Rondo Hatton was voted the most handsome man in high school

[CatWoman]

however, after being exposed to mustard gas during WWI, acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland set in.



Rondo still earned modest success in Hollywood, albeit thru acting roles that played off his deformities.

Today, acromegaly can be cured if caught in time. The acromegaly of British actor Paul Benedict--he played Bentley on TV's The Jeffersons--was surgically stopped after minor progression.

[kay1864]

1. I never knew that!

I recognized his name right away, having discovered him during pre-Internet days (remember those?).

There was an homage to him in the movie The Rocketeer.

[CatWoman]

2. Correct!!!

His famous face has become an icon of Hollywood cinema. His legacy lives on through such tributes as a character in Disney's The Rocketeer (1991) and The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondo_Hatton

I watched MST3K's "Brute Man" last night, and Rondo starred in the lead role.

I also remember his "Creeper" character from other movies.

[kay1864]

4. Huh. Wikipedia and imdb offer somewhat different accounts:

Wiki: Because the symptoms developed in adulthood (as is common with acromegaly), the disfigurement was incorrectly attributed to his exposure to mustard gas during service in World War I, or so the studios claimed in their publicity.

imdb: At some point after his exposure to the poison gas, he also developed acromegaly, a slowly progressive deforming of bones in the head, hands and feet, and internal and external soft tissues caused by disease of the pituitary gland, which onsets after the individual has reached his full genetic height (under normal pituitary influence), and production of growth hormones resume, but the bone structure can no longer produce symmetric growth (as in giantism). According to all authors, his acromegaly was a result of the poison gas, though typically, it is caused by a tumor on the pituitary.

[CatWoman]

5. perhaps the gas served as a trigger?

[kay1864]

6. Dunno.

Almost anyone can post in wiki or imdb, so it's hard to say. Although both tend to be self-correcting.

[Left Is Write]

3. According to the Wikipedia article, his acrmegaly was *incorrectly* attributed to mustard gas.