Trivia

According to legend, he became close friends with Bela Lugosi and once prevented Lugosi from committing suicide by threatening to throw him out a window.

Due to his enormous weight, he had a habit of breaking toilet seats.

Though often typecast in silent roles due to his appearance and physique--and very thick Swedish accent--he was actually a very learned and eloquent man to those who knew him personally.

His wife, Greta, reportedly did not care for the horror films he made late in his career. They made him seem to be a monster, quite the opposite of what her husband was off-camera.

Unlike most professional wrestlers, Tor had naturally blond hair. However, in his wrestling and acting days, he kept his head shaved bald to add to his villainous appearance.

Is portrayed by George 'The Animal' Steele in Ed Wood (1994)

Wrestled professionally under the names 'Swedish Angel', 'Super-Swedish Angel' and 'King Kong'.

When he appeared on the Groucho Marx show You Bet Your Life (1950) he revealed his weight was 387 pounds, and his hips were 60", waist 54", chest 62", biceps 22", neck 20".

In the film, "Mad Max" (1979), the Halloween mask Mel Gibson puts on at his home is a Tor Johnson mask.

When speaking of her Night of the Ghouls (1959) co-star, Valda Hansen said that "Tor was like a big sugar bun".

Tor once told Forrest J. Ackerman that he played two different "Lobo" characters; the first was a mute Lobo created by Edward D. Wood Jr.. in Bride of the Monster (1955) and Night of the Ghouls (1959); the second Lobo (Lobo II), who could speak, was a different character created by Jane Mann and John D.F. Black in The Unearthly (1957). Johnson was proud of the distinction.

His son Karl Johnson was a police officer, a Lieutenant, with the San Fernando, CA, police department and also appeared in a few of Tor's films.

During his professional wrestling career, he had a "feud" with fellow Swedish professional wrestler Olaf Swenson ,who was known in the ring as the Swedish Angel. The plot line had Tor adopting the wrestling moniker "Super Swedish Angel" which would lead up to many confrontations.

In referring to the off-camera Tor Johnson, Forrest J. Ackerman said "once you take the mask off of the monster, there was Santa Claus inside.".

Don Post Studios did a life cast of him that would become one of its top-selling rubber masks.

Interred at Eternal Valley Memorial Park, Newhall, CA, in the Whispering Pines section, #177 E.

He was one of professional wrestling's super-heavyweights and was regarded as one of the strongest men in the ring.

Rotund, bald-headed actor who played menacing roles in Grade-Z horror and/or sci-fi movies Edward D. Wood Jr.'s notorious Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957).