1. George Glenn Strange was an American actor who appeared in hundreds of Western films.
28 Facts About Glenn Strange
1. 2.
Glenn Strange played Sam Noonan, the bartender on CBS's Gunsmoke television series, and Frankenstein's monster in three Universal films during the 1940s.
3.
Glenn Strange grew up on a ranch, and left school after eighth grade, for his father thought he had enough education to work with cattle.
4.
Glenn Strange had a close relationship with his cousin Taylor "Cactus Mack" McPeters, who has born one week apart from him.
5.
Glenn Strange competed in the Hoot Gibson rodeo, but was injured when a horse fell on him.
6.
For much of Glenn Strange's acting career most of his roles were playing "bad guys".
7.
Glenn Strange had roles in 300 films and 500 television episodes.
8.
Glenn Strange played numerous small parts in Paramount's popular Hopalong Cassidy film series, usually cast as a member of an outlaw's gang and occasionally as a local sheriff.
9.
Glenn Strange played the killer Naylor Rand in the 1948 film Red River.
10.
Glenn Strange appeared twice as Jim Wade on Bill Williams's syndicated Western series geared to juvenile audiences The Adventures of Kit Carson.
11.
Glenn Strange appeared twice as Blake in the syndicated Western The Cisco Kid.
12.
In 1954, Glenn Strange played Sheriff Billy Rowland in Jim Davis's syndicated Western series Stories of the Century.
13.
Glenn Strange appeared six times in 1956 in multiple roles on Edgar Buchanan's syndicated Judge Roy Bean.
14.
Glenn Strange had parts in the ABC Western The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, plus Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Jr.
15.
Glenn Strange began playing Sam Noonan during the seventh season, and continued on in the role for 222 episodes.
16.
In 1972 Glenn Strange was diagnosed with lung cancer, but worked as long as he was able.
17.
Glenn Strange was cast in the 1944 film House of Frankenstein in the role first played by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, coached by Karloff personally after hours.
18.
Previously to House of Frankenstein, Glenn Strange starred as Petro, who is turned into a wolf-monster by George Zucco, in The Mad Monster.
19.
Glenn Strange appeared as "The Giant" in the mystery film The Black Raven.
20.
Glenn Strange reprised the role of Frankenstein's monster in House of Dracula.
21.
Glenn Strange played the monster a third time in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein ; as in his first two Frankenstein films, he shared the spotlight with Lon Chaney Jr.
22.
Glenn Strange later described working on Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein as one of his most fun movie-making experiences.
23.
Glenn Strange 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.
24.
Glenn Strange 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.
25.
Glenn Strange was offered the part of the Creature in Creature from the Black Lagoon, but turned it down because he found the costume heavy and claustrophobic.
26.
On September 20,1973, at age 74, Glenn Strange died of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California.
27.
Singer Eddie Dean, with whom Glenn Strange had collaborated on various songs and opening themes for films, sang at Glenn Strange's funeral service as a final tribute.
28.
Glenn Strange is interred at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery.