Thursday, July 10, 2014

Charles Gemora




Charles Gemora was in SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN with Thelma Todd as well as SEAL SKINS. He was in a scene with Laurel and Hardy that was named by Patsy Kelly as her favorite. Then there was that business about him being KING KONG...




Charles Gemora

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles Gemora
BornCarlos Cruz Gemora
(1903-06-15)June 15, 1903
Negros, Philippines
DiedAugust 19, 1961(1961-08-19) (aged 58)
Hollywood, California, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1928–1958
ChildrenDiana Gemora
Carlos Cruz Gemora (June 15, 1903 – August 19, 1961), commonly known as Charles Gemora, was a former Hollywood makeup artist renowned as "the King of the Gorilla Men" for his prolific appearances in many Hollywood films while wearing a gorilla suit.

Biography

Gemora was born on the island of Negros in the Philippines, and arrived in San Francisco as a stowaway. He quickly found work at the Brentwood fruit farm in Colusa, CA. and eventually moved to Los Angeles. He earned money doing portrait sketches outside of Universal Studios where his talents were discovered and put to work in the studio's sculpture department for The Hunchback of Notre Dame.[1] When creating a gorilla suit Gemora found his 5'4"/163 cm stature made him a natural to wear the suit himself beginning with The Leopard Lady in 1928.
Gemora's study of real gorillas at the San Diego Zoo and his expertise on makeup gave him an extensive career as a gorilla opposite such luminaries as Our Gang (Bear Shooters), Lon Chaney (The Unholy Three), Bela Lugosi (Murders in the Rue Morgue), Laurel and Hardy, (The Chimp & Swiss Miss), The Marx Brothers (At the Circus), Bob Hope and Bing Crosby (Road to Zanzibar), The Great Gildersleeve (Gildersleeve's Ghost), Abbott and Costello (Africa Screams) and Robert Mitchum (White Witch Doctor).
With men in gorilla suits no longer providing the same scares in the 1950s as they did in the 1930s and '40s, Gemora moved his creature expertise into science fiction films such as the Martian in War of the Worlds and I Married a Monster from Outer Space.[2]

Death

Gemora died of a heart attack in August 1961 while he was working on the makeup of the film Jack the Giant Killer.

References

  1. Jump up ^ Biography for Charles Gemora at the Internet Movie Database
  2. Jump up ^ p.167 Johnson, John Cheap Tricks and Class Acts 1996 McFarland

External links

         


*Thelma Todd would have been one of the earlier blondes to have been menaced by a gorilla, because of her role in SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN.















THE GORILLA ( 1930 ):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gorilla_(1930_film)




SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/02/seven-footprints-to-satan.html



SWISS MISS:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030824/


Charles Gemora:
http://felixinhollywood.blogspot.com/2010/08/well-hell-be-monkeys-uncle.html

http://charliegemora.com/

Charles Gemora in SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN:
http://www.hollywoodgorillamen.com/2010/02/seven-footprints-to-satan.html


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