Who is Glenn Strange?
Glenn Strange was a towering (6' 5") man who worked at various times as a rancher, deputy sheriff and rodeo performer. 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 joined a radio singing group known as the "The Arizona Wranglers" that toured throughout the country.
He started providing singing fillers in film westerns in the early 1930s. Glenn would play extra or bit roles for a number of years B Western and serials. One of his first roles was uncredited as a soldier, in tin armor, as part of "Ming's Army", in the science fiction classic serial "Flash Gordon"(1936/I). He would perform as a cowhand, rustler, accomplice, sidekick, or plain old 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),
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. He played the nemesis "Butch Cavendish" and later reprised the role, after a prison escape, on "The Lone Ranger" (1949). Among other TV roles, he capped 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.
Overview
- Nicknames
- Glen 'Peewee' Strange, Glen Strange, Peewee Strange
Trivia
- Working on a film at Universal, he noticed that the makeup man, department head Jack P. Pierce, kept looking at his face. Pierce asked Strange if he would stay after work, for an extra $25.00, for a makeup test which might lead to another acting job. Pierce covered the mirrors and applied the makeup. When the mirrors were uncovered, Strange claimed that "I look like Boris Karloff". Pierce thought that Strange's face had the right characteristics for the Frankensein monster makeup. Strange took over the role in House of Frankenstein (1944).
- Though Boris Karloff is more popular as the Frankenstein Monster, it is Strange's version that is often used by Universal Studios for marketing purposes.
- Before becoming an actor, he had various jobs, including singer, professional boxer (he once fought heavyweight Primo Carnera), cattle rancher, rodeo rider, deputy sheriff in New Mexico and police officer in Durant, OK.
- Was bed-ridden with lung cancer when his good friend Lon Chaney Jr. passed away. Bob Burns, who was working at CBS at the time, was asked to find somebody to talk about Chaney. Burns went to Strange that night and told him that no one would speak for him. Strange said, "I will." He got out of bed and traveled to the studio with Burns. Burns later remarked how moving it was that Strange, dying himself, came in for his friend. Six months later Strange passed away.
- Boris Karloff's obituary in 1969 was run in newspapers with Strange's picture as Frankenstein's monster.