Minor characters in Universal Monsters

This article is about minor characters in the fictional Universal Monsters universe.

Bela

Bela appears in The Wolf Man. He is a Gypsy fortune teller who is played by Bela Lugosi, and is the son of the Gypsy crone Maleva. Unknown to anyone but his mother however is the fact that Bela is a werewolf, doomed to transform into a wolf during the full moon and kill those who bear the mark of the pentagram somewhere on their person. After seeing the pentagram on Jenny Williams while reading her palms, Bela turned into a wolf and killed her. He himself was then killed by Larry Talbot by being hit repeatedly by a silver-handled cane, but not before biting Larry and passing the curse of lycanthropy on to him.

Thomas Benson

Thomas Benson is Wolf Frankenstein's butler in Son of Frankenstein. He was played by Edgar Norton. In addition to being Wolf's butler, Benson sometimes served as his lab assistant. When Wolf agreed to help Ygor revive the Frankenstein Monster, he let Benson in on their little secret so that he could assist him (despite the objections of Ygor, who wanted no one but himself to know that the Monster was still around). Benson told Wolf that they should inform Inspector Krogh of the Monster, unaware that Ygor was listening. The Monster killed Benson on Ygor's order, and his body was later discovered by Krogh stashed in a secret passage that led from the Frankenstein estate to Wolf's laboratory.

Bill

Bill is one of Blackie Cole's henchmen in The Invisible Woman. He is played by Edward Brophy. He assisted Foghorn and Hammerhead in their attempts to steal Professor Gibbs' invisibility machine. After a failed attempt to turn Foghorn invisible with the machine, Bill became the de-facto leader of Blackie's henchmen and he and Hammerhead kidnapped Gibbs and Kitty Carroll from Richard Russell's mansion. When Kitty turned herself invisible, she hit Bill over the head with a rifle with enough force to bend the barrel and knocked him unconscious.

Dr. Borg

Dr. Borg is a scientist who appears in The Creature Walks Among Us. A jolly roentgenologist played by Maurice Manson who was a mutual colleague of Dr. William Barton and Dr. Tom Morgan, Dr. Borg was part of their expedition to search for the Gill Man in the Florida Everglades. Borg proved invaluable to the team, as it was his idea to use an advanced sonar array to locate the creature. Along with Dr. Johnson, he later assisted Barton and Morgan in their surgical transformation of the Gill Man from an aquatic creature into a land one.

Chico

Chico is one of the South American crewmen aboard the Rita in Creature from the Black Lagoon. He was Zee's brother, and dies early in the movie when the Gill Man attacked him on the deck of the Rita and pulled him down into the water to his death. He was played by Henry A. Escalante.

Foghorn

Foghorn is the leader of Blackie Cole's henchmen, played by Donald MacBride in The Invisible Woman. He was a very large man who earned his nickname thanks his deep bass voice. Along with Bill and Hammerhead, Foghorn was sent to America by Blackie to learn the secret of Professor Gibbs' invisibility machine. Foghorn attempted to gain entry to Gibbs' house by posing as a fellow scientist, but Kitty Carroll had overheard him talking to Bill and Hammerhead, and identified him as an imposter.

Later, while Kitty and the Professor were away visiting Richard Russell, Foghorn and his companions broke into Gibbs' laboratory and dismantled the invisibility machine, returning with it to Blackie's hideout in Mexico. After Hernandez reassembled the machine Blackie opted to test it out on Foghorn, but because it was missing a key component the test failed, and Foghorn lost his deep voice.

Sir Thomas Forsythe

Colonel Forsythe appears in Werewolf of London, wherein he is played by Lawrence Grant. He is a former army colonel and a prominent Scotland Yard official, as well as the son of the wealthy Lady Alice Forsythe and the uncle of Captain Paul Ames. He was baffled by a series of brutal killings which plagued London. Initially he chose not to believe his nephew's theory that the murders were the work of a werewolf, certain the killings were being done by a normal wolf that had escaped the zoo.

The mysterious Dr. Yogami came to Colonel Forsythe's office, telling him and Captain Ames of the mariphasa plant in the possession of Dr. Wilfred Glendon and its usefulness as an antidote for lycanthropy, but Forsythe shrugged him off. It wasn't until he and his men found withered mariphasa blossums in Yogami's apartment, the site of a third murder, that the Colonel finally put two and two together. Forsythe and his men drove to Glendon Manor, arriving in time to shoot the lycanthropic Glendon before he could kill his own wife, Lisa.

Hammerhead

Frankie, or "Hammerhead" as his friends call him, is one of Blackie Cole's henchmen in The Invisible Woman. He is played by Shemp Howard. He was one of the ones sent to steal Professor Gibbs' invisibility machine. It is unclear why he was nicknamed Hammerhead (although possibly it was because he was incredibly brash and headstrong).

Hawkins

Hawkins was Dr. Wilfred Glendon's loyal assistant who appears in Werewolf of London. He is played by J.M. Kerrigan. He helped Glendon in his at-home laboratory and tended to the numerous plants that the botanist kept in his collection. Hawkins was extremely loyal to his boss, so loyal in fact that he did not ask questions whenever Glendon began acting strangely. Although Hawkins did not know for certain it was because Glendon was a werewolf, he suspected it, especially after seeing Glendon's hand grow fur under the rays of the moon lamp.

Dr. Johnson

Dr. Johnson is a biochemist who appears in The Creature Walks Among Us. He is played by James Rawley. A mutual colleague of Dr. William Barton and Dr. Tom Morgan along with Dr. Borg, he accompanied them on their expedition to find the Gill Man in the Florida Everglades and assisted them in their surgical transformation of the creature.

Karl

Karl is one of Dr. Pretorius' assistants in the 1935 Bride of Frankenstein. He is played by Dwight Frye. He and Ludwig assisted Pretorius in robbing graves to get the parts needed to create the Bride of Frankenstein. When a fresh heart was needed for the Bride, Pretorius had Karl go out and murder a young woman and take her heart. When the Bride was being brought to life, the thunderstorm agitated the Frankenstein Monster, and Karl tried to cow the creature with a lit torch. This had the opposite effect, as the Monster threw Karl from the laboratory roof and killed him.

There was an abandoned subplot in Bride of Frankenstein that fleshed out Karl's character a bit more, in which he murdered his aunt and uncle, the Glutzes, and blamed their deaths on the Monster. This would've given the Monster a more sufficient reason for tossing Karl off the roof, but ultimately it was cut for time.

Prof. Bruno Lampini

Bruno Lampini, better known as Professor Lampini, is a sideshow huckster played by George Zucco who appears in House of Frankenstein. He was the owner of the travelling show known as Professor Lampini's Chamber of Horrors. Lampini had in his possession the actual skeleton of Dracula, which he took from the vampire's castle in Carpathia though this would seem impossible within the Universal series' continuity, as Dracula's skeleton would be resting in the swamps of the American South at the end of Son of Dracula, the previous Dracula installment. While travelling in a rainstorm, Lampini's wagon became stuck in the mud, and he and his assistant Sherman were unable to move it. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Dr. Gustav Niemann, freshly escaped from prison, arrived.

Niemann and his assistant Daniel helped Lampini and Sherman free the wagon from the mud, and in return a grateful Lampini allowed the two men hitch a ride with him to the next town. This proved to be a fatal mistake on Lampini's part, for when he refused to take Niemann to Reigelberg, the mad scientist ordered Daniel to kill him. Daniel did so by breaking Lampini's neck, a rather unflattering end for the man who did indeed possess Dracula's skeleton.

Niemann later impersonated Lampini and brought Dracula back to life by removing the stake from his heart.

Latham

Latham is a Scotland Yard detective who appears in She-Wolf of London. He is played by Lloyd Corrigan. He served under Inspector Pierce. When a number of vicious attacks and murders began occurring in a London park, Latham caused Pierce much grief with his off-the-wall theories that it was the work of a werewolf. While assisting constables in the nighttime hunt for the killer, Latham fell victim to the She-Wolf herself, Martha Winthrop. Martha cut Latham's throat, and he died before he could be taken to a hospital.

Dr. Lloyd

Dr. Lloyd is the family physician to the Talbots in Llanwelly, who appears in The Wolf Man. He is played by Warren William. He looked after Larry Talbot following his scrape with a werewolf, and did his best to convince Larry that his nightly transformations were all in his mind, as Lloyd did not believe in werewolves. Lloyd later joined Captain Paul Montford and Frank Andrews on the hunt for what they all thought was an ordinary wolf, but was in fact the Wolf Man.

Ludwig (Frankenstein)

Ludwig is the father of Maria, a woodcutter who lived in the town of Goldstadt. He appears in both Frankenstein, where he is played by Michael Mark, and its sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, where he is played by Reginald Barlow. In the latter film he is strangely referred to as Hans. Presumably this was to avoid confusion with another character named Ludwig (see below), who assisted Dr. Pretorius.

In Frankenstein, after finding his daughter Maria drowned, Ludwig blamed the Frankenstein Monster and, along with Henry Frankenstein and Burgomaster Vogel, led the angry mob that trapped the Monster in an old windmill.

Even though the mob burned the windmill down, Ludwig refused to rest until he saw the Monster's dead body. He ended up falling down into the flooded basement of the mill, where he encountered the still-living Monster. The Monster then killed Ludwig by drowning him.

Ludwig (Bride of Frankenstein)

Ludwig is one of Dr. Pretorius' two assistants who appear in Bride of Frankenstein. He is played by Ted Billings. He and Karl helped Pretorius rob graves for the parts needed to create the Bride of Frankenstein, and then assisted Pretorius and Henry Frankenstein in the actual creation of the Bride.

Ludwig completely disappears from Bride of Frankenstein towards the end of the film. The last time he's seen is when he watches the Frankenstein Monster kill Karl, and it is unknown if he was killed too.

Dr. Matos

Dr. Matos is a scientist who appears in Creature from the Black Lagoon, played by Sydney Mason. He worked at the Instituto de Biologia Maritma, and offered his expertise to colleagues Dr. David Reed and Dr. Mark Williams, regarding Dr. Carl Maia's fantastic find of a fossilized Gill Man hand.

Inspector Owen

Inspector Owen is a police inspector who appears in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. He is played by Dennis Hoey. A Scotland Yard detective, Owen was looking into the claims of a seemingly deranged man that he was not only Larry Talbot, thought dead for four years, but also a murderous werewolf. Owen accompanied Dr. Frank Mannering to Llanwelly, where the two discovered that someone had broken into the Talbot family crypt and that the body of Larry Talbot was missing.

Inspector Pierce

Inspector Pierce is a police inspector played by Dennis Hoey in the movie She-Wolf of London. The chief of Scotland Yard, Pierce was baffled by a number of brutal attacks occurring in one of London's public parks each full moon. Those who survived claimed it was a "wolf woman", and Pierce's assistant, Latham, was convinced it was a werewolf. Pierce did not believe so, at least not until Latham was killed and, with his dying breath, said he'd been attacked by a wolf woman. Of course, even then it turned out that the killer was not supernatural at all, but merely Phyllis Allenby's aunt, Martha Winthrop.

Captain Stanley

Captain Stanley is the captain of the research vessel Vagabondia III, who appears in The Creature Walks Among Us. He is played by David McMahon. Stanley took Dr. William Barton and his expedition into the Florida Everglades to hunt for the Gill Man.

Victor Twiddle

Twiddle is Captain Paul Montford's assistant who appears in The Wolf Man. He is played by Forrester Harvey. Twiddle's job seemed to consist entirely of jotting down whatever clues and information Paul found at a crime scene on his notepad. An extremely squeamish and cowardly man, Twiddle was visibly distressed and unnerved by the rash of murders committed by the Wolf Man.

Jenny Williams

Jenny Williams appears in The Wolf Man, played by Fay Helm. She was a close friend of Gwen Conliffe. Jenny accompanied Gwen and Larry Talbot to see Bela, the Gypsy fortune teller. While having her fortune told, Bela, who was a werewolf, saw the mark of the pentagram on Jenny's hand. Realizing she was to be his next victim, he tried to save her life by sending her away, but turned into a wolf under the light of the full moon, then chased her down and killed her before meeting his own demise.

Mrs. Williams

Mrs. Williams is Jenny Williams' mother, who appears in The Wolf Man and is played by Doris Lloyd. She blamed Gwen Conliffe for her daughter's death.

Zee

Zee is Chico's brother and one of the South American crewmen aboard the Rita in Creature from the Black Lagoon. He is played by Bernie Gozier. After seeing his brother get dragged down into the water by the Gill Man and killed, Zee fell victim to the creature as well when he attacked it with a machete trying to protect Kay Lawrence and it strangled him to death.

In the original screenplay for Creature From the Black Lagoon, the Gill Man kills Zee not by strangling him, but by picking him up and throwing him. The manner of his death was changed after the wires used to lift Bernie Gozier up kept breaking.