Bull Montana

Birthday: 1887-05-15
Deathday: 1950-01-24
Birthplace: Voghera, Lombardy, Italy
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

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.

Credits

Year Title Character
1937-09-03 Big City Bull Montana
1935-11-27 Never Too Late Monte, an escaped convict
1935-01-11 Palooka from Paducah Bullfrog Kraus
1929-12-21 Tiger Rose Joe
1929-12-07 Glorifying the American Girl Customer Requesting "Baby Face" (uncredited)
1929-03-16 Loud Soup Convict
1928-10-14 How to Handle Women The Turk
1928-05-12 The Fight Pest
1928-04-29 Good Morning, Judge First Crook
1928-04-13 Limousine Love The Chauffer
1927-09-03 The Sting of Stings Bull Montana
1927-01-09 Many Scrappy Returns Zozo's Husband
1926-11-28 On the Front Page Private Secretary
1926-09-05 The Son of the Sheik Mountebank
1926-02-14 The Skyrocket Film Comedian
1925-11-15 The Uneasy Three
1925-09-05 No Father to Guide Him Wanted Kidnapper in Photo (uncredited)
1925-02-02 The Lost World Ape Man
1925-02-01 Dick Turpin Bully Boy
1924-11-23 Laughing at Danger Killer Murphy
1924-09-28 Hello, 'Frisco Bull Montana
1924-08-14 The Fire Patrol Fireman
1924-01-28 Painted People Ed Decker
1923-11-22 Held to Answer 'Red' Lizard
1923-08-19 Hollywood Bull Montana
1922-08-22 The Three Must-Get-Theres Li'l Cardinal Richie-Loo
1922-07-16 The Timber Queen
1922-05-14 Gay and Devilish Tony
1921-10-16 The Foolish Age Bubbs
1921-08-28 Crazy to Marry Dago Red (a crook)
1921-04-08 One Wild Week Red Mike
1921-03-14 Hard Luck Virginia's Husband
1920-07-18 Go and Get It The Gorilla
1920-06-30 The Adventures of Daredevil Jack
1920-01-02 Treasure Island Morgan
1919-12-28 When the Clouds Roll By The Nightmare
1919-12-07 Victory Pedro
1919-09-01 His Majesty, the American Undetermined Role
1919-06-15 Cowardice Court Flash Morton
1919-04-06 Brass Buttons Jake the Priest
1919-04-01 The Unpardonable Sin The Brute
1918-09-14 Johanna Enlists Brakeman (uncredited)
1918-09-09 He Comes Up Smiling Baron Bean
1918-07-28 The Border Legion Red Pierce
1917-11-19 Snap Judgment Bull Montana
1917-08-16 Down to Earth Wild Man
1917-06-24 Wild and Woolly Bartender (Uncredited)