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
All Movies (58)
- Spaceship to the Unknown1966 · as Monkey-Man (archive footage) (uncredited)
- Big City1937 · as Bull Montana
- Flash Gordon1936 · as Monkey Man
- Never Too Late1935 · as Monte, an escaped convict
- Palooka from Paducah1935 · as Bullfrog Kraus
- Tiger Rose1929 · as Joe
- Glorifying the American Girl1929 · as Customer Requesting "Baby Face" (uncredited)
- Loud Soup1929 · as Convict
- How to Handle Women1928 · as The Turk
- The Fight Pest1928
- Good Morning, Judge1928 · as First Crook
- Limousine Love1928 · as The Chauffer
- The Sting of Stings1927 · as Bull Montana
- Many Scrappy Returns1927 · as Zozo's Husband
- On the Front Page1926 · as Private Secretary
- The Son of the Sheik1926 · as Mountebank
- The Skyrocket1926 · as Film Comedian
- Vanishing Millions1926 · as The Gorilla
- The Uneasy Three1925
- The Bashful Buccaneer1925 · as Second Mate
- No Father to Guide Him1925 · as Wanted Kidnapper in Photo (uncredited)
- The Lost World1925 · as Ape Man
- Dick Turpin1925 · as Bully Boy
- Laughing at Danger1924 · as Killer Murphy
- Hello, 'Frisco1924 · as Bull Montana
- The Fire Patrol1924 · as Fireman
- Painted People1924 · as Ed Decker
- Held to Answer1923 · as 'Red' Lizard
- Jealous Husbands1923 · as Portland Kid
- Hollywood1923 · as Bull Montana
- The Three Must-Get-Theres1922 · as Li'l Cardinal Richie-Loo
- The Timber Queen1922
- Gay and Devilish1922 · as Tony
- The Foolish Age1921 · as Bubbs
- Crazy to Marry1921 · as Dago Red (a crook)
- One Wild Week1921 · as Red Mike
- Hard Luck1921 · as Virginia's Husband
- Hearts Are Trumps1920 · as Jake
- Go and Get It1920 · as The Gorilla
- The Adventures of Daredevil Jack1920
- What Women Love1920 · as Jose
- Treasure Island1920 · as Morgan
- When the Clouds Roll By1919 · as The Nightmare
- Victory1919 · as Pedro
- His Majesty, the American1919 · as Undetermined Role
- Easy to Make Money1919 · as Charles 'Kid' Miller
- Cowardice Court1919 · as Flash Morton
- Brass Buttons1919 · as Jake the Priest
- The Unpardonable Sin1919 · as The Brute
- In for Thirty Days1919 · as 'Hot Stove' Kelly
- Fair Enough1918 · as 'Happy' Flanigan
- Johanna Enlists1918 · as Brakeman (uncredited)
- He Comes Up Smiling1918 · as Baron Bean
- The Border Legion1918 · as Red Pierce
- Snap Judgment1917 · as Bull Montana
- Down to Earth1917 · as Wild Man
- Wild and Woolly1917 · as Bartender (Uncredited)
- In Again, Out Again1917 · as Quenton Auburn - The Burglar







