Henry "Bomber" Kulky

Here is a perennial favorite with a great name.  Henry "Bomber" Kulky (1911 - 1965) started out as a boxer and then went into wrestling.  In South America, he was in somewhere between 175 and 7,000 matches.  He remembered it differently than the rest of the world....but he said he won most of them.

During his years as a wrestler he got to know Mike Mazurki, and that led to making movies.  Click on Mike's name to see more about him. 

Kulky has 113 titles on IMDb in the movies and on TV.  His roles weren't usually big, and many of his productions weren't the biggest hits, but he brought character to the roles and life to those movies.  He looked like a wrestler with a boxing background, so that limited his roles to playing bartenders, strongmen, soldiers, cops, crooks and such. 

In 1948 he was in To the Ends of the Earth with Dick Powell.  He played a 'Giant Chinese Man.'  He was a strongman in Mighty Joe Young (1949).  In 1951 he was in Love Nest with Marilyn Monroe.  And the B-movies kept coming for him.  Red Planet Mars (1952), No Holds Barred (1952), and Target Hong Kong (1953).

He was versatile enough to play children's movies - The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953), horror flicks - Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954), and comedies - Fireman Save My Child (1954) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops (1955).

I recently saw him as the bartender in The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959) starring Joel McCrea.  I don't believe he said a word, but his face is unmistakable. 

When I was young, we watched "The Life of Riley" on TV, and Henry Kulky played Otto Schmidlap, Chester Riley's friend.  The memories come flooding back.  He also had a regular role in "Hennesey" starring Jackie Cooper. 

His final role was as Chief Petty Officer Curley Jones on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."  I was 14 years old when that was on, so it was a show I never missed.  And CPO Jones wasn't someone to mess with!

Henry died of a heart attack during that series.  He never had big parts, but he is worth looking for.  And once you see him, you can't miss him!

"Iron" Mike Mazurki, the Wrestler

My guess is that you will know Mike Mazurki from his photo.  He played in over 150 roles in the movies and TV, from 1934 to 1990, the year of his death.

He stood six and a half feet tall, and started his working career as a wrestler, football and basketball player.  His size and his face got him some small roles in the movies, and then his acting career took off.  He continued to wrestle as well.

He worked in 14 films as an uncredited thug, wrestler or fighter, before his big break came in 1945's Murder, My Sweet starring Dick Powell.  He used his physical characteristics to become a gangland thug on film, but he was also great in bringing his character into comedies. 

That same year he was also in The Thin Man Goes Home and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood.  He played Splitface in the 1945 version of Dick Tracy, and appeared as well in the 1990 version by the same name, starring Warren Beatty.  For another change of pace, look for him in Neptune's Daughter with Esther Williams and Red Skelton. 

Mazurki was at home doing film-noir, as well as sit-coms.  After TV became popular, Iron Mike started appearing on the small screen and also continued in movies.  He appears several times in "Have Gun - Will Travel." "The Untouchables" and "Perry Mason" where you would expect to see him, but he also worked on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," "The Munsters," "Mister Ed" and "Gilligan's Island."

In 1959 he worked with Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot, and then in 1963 he had a small role in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with almost every great comedian who was alive at the time.

He found a lot of work in westerns, on TV and the big screen.  He also appeared in a comedy/sci-fi TV series in 1966-1967 called "It's About Time" but I have never heard of it.  I guess I was wrapped up in "Star Trek" at that time.

Although Mazurki continued to work up to 1990, he only had small roles after 1975 and Challenge to be Free, a true story with Mike in the lead as a trapper accused of murder.  I guess his age was catching up to him.  He brought a lot to movies and TV, and I am pleased to write about this great Bit Part Actor.