He made the Universal back lot his own personal preyground: Rondo Hatton, who attained B-movie stardom at the very end of his life via the role of the spine-snapping serial killer The Creeper. The victim of a disfiguring disease, Hatton needed no makeup when he played this night stalker in The Pearl of Death (1944), House of Horrors (1946) and The Brute Man (1946).A lot of misery and physical pain were packed into Rondo Hatton's 51 years on Earth and he m...

In the horror movie heyday of Universal Pictures, he made the studio back lot his own personal preyground: Rondo Hatton, star of the company's "Creeper" series. The victim of a disfiguring disease, Hatton needed no makeup to play the Creeper, a night-prowling vertebrae-ker, in The Pearl of Death (1944), House of Horrors (1946) and The Brute Man (1946).A lot of misery and physical pain were packed into Rondo Hatton's 51 years on Earth and he met his challenges with courage. This boo...