|
The hulking menace of
low-grade 50s horror flicks was born in
October 19th 1903 in Sweden.
At 63 and tipping the scales
at close to 300 lbs he took the wrestling
world by storm. In 1928 he traveled to
the California before barnstorming the
country coast-to-coast under the
professional wrestling name The
Swedish Angel.
In no time Hollywood came
calling and Tor was perfect for a great
number of roles as a weightlifter or a
strongman most often as a comic foil. His
first film was the WC Fields vehicle (as
a Tusoff wrestler) in The
Man on the Flying Trapeze
(1935). He appeared in two Abbott and
Costello features as Majordomo in
Lost in a Harem
(1944) and Abou Ben in A
& C in the Foreign Legion
(1950). He was in a couple of Bob Hope
features -- as Samson in The
Road to Rio (1947) and
The Lemon Drop Kid
(1951). Some of his other early roles
were as Sir Guy (a jouster) in The
Canterville Ghost (1944),
with Olsen and Johnson in Ghost
Catchers (1944), as a
pro-wrestler in Shadow of
the Thin Man (1941), a pro
wrestler in the Hepburn-Tracy vehicle
State of the Union
(1948), as The Champ in Behind
Locked Doors (1948),
Vladimir Pulasky in The
Meanest Man in the World
(1943) with Jack Benny, etc. He had
little dialogue and a whole lot of
menace. You get the picture.
His career seemed rather
destined to continue along a similar path
and then came Ed Wood Jr. who cast him as
Lobo, the gargantuan lumbering (and
silent) assistant to Bela Lugosi (as
Doctor Vornoff) in Bride of
the Monster (1955). In the
movie Vornoff wants to mate Lobo with
put-upon heroine (Loretta King) to create
a super race. The following year Tor
appeared once more with Lugosi (and once
more Tor was mute) as Mr. Curry (a
medical experiment gone awry) in Reginald
LeBorgs The Black
Sheep. This 1956 horror
flick (probably Tors finest in the
horror field) boasted an awesome horror
cast that, in addition to Lugosi and
Johnson, included Lon Chaney, John
Carradine, Basil Rathbone (as the mad
scientist this time!), and Akim Tamiroff.
The following year Tor returned to
playing Lobo in Brooke L. Peters
The Unearthly
(1957). This time out Tor is the casualty
of some gland experiments and becomes the
dopey servant to mad doctor John
Carradine. However, in this flick Tor isnt
completely silent he has some
awesome dialogue such as Time to go
for bed. The Unearthly
costarred Sally Todd and Allison (That
50 Foot Woman)
Hayes. The he came back to the Ed Wood
Jr. fold in 1959 for the movie opus
Plan 9 From Outer Space
(Which was originally titled Grave
Robbers From Outer Space).
In this hypnotic and celebrated
train-wreck of a movie Tor is cast as
Inspector Clay who rises from the grave
as the zombie sidekick to Vampira as
Ghoul Woman (not quite a girl yet not
quite a woman.) Plan 9
was Lugosis final film. The horror
legend died abruptly during production
and his scenes as The Ghoul Man (is this
an Ed Wood in-joke?) were forcibly wedged
and incorporated into a revised plot and
his additional lurking about the
graveyard scenes were done by a LA
chiropractor (!!) Tom Mason. (As a trivia
note Tor Johnson appeared in all 3 of
Lugosis final films. The two became
good friends and it is even rumored that
Tor saved Lugosi from suicide at one
point.) The same year he appeared in yet
another Wood movie --- once more as Lobo
--- in Night of the Ghouls
(a sorta sequel to Bride of
the Monster), which
costarred Duke Moore, Kenne Duncan (as
Dr. Acula), Paul Marco, Vampira, and
Vlada Hansen.
In 1961 Tor made his final
horror movie (and perhaps his worst
which is saying something!) the
amazingly appalling Coleman Francis flick
The Beast of Yucca Flats.
In which he plays a defecting Russian
scientist who is caught in an atomic
blast, mutates in a radioactive monster,
and lives in a cave. He kills people and
cannibalizes people and it is all done
with (Gasp! Arg!) voice-over narration.
Tor was so obese during filming that
supposedly crew was needed to hoist him
up and down the sand dunes. For this bit
of career suicide Tor was paid $300 (No,
thats not a type-o!) for his
starring role. He made only one more film
Bob Rafelsons vehicle for The
Monkees Head
in (1968)!
Tor also made sporadic
appearances on television in such shows
as Groucho Marxs You
Bet Your Life (in which he
tested his knowledge of classical
mythology), The Red Skelton
Show, Peter
Gunn, and Bonanza
(in a notable role Tor played Busthead
Brannigan who wrestles Hoss Cartwright in
the San Francisco Days
episode.)
On May 12th 1971
Tor died of a heart ailment in San
Fernando CA at the age of 67. According
to his death certificate he had suffered
from rheumatic heart disease for over 40
years. This compromised condition was no
doubt exasperated by Tors habit of
eating gallons of ice cream and drinking
copious amounts of beer often a
case at a time. The Swedish Angel, who
was often so big he crushed toilet seats,
was interred at the Whispering Pines
section of Eternal Valley Memorial Park
in Newhall California.
Since his death Tor has been
immortalized on film by pro wrestler
George The Animal
Steele in Tim Burtons 1994 bio-pic
Ed Wood. Tor
has also achieved even greater
immortality through sales of the rubber
Lobo The Henchman mask thats
right that creepy bald slipover head mask
that has been a Halloween staple for
decades is closely modeled on Tor Johnson
himself. |