Bull Montana
Acting
Born 1887-05-15
Died 1950-01-24
Voghera, Lombardy, Italy
59 credits
Read 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.
Not enough member ratings yet.
Sign in to rate.
Filmography
Acting
54 credits
The Lost World
Flash Gordon
Treasure Island
Painted People
Hello, 'Frisco
Limousine Love
Down to Earth
Jealous Husbands
Hard Luck
Victory
Brass Buttons
The Son of the Sheik
Hollywood
Big City
Wild and Woolly
The Unpardonable Sin
Spaceship to the Unknown
Gay and Devilish
Tiger Rose
Glorifying the American Girl
He Comes Up Smiling
Dick Turpin
The Three Must-Get-Theres
In for Thirty Days
His Majesty, the American
Easy to Make Money
The Foolish Age
Hearts Are Trumps
The Skyrocket
The Bashful Buccaneer
On the Front Page
The Border Legion
When the Clouds Roll By
The Fire Patrol
Johanna Enlists
No Father to Guide Him
Go and Get It
Many Scrappy Returns
Fair Enough
Never Too Late
Crazy to Marry
Palooka from Paducah
In Again, Out Again
One Wild Week
Cowardice Court
Good Morning, Judge
Snap Judgment
Vanishing Millions
How to Handle Women
The Sting of Stings
What Women Love
Laughing at Danger
Held to Answer
Loud Soup
Other credits
5 credits
Track what you watch
DuckTrack members see which of these they have already watched,
right here on this page.
Create a free account
Comments
0 commentsNo comments yet. Sign in to be the first.