Glenn Strange's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Gunsmoke Sam Noonan A History Of Horror With Mark Gatiss (UK) Glenn Strange

Main Movie Roles 1991 - Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook 1959 - Last Train from Gun Hill 1959 - Alias Jesse James 1959 - The Jayhawkers! 1958 - Terror in a Texas Town 1957 - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral 1957 - The Halliday Brand 1956 - The Fastest Gun Alive 1955 - Marty 1953 - Calamity Jane 1952 - The Lusty Men 1951 - Texas Carnival 1951 - Vengeance Valley 1951 - Comin' Round the Mountain 1948 - Red River 1948 - Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein 1947 - Sinbad the Sailor 1947 - Brute Force 1947 - The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap 1945 - House of Dracula 1944 - House of Frankenstein 1943 - Action in the North Atlantic 1942 - The Mummy's Tomb 1942 - The Spoilers 1940 - The Fargo Kid 1939 - Rough Riders' Round-up 1937 - Arizona Days 1934 - The Star Packer

BIOGRAPHY:

At various times in his life a rancher, deputy sheriff and rodeo performer, this huge, towering (6' 5") beast of a man was born George Glenn Strange in Weed, New Mexico, on August 16, 1899, but grew up a real-life cowboy in Cross Cut, Texas. Of Irish and Cherokee Indian descent, he taught himself (by ear) the fiddle and guitar at a young age and started performing at local functions as a teen. In the late 1920s, Glenn and his cousin, Taylor McPeters, better known later as the western character actor Cactus Mack, joined a radio singing group known as the "Arizona Wranglers" that toured throughout the country.

They both started providing singing fillers in film westerns in the early 1930s. Glenn would play extra or bit roles for a number of years -- whether a cowhand, rustler, henchman, sidekick, or plain ol' warbling, harmonica-blowing cowboy. Eventually in the late 30s his billing improved and he evolved into a full-time bad guy in hundreds of "B" westerns. He was seen (or glimpsed) in many of the popular serials of the day, including The Hurricane Express (1932), Law of the Wild (1934), Flash Gordon (1936/I), The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1939), and Riders of Death Valley (1941). It was his massive build that helped him break into the Universal horror picture genre of the 1940s. Horror star Boris Karloff had grown weary and fearful of his Frankenstein Creature typecast and abandoned the role. Glenn was the perfect replacement for the job and made his monstrous debut with House of Frankenstein (1944), quickly followed by House of Dracula (1945). It was he who played the Creature in the cult horror/comedy classic Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) as part of the monstrous trio of Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man.

As the "B" western started faded off into the sunset in the 1950s, Strange moseyed on over to TV work, capping off his career with a steady (12 years) role as Sam the bartender on the classic "Gunsmoke" (1955) series from 1962 until shortly before his death from lung cancer in 1973.


TRIVIA:

• He played Butch Cavendish, the chief nemesis of the Lone Ranger, in _"The Lone Ranger" (1949)_ (qv).
• 'Boris Karloff' (qv)'s obituary in 1969 was run in newspapers with Strange's picture as Frankenstein's monster.
• Before becoming an actor, he had various jobs, including singer and professional boxer.
• He was one of the first actors to be asked to play The Creature in _Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)_ (qv).
• A singing, songwriting cowboy by trade, Glenn collaborated on various tunes with western actor 'Eddie Dean (I)' (qv), including the opening title song for Dean's oater _Tumbleweed Trail (1946)_ (qv). In 1973, Dean would sing at Glenn's funeral service.
• He is interred at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills Cemetery, Hollywood, CA.
• He was the fourth child of William Russell Strange & Sarah Eliza Byrd. He is the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson of Pocahontas & John Rolfe.
• Though 'Boris Karloff' (qv) is more popular as the Frankenstein Monster, it is Strange's version that is often used by Universal Studios for marketing purposes.