Tampa Film Fan

tampa’s own rondo hatton, the monster without the makeup

I had never heard of Rondo Hatton until my sister-in-law told me about him several years ago. Hatton moved to Tampa in 1912, attended the University of Tampa and returned to Tampa after serving in WWI. While writing a story about a movie being filmed in Tampa for the Tampa Tribune, Hatton was offered a movie role. He and his wife subsequently moved to Hollywood, where he was in more than 25 pictures.

What makes this different from Lana Turner being discovered in Schwab’s Drug Store (as the story goes) is that Hatton was chosen because he suffered from acromegaly, a hormonal disorder that deforms the face and other parts of the body. His best known role was the Creeper.

Hatton died in 1946 and is buried in the American Legion cemetery on Kennedy Boulevard here in Tampa.

The Tampa Tribune recently had an interesting column on Hatton, and the April issue of South Tampa magazine featured him as well. The magazine article mentioned that horror movie actor/art director/production designer Robert A. Burns (The Howling, Reanimator) has a website about Rondo Hatton and one day hopes to make a movie about him.