Bull Montana on AllMovie

Born in Italy, Lewis Montagna came to the U.S. as a child. The hulking, plug-ugly Montagna 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. He was usually cast as a thug, henchman or something not quite human (he was the apelike cave dweller in 1925's The Lost World). 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 continued playing movie bits into the 1940s, notably as one of Buster Crabbe's antagonists in the 1936 serial 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.