Carlos Cruz Gemora (June 15, 1903 â€" 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.Gemora was born on the
island of Negros, Philippines, and arrived in San Francisco as a
stowaway. He quickly found work on a fruit farm in Colusa, California
but later 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 (1923). Gemora found his 5'4"/163 cm
stature made him a natural to wear a gorilla suit, which he did,
beginning with The Leopard Lady (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/1940s, Gemora moved into science fiction films such
as the Martian in War of the Worlds and I Married a Monster from Outer
Space.
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.Gemora was born on the
island of Negros, Philippines, and arrived in San Francisco as a
stowaway. He quickly found work on a fruit farm in Colusa, California
but later 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 (1923). Gemora found his 5'4"/163 cm
stature made him a natural to wear a gorilla suit, which he did,
beginning with The Leopard Lady (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/1940s, Gemora moved into science fiction films such
as the Martian in War of the Worlds and I Married a Monster from Outer
Space.
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