Bull Montana

Who was Bull Montana?

Lewis Montagna, born Luigi Montagna and better known as Bull Montana, was a professional wrestler and American actor.

Montagna was born in Voghera, Italy and came to the U.S. 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. He was usually cast as a thug, henchman or something not quite sympathetic, and sometimes not quite human. 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 to the Corsican Brothers. 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. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery.