Glenn Strange

Infobox actor
bgcolour = silver
name = Glenn Strange


imagesize =
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birthname = George Glenn Strange
birthdate = birth date |1899|8|16
location = Weed in Otero County, New Mexico Territory, USA
deathdate = death date and age|1973|9|20|1899|8|16
deathplace = Los Angeles, California, USA
height = 6 feet, 5 inches
othername =
homepage =
role = Sam Noonan, the Bartender on "Gunsmoke" (CBS)
spouse = (1) Flora Hooper Strange, (2) Not known, (3) Minnie Thompson Strange (1937-1973)
children = Harry Glenn Strange (born 1938), Janine Laraine Strange

Glenn Strange (August 16, 1899 - September 20, 1973) was an American actor who appeared mostly in Western films. He is best known for playing the Frankenstein Monster in three Universal films during the 1940s and for his role as Sam Noonan, the bartender on CBS' "Gunsmoke" television series. Strange was of Irish and Cherokee descent and was a cousin of the Western film star Rex Allen.

Strange was born some thirteen years prior to New Mexico statehood near Alamogordo in tiny Weed in Otero County west of El Paso. He was the fourth child of William Russell Strange and the former Sarah Eliza Byrd. He was a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Pocahontas and John Rolfe of Virginia.

Strange grew up in tiny Cross Cut (formerly known as Cross Out) in Brown County some fifty miles east of Abilene in west Texas. His father was a bartender and later a rancher. Strange learned by ear how to play the fiddle and guitar. By the time he was twelve, he was performing at cowboy dances. By 1928, he was on radio in El Paso. He was a young rancher, but in 1930, he came to Hollywood as a member of the radio singing group, Arizona Wranglers. Strange joined the singers after having appeared at a rodeo in Prescott in Yavapai County in central Arizona. His cousin, Taylor McPeters, known as Cactus Mack, was also part of the Wranglers.

Strange procured his first motion picture role in 1932 and literally appeared in hundreds of films during his lifetime. In the first "Lone Ranger" television series, he portrayed Butch Cavendish, who wiped out all of the Texas Rangers, but one, the role of Clayton Moore. He first appeared on "Gunsmoke" in 1959 and assumed several roles on the long-running program before he was cast as the bartender.

Frankenstein's Monster

In 1942, he appeared in "The Mad Monster" for Producers Releasing Corporation. In 1944, Glenn was cast in Universal Studios "House of Frankenstein" as "Frankenstein's Monster", a role created by Boris Karloff in the 1931 version of "Frankenstein". Strange was coached by Boris Karloff for hours when they both appeared in 1944s "House of Frankenstein". He recounted a personal anecdote in the documentary, "Ted Newson's 100 Years of Horror" (1996). On the movie set of Universal's "House of Dracula" (1944), Lon Chaney, Jr., got him extremely inebriated. In the climactic scene, Strange had to be stuck for hours in "deep quicksand" (which was actually cold mud) waiting for the cameras to roll. Chaney who had a day off recommended that alcohol would keep Strange warm as he wore the influential Jack Pierce make-up for hours. Strange could barely get dressed after the days shooting. In the same documentary, Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner also recalled that "House of Frankenstein" and other black and white horror films kept Universal Studios financially afloat in the 1930s. Universal would have gone bankrupt without the various monster franchises, and thankfully for the Abbott and Costello films in the 1940s.

Strange went on to play the Frankenstein monster in two more Universal films, "House of Dracula" (1945) and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948), with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney, Jr. He also played an ape-like monster in The Bowery Boys horror-comedy "Master Minds" in 1949, a film inspired by Abbott & Costello's hit of the previous year.

Boris Karoff's obituary in 1969 was run in newspapers with Glenn Strange's picture as Frankenstein's monster.

Gunsmoke (The Television Series): 1961-1973

Strange was 6 feet, 5 inches, and weighed 220 pounds. His first wife was the former Flora Hooper. He was married for thirty-six years (1937–1973) to his third wife, the former Minnie Thompson (1911–2004). The couple had two children, Harry Glenn Strange (born 1938) of Klamath Falls, Oregon, and Janine Laraine Strange. Strange died of lung cancer in Los Angeles just after declining health had compelled him to leave his role on Gunsmoke. Strange had from time to time collaborated on various tunes with western actor Eddie Dean, including the opening title song for Dean's "Tumbleweed Trail" (1942). Dean sang at Strange's funeral service as a final tribute to the actor. Glenn was interred at Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

In 1975, two years after Strange's death, his "Gunsmoke" costar Buck Taylor named his third son "Cooper Glenn Taylor" after his friend Glenn Strange.

External links

*
* [http://www.b-westerns.com/villain1.htm "Glenn Strange, the B western villain"]
* [http://www.tv.com/glenn-strange/person/35071/biography.html"TV.com biography"]
* [http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi"SSDI search information"]
* [http://gammillustrations.bizland.com/monsterkid3/html/ac_cre1.html Glenn Strange appears on Abbott and Costello's television program]
* [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=vrguPghlZ6U Glenn Strange's Make-Up Recreated on You Tube]

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Persondata
NAME= Strange, Glenn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Strange, George Glenn
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Actor
DATE OF BIRTH= Harry Glenn Strange (born 1938), Janine Laraine Strange
PLACE OF BIRTH= Weed in Otero County, New Mexico Territory, USA
DATE OF DEATH= 1973-9-20
PLACE OF DEATH= Los Angeles, California, USA