Known For
Acting
Born
May 15, 1887
Died
Jan 24, 1950
Place of Birth
Voghera, Lombardy, Italy
Credits
59 titles
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
Filmography
Venere Paura
Original Music Composer
Spaceship to the Unknown
Monkey-Man (archive footage) (uncredited)
Big City
Bull Montana
Flash Gordon
Monkey Man
Never Too Late
Monte, an escaped convict
Palooka from Paducah
Bullfrog Kraus
Tiger Rose
Joe
Glorifying the American Girl
Customer Requesting "Baby Face" (uncredited)
Loud Soup
Convict
How to Handle Women
The Turk
The Fight Pest
Good Morning, Judge
First Crook
Limousine Love
The Chauffer
The Sting of Stings
Bull Montana
Many Scrappy Returns
Zozo's Husband
On the Front Page
Private Secretary
The Son of the Sheik
Mountebank
The Skyrocket
Film Comedian
Vanishing Millions
The Gorilla
The Uneasy Three
The Bashful Buccaneer
Second Mate
No Father to Guide Him
Wanted Kidnapper in Photo (uncredited)
The Lost World
Ape Man
Dick Turpin
Bully Boy
Laughing at Danger
Killer Murphy
Hello, 'Frisco
Bull Montana
The Fire Patrol
Fireman
Painted People
Ed Decker
Held to Answer
'Red' Lizard
Jealous Husbands
Portland Kid
Hollywood
Bull Montana
The Three Must-Get-Theres
Li'l Cardinal Richie-Loo
The Timber Queen
Gay and Devilish
Tony
The Foolish Age
Bubbs
Crazy to Marry
Dago Red (a crook)
One Wild Week
Red Mike
Hard Luck
Virginia's Husband
Hearts Are Trumps
Jake
Go and Get It
The Gorilla
The Adventures of Daredevil Jack
What Women Love
Jose
Treasure Island
Morgan
When the Clouds Roll By
The Nightmare
Victory
Pedro
His Majesty, the American
Undetermined Role
Easy to Make Money
Charles 'Kid' Miller
Cowardice Court
Flash Morton
Brass Buttons
Jake the Priest
The Unpardonable Sin
The Brute