jake | 1920 |
What Women Love | Jose | 1920 |
Go and Get It | The Gorilla / Ferry | 1920 |
The Mollycoddle | Fish Cannery Worker | 1920 |
The Girl in Number 29 | Shaw's Secretary | 1920 |
Treasure Island | Morgan | 1920 |
Daredevil Jack | Sailor | 1920 |
When the Clouds Roll by | The Nightmare | 1919 |
Victory | Pedro | 1919 |
His Majesty, the American | Undetermined Role | 1919 |
Easy to Make Money | Charles 'Kid' Miller | 1919 |
One-Thing-at-a-Time O'Day | Undetermined Role | 1919 |
Cowardice Court | Flash Morton | 1919 |
Charge It to Me | 'Corkscrew' McGann | 1919 |
Brass Buttons | Jake the Priest | 1919 |
The Unpardonable Sin | The Brute | 1919 |
In for Thirty Days | 'Hot Stove' Kelly | 1919 |
Fair Enough | 'Happy' Flanigan | 1918 |
Johanna Enlists | Brakeman | 1918 |
He Comes Up Smiling | Baron Bean | 1918 |
The Border Legion | Red Pierce | 1918 |
In Bad | Lefty Ned | 1918 |
Snap Judgment | Bull Montana | 1917 |
Reaching for the Moon | Bus Passenger | 1917 |
Down to Earth | Wild Man | 1917 |
Wild and Woolly | Bartender / Bartender (Uncredited) | 1917 |
In Again, Out Again | Quenton Auburn, the Burglar | 1917 |