Bull Montana

Born: 1887-05-15

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.


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The Lost World

as Ape Man
Released: 1925-02-02

The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where...

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Big City

as Bull Montana
Released: 1937-09-03

Anna and Joe are newly married, playful and deeply in love. Joe is scraping by as cab driver in...

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Hard Luck

as Virginia's Husband
Released: 1921-03-14

A down on his luck young man makes several attempts at committing suicide but fails them too. He...

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Tiger Rose

as Joe
Released: 1929-12-21

A mountie pursues a man wanted for murder.

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Glorifying the American Girl

as Customer Requesting "Baby Face" (uncredited)
Released: 1929-12-07

A young woman, who wants to be in the Follies, is making ends meet by working at a department...

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Johanna Enlists

as Brakeman (uncredited)
Released: 1918-09-14

A young girl, stifling on her father's backwoods farm, is reinvigorated by the arrival of an...

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Victory

as Pedro
Released: 1919-12-07

Adaptation of Joseph Conrad novel about lust and violence on a South Seas Island.

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Hollywood

as Bull Montana
Released: 1923-08-19

Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa....

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Limousine Love

as The Chauffer
Released: 1928-04-13

On the way to his wedding the bride groom finds a nude, married woman in his car

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Wild and Woolly

as Bartender (Uncredited)
Released: 1917-06-24

A rich Easterner who has always wanted to live in "the Wild West" plans to move to a Western...

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Brass Buttons

as Jake the Priest
Released: 1919-04-06

Kingston Hollister admires Bernice Cleveland from afar. He asks Officer Callahan, the policeman...

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Spaceship to the Unknown

as Monkey-Man (archive footage) (uncredited)
Released: 1966-01-01

A heavy condensation of the original serial compresses the original thirteen episodes into an...

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The Son of the Sheik

as Mountebank
Released: 1926-09-05

Ahmed, son of Diana and Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, falls in love with Yasmin, a dancing girl who...

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He Comes Up Smiling

as Baron Bean
Released: 1918-09-09

Jerry Martin quits his dull job as a bank clerk and falls in with a band of hobos. He takes on...

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The Adventures of Daredevil Jack

as uncredited
Released: 1920-06-30

Heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey stars in this 15 chapter action serial, of which...

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Treasure Island

as Morgan
Released: 1920-01-02

Young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of the buried treasure...

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Held to Answer

as 'Red' Lizard
Released: 1923-11-22

John Hampstead gives up his career as an actor and his actress sweetheart, Marian Dounay, to...

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Dick Turpin

as Bully Boy
Released: 1925-02-01

In eighteenth century England, gentleman highwayman Dick Turpin overcomes many difficulties to...

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When the Clouds Roll By

as The Nightmare
Released: 1919-12-28

Daniel Boone Brown is a pleasure-seeking playboy carousing around New York City without a care...

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No Father to Guide Him

as Wanted Kidnapper in Photo (uncredited)
Released: 1925-09-05

Charley's battle-axe mother-in-law breaks up his marriage and tries to separate him from his...

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The Three Must-Get-Theres

as Li'l Cardinal Richie-Loo
Released: 1922-08-22

In this movie, Max Linder parodies the famous novel "The Three Musketeers".

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Down to Earth

as Wild Man
Released: 1917-08-16

A healthy outdoors-type follows the girl he loves to a resort for wealthy hypochondriacs. In...

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Go and Get It

as The Gorilla
Released: 1920-07-18

Wrestling legend Bull Montana plays a murderous gorilla with a human brain transplant who is...

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The Unpardonable Sin

as The Brute
Released: 1919-04-01

Based on the Rupert Hughes novel, this film concerns the German atrocities committed in Belgium...

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The Timber Queen

as uncredited
Released: 1922-07-16

The Timber Queen follows Ruth Rowland as the inheritor of a wealthy timber business who tries...

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The Sting of Stings

as Bull Montana
Released: 1927-09-03

Charley and Edna are feeling very pleased with themselves and their new car. They decide to...

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The Fire Patrol

as Fireman
Released: 1924-08-14

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How to Handle Women

as The Turk
Released: 1928-10-14

When Leonard Higgins, a cartoonist, meets Prince Hendryx, ruler of the small nation of Vulgaria,...

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Never Too Late

as Monte, an escaped convict
Released: 1935-11-27

A young man gets mixed up with a stolen necklace and a gang of ruthless jewel thieves.

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Painted People

as Ed Decker
Released: 1924-01-28

A 1924 film directed by Clarence G. Badger.

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Crazy to Marry

as Dago Red (a crook)
Released: 1921-08-28

A doctor who believes he can cure criminals takes on a big challenge.

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His Majesty, the American

as Undetermined Role
Released: 1919-09-01

A European prince is raised in America without knowing his true identity; he spends his time...

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Good Morning, Judge

as First Crook
Released: 1928-04-29

Freddie, a rich young idler, meets Julia Harrington, a wealthy social service worker who runs a...

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The Skyrocket

as Film Comedian
Released: 1926-02-14

In the prologue Sharon Kimm and Mickey Reid are childhood friends in a tenement neighborhood but...

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Laughing at Danger

as Killer Murphy
Released: 1924-11-23

A young fellow, down in the dumps after a belle breaks his heart, believes his father is setting...

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The Border Legion

as Red Pierce
Released: 1918-07-28

Cowhand Jim Cleve is wrongly accused of murder and rescued by Jack Kells, leader of a band of...

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The Uneasy Three

as uncredited
Released: 1925-11-15

Often hysterical spoof of Tod Browning's THE UNHOLY THREE (and several others of his crime...

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Palooka from Paducah

as Bullfrog Kraus
Released: 1935-01-11

A hillbilly family, hard-hit by the end of Prohibition, decide to set the biggest brother up as...

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The Foolish Age

as Bubbs
Released: 1921-10-16

After graduating from college, rich girl Margery Carr decides to do some good in the world. Much...

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On the Front Page

as Private Secretary
Released: 1926-11-28

After being beaten to a story of scandal involving Countess Polasky, James W. Hornby assigns his...

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Loud Soup

as Convict
Released: 1929-03-16

Loud Soup is a comedy short

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Gay and Devilish

as Tony
Released: 1922-05-14

Doris May plays Fanchon Browne, a poor girl about to enter into a marriage of convenience with...

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Many Scrappy Returns

as Zozo's Husband
Released: 1927-01-09

Many Scrappy Returns

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