The Strange Fate of Glenn Strange, the Other Frankenstein Monster

Quick, who played Frankenstein’s monster? Boris Karloff, of course! Karloff played the monster three times, but the role was also filled by Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Glenn Strange. Who? Glenn Strange doesn’t have the name recognition that Karloff had, but he played the monster in three movie -just like Karloff. The 6’5” Strange made his living playing cowboys in Western movies and TV shows, and he isn’t much remembered for that, either.

As the story goes, while making up Strange for yet another cowboy picture in 1944, Universal makeup legend Jack Pierce offered him a few bucks to stay late that night so Pierce could try an experiment. Strange agreed, and when Pierce finished working on him that night and he saw the results, his first response was “I look like Boris Karloff.”

Read the strange story of how Universal constantly recast Frankenstein’s monster, and how Glenn Strange filled those big, heavy shoes, at Den of Geek.