Rondo!

 My brother gave me an inspiring book for my birthday on the drawings of Thomas Fluharty in which this great American illustrator used a dark blue crayon to make wonderfully loose and dynamic sketches of people. I thought I’d have a bash so using a double ended red and blue crayon I drew this image of the fabulously ugly Rondo Hatton. Originally a tall and handsome athlete as Rondo got older he was afflicted more and more by a genetic illness called acromegaly which gradually distorted his features and inflicted increasing pain until it killed him at the early age of 51. When his facial features became distorted he was embraced by Hollywood to appear in a string of films including the one I first saw him in- The Pearl of Death starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson. The film was based on one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories with an element added by the film studio- The Creeper (alias The ‘Oxton ‘Orror!) who was a terrifying brute who could snap men’s spines, played unforgettably by Rondo Hatton. He was such a hit in this film that he went on to appear in 6 more before the disease claimed him. He has since become a horror film icon. What a fizzog!