Director Guillermo del Toro\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein\u201d<\/a> is finally streaming on Netflix, and at the center of all of the initial praise for the film is Jacob Elordi<\/a>. The \u201cEuphoria\u201d and \u201cSaltburn\u201d breakout star has received widespread acclaim for his performance in the film as the Creature, the being of cobbled-and-stitched-together body parts stolen from other, dead corpses who is brought to life in an act of unholy creation by the arrogant scientist, Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac).<\/p>\n Elordi is utterly unrecognizable in the role, and yet he gives the film enough humanity to make its second half sing. In the wider history of \u201cFrankenstein\u201d adaptations<\/a>, he is not the first performer to do so. On the contrary, Elordi is the latest in a long line of actors who have played Frankenstein\u2019s monster onscreen.<\/p>\n In honor of his star-making turn in \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d though, here is a look back at some of the other iconic performers who have filled the character\u2019s undead shoes over the years.<\/p>\n Boris Karloff in \u2018Frankenstein\u2019 (1931)<\/p>\n Nearly 100 years later, actor Boris Karloff\u2019s portrayal of the Creature in director James Whale\u2019s 1931 adaptation of \u201cFrankenstein\u201d remains the most iconic and well-known take on the character to date. Karloff went on to reprise the role a few times throughout his career, most notably in 1935\u2019s \u201cThe Bride of Frankenstein,\u201d as well as in 1939\u2019s \u201cSon of Frankenstein.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Ghost of Frankenstein\u201d (Universal Pictures Company, Inc.)<\/p>\n While Karloff\u2019s performance as Frankenstein\u2019s monster remains the most iconic, he was far from the only noteworthy actor to take on the role during Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age era. Lon Chaney, Jr. famously played the character in 1942\u2019s \u201cThe Ghost of Frankenstein\u201d and would eventually become the only actor in Hollywood history to portray all of Universal\u2019s major movie monsters (the Wolf Man, Frankenstein\u2019s monster, the Mummy and Dracula).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n In addition to Chaney, Bela Lugosi played Frankenstein\u2019s monster in \u201cFrankenstein Meets the Wolf Man,\u201d while Glenn Strange stepped into the role in \u201cHouse of Frankenstein,\u201d \u201cHouse of Dracula\u201d and \u2014 perhaps most famously of all \u2014 \u201cAbbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Munsters\u201d (CBS)<\/p>\n From 1964 through 1966, Fred Gwynne portrayed Herman Munster, the patriarch of a family of monsters, in the short-lived but beloved CBS sitcom \u201cThe Munsters.\u201d While Herman Munster is never directly called Frankenstein\u2019s monster in the series, the character is clearly modeled after the latter, with Gwynne wearing makeup and prosthetics that are meant to intentionally echo those worn by Karloff in 1931\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the character\u2019s different name, Gwynne\u2019s Herman Munster remains one of the most well-known takes on Frankenstein\u2019s monster. He certainly, at least, holds more of a place in American pop culture history than many of the direct takes on Frankenstein\u2019s monster featured in some of the Hammer and B-movies produced throughout the 1950s and \u201960s. (See: Christopher Lee\u2019s turn as the character in 1957\u2019s \u201cThe Curse of Frankenstein\u201d and Kiwi Kingston\u2019s version of the Creature in 1964\u2019s \u201cThe Evil of Frankenstein.\u201d)<\/p>\n \u201cYoung Frankenstein\u201d (20th Century Fox)<\/p>\n Peter Boyle gave a performance for the ages when he turned in a comedic version of Frankenstein\u2019s monster in writer-director Mel Brooks\u2019 1974 classic comedy, \u201cYoung Frankenstein.\u201d Pulling visual inspiration from Karloff\u2019s take on the character, Boyle\u2019s Monster is a gentle giant with greater urges to entertain and, um, engage with the humans he\u2019s surrounded by.<\/p>\n Ashley Bank and Tom Noonan in \u2018Monster Squad\u2019 (TriStar Pictures)<\/p>\n Speaking of more lighthearted spins on the character, actor Tom Noonan famously portrayed Frankenstein\u2019s monster in director Fred Dekker\u2019s 1987 horror comedy \u201cThe Monster Squad,\u201d which follows a group of children who find themselves in a fight to prevent some of cinema\u2019s most iconic monsters from taking over and controlling the human world.<\/p>\n \u201cMary Shelley\u2019s Frankenstein\u201d (TriStar Pictures)<\/p>\n The most-often-forgotten adaptation of Mary Shelley\u2019s original 1818 \u201cFrankenstein\u201d novel happens to be widely regarded as the most faithful. It also stars none other than Robert De Niro as the Creature, and his take on the iconic character in this Kenneth Branagh-directed film is more physically horrifying and sadistic than most mainstream Hollywood iterations of the figure have dared to be. Despite that, it is rightly not regarded as one of De Niro\u2019s more memorable performances.<\/p>\n \u201cI, Frankenstein\u201d (Lionsgate)<\/p>\n De Niro is not the only noteworthy performer who has delivered an ultimately forgettable performance as Frankenstein\u2019s monster onscreen. \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d star Aaron Eckhart famously played an action-hero version of the character, who calls himself Adam Frankenstein, in the extremely mediocre 2013 film \u201cI, Frankenstein.\u201d<\/p>\n The box office flop follows Eckhart\u2019s Adam as he battles evil demons and their leader in order to prevent them from taking over the human world. None of it\u2019s very good, and its barely-scarred take on its eponymous character is indicative of just how badly \u201cI, Frankenstein\u201d misses the point.<\/p>\n \u201cVictor Frankenstein\u201d (20th Century Fox)<\/p>\n One of Hollywood\u2019s last big-screen takes on \u201cFrankenstein\u201d before Guillermo del Toro\u2019s adaptation of it this year came in 2015 with \u201cVictor Frankenstein.\u201d Director Paul McGuigan\u2019s unremarkable, Max Landis-penned riff on Shelley\u2019s original novel stars James McAvoy as Victor Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe as his assistant, Igor.<\/p>\n While the film is mostly about the relationship between McAvoy\u2019s Victor and Radcliffe\u2019s Igor, Welsh actor, stunt performer and kickboxer Spencer Wilding does appear in the film as Frankenstein\u2019s monster, who is called \u201cPrometheus\u201d in the movie. As was the case with \u201cI, Frankenstein,\u201d the less said about \u201cVictor Frankenstein,\u201d the better.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bride!\u201d (Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n We\u2019ll end this list with a look not back in the past but ahead to the future, because none other than Christian Bale is set to play Frankenstein\u2019s monster in next year\u2019s \u201cThe Bride!\u201d<\/p>\n The film comes from \u201cThe Lost Daughter\u201d writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal, and it reimagines the story of the Bride (Jessie Buckley), an undead woman brought to life to be the paramour of Bale\u2019s monster, as a rip-roaring \u201cBonnie and Clyde\u201d-esque crime romance set in 1930s Chicago. Already, Bale\u2019s interpretation of Frankenstein\u2019s monster looks like it will be a memorable addition to the character\u2019s storied cinematic history.<\/p>\n The post 8 Actors Who Played Frankenstein\u2019s Monster Before Jacob Elordi | Photos<\/a> appeared first on TheWrap<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Director Guillermo del Toro\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein\u201d is finally streaming on Netflix, and at the center of all of the initial praise for the film is Jacob Elordi. The \u201cEuphoria\u201d and \u201cSaltburn\u201d breakout star has received widespread acclaim for his performance in the film as the Creature, the being of cobbled-and-stitched-together body parts stolen from other, dead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2159739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[313549,413917,354202,378992,336192,369877,103955,413918,309841,385522,413916,342251,358638],"class_list":["post-2159738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-20th-century-fox","tag-abbott-and-costello-meet-frankenstein","tag-boris-karloff","tag-bride-of-frankenstein","tag-frankenstein","tag-frankensteins-monster","tag-guillermo-del-toro","tag-house-of-frankenstein","tag-jacob-elordi","tag-peter-boyle","tag-son-of-frankenstein","tag-victor-frankenstein","tag-young-frankenstein"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/8-Actors-Who-Played-Frankensteins-Monster-Before-Jacob-Elordi.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2159738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2159740,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159738\/revisions\/2159740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2159739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2159738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2159738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2159738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n
Boris Karloff<\/h2>\n
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Lon Chaney, Jr.<\/h2>\n
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Fred Gwynne<\/h2>\n
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Peter Boyle<\/h2>\n
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Tom Noonan<\/h2>\n
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Robert De Niro<\/h2>\n
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Aaron Eckhart<\/h2>\n
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Spencer Wilding<\/h2>\n
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Christian Bale<\/h2>\n