Glenn Strange Biography

American actor (1899–1973)

George Glenn Strange (August 16, 1899 – September 20, 1973) was an American actor who appeared in hundreds of Western films. He played Sam Noonan, the bartender on CBS's Gunsmoke television series, and Frankenstein's monster in three Universal films during the 1940s.

Early life

Strange was born in Weed, New Mexico Territory, of Irish and Cherokee ancestry. He spoke Cherokee until he was about 13 years old, but in 1972 he stated "since that time I've had nobody to speak it with, so I’ve lost it."

He grew up on a ranch, and left school after eighth grade, for his father thought he had enough education to work with cattle. When he was 12 he began playing the fiddle at local dances. In 1928 he began performing music on an El Paso radio station. Another early job was heavy-weight boxing, which caused some "cauliflower" damage to his right ear.

Strange competed in the Hoot Gibson rodeo, but was injured when a horse fell on him. After the injury Gibson looked after him, and Strange began playing outlaws in Gibson's western films.

Career

Strange and Fred Kohler Jr. in Western Mail

For much of Strange's acting career most of his roles were playing "bad man parts." He had roles in 300 films and 500 television episodes.

In 1932 he had a minor role as part of the Wrecker's gang in a 12-part serial, The Hurricane Express, starring John Wayne. He played numerous small parts in Paramount's popular Hopalong C*idy film series, usually cast as a member of an outlaw's gang and occasionally as a local sheriff. In 1943, he played a badman in the Hopalong C*idy movie False Colors. He played the killer Naylor Rand in the 1948 film Red River.

Beginning in 1949, he portrayed Butch Cavendish, the villain responsible for killing all but one of the Texas Rangers in the long-running television series The Lone Ranger. Strange appeared twice as Jim Wade on Bill Williams's syndicated Western series geared to juvenile audiences The Adventures of Kit Carson. He also appeared twice as Blake in the syndicated Western The Cisco Kid. In 1952, he was cast in the role of Chief Black Cloud in the episode "Indian War Party" of the syndicated The Range Rider. In 1954, Strange played Sheriff Billy Rowland in Jim Davis's syndicated Western series Stories of the Century. Strange appeared six times in 1956 in multiple roles on Edgar Buchanan's syndicated Judge Roy Bean. That same year, Strange appeared in an uncredited role as the sheriff in Silver Rapids in the Western movie The Fastest Gun Alive starring Glenn Ford. In 1958, he had a minor part in an episode of John Payne's The Restless Gun, and had an important role in the 1958 episode "Chain Gang" of the Western series 26 Men, true stories about the Arizona Rangers. That same year, he played rancher Pat Cafferty, who faces the threat of anthrax, in the episode "Queen of the Cimarron" of the syndicated Western series, Frontier Doctor. Strange appeared in six episodes of The Rifleman playing the same role in different variations: Cole, the stagecoach driver, in "Duel of Honor"; a stagecoach shotgun guard in "The Dead-eye Kid"; Joey, a stagecoach driver in "The Woman"; and an unnamed stagecoach driver in "The Blowout", "The Spiked Rifle", and "Miss Bertie".

Strange had parts in the ABC Western The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, plus Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Jr., Wagon Train and other western television series. He played an Indian Chief in "Rawhide" S2 E8 "Incident of the Haunted Hills" which aired 11/5/1959.

Gunsmoke

He first appeared on Gunsmoke in 1960 after James Arness asked him, "When are you going to do a Gunsmoke? I like to work with big guys." During Gunsmoke's sixth season, Strange played a Long Branch customer in "Old Faces" and a cowboy in "Melinda Miles".

Strange began playing Sam Noonan during the seventh season, and continued on in the role for 222 episodes. In 1972 Strange was diagnosed with lung cancer, but worked as long as he was able. Five of his episodes were broadcast after his death. His last appearance was on the November 26, 1973 episode "The Hanging of Newly O’Brien".

Frankenstein's monster

Main article: Frankenstein's monsterStrange as Frankenstein's monster in House of Dracula (1945)Strange (left) and Boris Karloff in the 1944 horror film, House of Frankenstein

In 1944, while Strange was being made up for an action film at Universal, make-up artist Jack Pierce noticed that Strange's facial features and 6'4" height would be appropriate for the role of Frankenstein's monster. Strange was cast in the 1944 film House of Frankenstein in the role created by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931), coached by Karloff personally after hours.

Previous to House of Frankenstein, Strange starred as a Petro, who is turned into a wolf-monster by George Zucco, in The Mad Monster (1943). Another role in a horror film was in 1944's The Monster Maker. He also appeared as "The Giant" in the mystery film The Black Raven (1943).

Strange recounted a personal anecdote in Ted Newsom's do*entary, 100 Years of Horror (1996). On the set of House of Dracula (1945), Lon Chaney Jr., got him extremely inebriated. In the scene in which the monster is discovered in a cave, Strange lay immersed for hours in "faked quicksand" (actually cold mud) waiting for the cameras to roll. As Glenn began to get a serious chill, Chaney recommended that alcohol would keep Strange warm. Strange could barely walk straight after the day's shooting.

Strange played the monster a third time in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), with Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi in his second screen appearance as Count Dracula. Strange also appeared in character with Lou Costello in a haunted house skit on The Colgate Comedy Hour and made a gag publicity appearance as a masked flagpole-sitter for a local Los Angeles TV show in the 1950s. After weeks of the station teasing the public about the sitter's iden*y, Strange removed his mask and revealed himself as Frankenstein's monster (actually, yet another mask.) Strange also played a monster in the Bowery Boys horror-comedy Master Minds in 1949, mimicking the brain-transplanted Huntz Hall's frantic comedy movements, with Hall providing his own dubbed voice.

During the wave of monster-related merchandising in the late 1950s and 1960s, Glenn Strange's iconic image often was used for the monster on toys, games, and paraphernalia, most often from his appearance in the Abbott and Costello film. In 1969, The New York Times mistakenly published Boris Karloff's obituary with Glenn Strange's picture as the Frankenstein monster.

Death

On September 20, 1973, at age 74, Strange died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California. Singer Eddie Dean, with whom Strange had collaborated on various songs and opening themes for films, sang at Strange's funeral service as a final tribute. Strange is interred at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

Selected filmography

• Shotgun P* (1931) – Pee Wee (uncredited)
• Cavalier of the West (1931) – Trooper (uncredited)
• The Gay Buckaroo (1931) – Barfly (uncredited)
• Single-Handed Sanders (1932) – Gang Leader (uncredited)
• The Texas Tornado (1932) – Rustler (uncredited)
• Riders of the Desert (1932) – Singing Ranger (uncredited)
• Cowboy Counsellor (1932) – Stage Driver (uncredited)
• Five Bad Men (1935) – Radio Buckaroo (uncredited)
• Cyclone of the Saddle (1935) – Singer / Fiddler / Townsman (uncredited)
• His Fighting Blood (1935) – Singing Constable (uncredited)
• Suicide Squad (1935) – Singing Fireman (uncredited)
• Flash Gordon (1936) – Robot / Ming's Soldier / Gocko (uncredited)
• Trailin' West (1936) – Tim – Henchman / Trooper (uncredited)
• A Tenderfoot Goes West (1936) – Cowhand Butch
• Song of the Gringo (1936) – Henchman Blackie (uncredited)
• Guns of the Pecos (1937) – Wedding Groom / Rustler (uncredited)
• Arizona Days (1937) – Henchman Pete
• Trouble in Texas (1937) – Middleton Sheriff
• The Cherokee Strip (1937) – Harry, Fiddle Player and Band Leader (uncredited)
• The Fighting Texan (1937) – Brand-Changing Henchman (uncredited)
• Blazing Sixes (1937) – Peewee Jones
• Mountain Music (1937) – Singing Hillbilly (uncredited)
• Empty Holsters (1937) – Tex Roberts
• Riders of the Dawn (1937) – Posse Member (uncredited)
• The Devil's Saddle Legion (1937) – Peewee
• God's Country and the Man (1937) – Sheriff Joe (uncredited)
• Stars Over Arizona (1937) – Bruce Cole (uncredited)
• Danger Valley (1937) – Marshal Dale (uncredited)
• The Painted Trail (1938) – Sheriff Ed
• The Last Stand (1938) – Henchman Joe
• Whirlwind Horseman (1938) – Bull – Henchman
• Six Shootin' Sheriff (1938) – Kendal Henchman (uncredited)
• Black Bandit (1938) – Luke Johnson
• Guilty Trails (1938) – New Sheriff
• Prairie Justice (1938) – Hank Haynes – Express Agent
• Gun Packer (1938) – Sheriff
• The Phantom Stage (1939) – Sheriff
• The Night Riders (1939) – Angry Riverboat Gambler (uncredited)
• Blue Montana Skies (1939) – Bob Causer
• Across the Plains (1939) – Jeff Masters
• Oklahoma Terror (1939) – Ross Haddon
• Overland Mail (1939) – Sheriff Dawson
• Pioneer Days (1940) – Sheriff
• Rhythm of the Rio Grande (1940) – Sheriff Hays
• Covered Wagon Trails (1940) – Henchman Fletcher
• Pals of the Silver Sage (1940) – Vic Insley
• The Cowboy from Sundown (1940) – Bret Stockton
• Land of the Six Guns (1940) – Manny
• Three Men from Texas (1940) – Ben Stokes
• The San Francisco Docks (1940) – Mike
• The Bandit Trail (1941) – gang member (uncredited)
• The Kid's Last Ride (1941) – Bart Gill, aka Ike Breeden
• Fugitive Valley (1941) – Gray
• Billy the Kid Wanted (1941) – Matt Brawley
• The Driftin' Kid (1941) – Jeff Payson
• Lone Star Law Men (1941) – Marshal Scott
• Billy the Kid's Round-Up (1941) – Vic Landreau
• The Lone Rider and the Bandit (1942) – Luke Miller
• Overland Stagecoach (1942) – Harlen Kent
• Western Mail (1942) – Sheriff Big Bill Collins
• Stagecoach Buckaroo (1942) – Breck Braddock
• Raiders of the West (1942) – Hank Reynolds
• Sundown Jim (1942) – Henchman (uncredited)
• Sunset on the Desert (1942) – Deputy Louie Meade
• Rolling Down the Great Divide (1942) – Joe Duncan
• Boot Hill Bandits (1942) – The Maverick
• Romance on the Range (1942) – Stokes
• Texas Trouble Shooters (1942) – Roger Denby
• Overland Stagecoach (1942) – Harlen Kent
• Billy the Kid Trapped (1942) – Boss Stanton
• Army Surgeon (1942) – Soldier Having Discussion with Brooklyn (uncredited)
• Little Joe, the Wrangler (1942) – Jeff Corey
• The Kid Rides Again (1943) – Henchman Tom Slade
• Haunted Ranch (1943) – Rance Austin
• Black Market Rustlers (1943) – Corbin
• Cattle Stampede (1943) – Stone
• Bullets and Saddles (1943) – Jack Hammond
• Western Cyclone (1943) – Dirk Randall
• The Black Raven (1943) – Andy
• The Mad Monster (1943) – Petro/wolfman
• The Monster Maker (1944) – Giant/Steve
• Valley of Vengeance (1944) – Marshal Barker
• Harmony Trail (1944) – Marshal Taylor
• House of Frankenstein (1944) – Frankenstein Monster
• House of Dracula (1945) – Frankenstein Monster
• The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947) – Lefty
• Sinbad the Sailor – Chief Galley Overseer (uncredited)
• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) – Frankenstein Monster
• Comin' Round the Mountain (1951) – Devil Dan Winfield

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Glenn Strange.

• Glenn Strange at IMDb
• Glenn Strange, the B western villain
• TV.com biography Archived July 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JT41-TQ9:: May 19, 2014), Glenn Strange, Sep 1973; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
• Glenn Strange appears on Abbott and Costello's television program
• Glenn Strange's Make-Up Recreated on YouTube