Lou Ferrigno

Brooklyn Silence and Iron

A badly treated ear infection robbed him of 80% of his hearing when he was barely three years old. Lou Ferrigno grew up in an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn where weakness came at a high price. That sound isolation drew him toward superhero comic books and cast-iron weights in the basement of his family home.

At 1973, he became the youngest man to win the Mr. Universe title. He repeated the feat in 1974. He stood nearly six feet six inches tall and weighed 130 pounds of dense muscle. But the bodybuilding world was a small, poorly paid niche back then.

The defeat to Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1975 changed the course of his career.

In 1977, the documentary Pumping Iron showed a vulnerable Ferrigno, pressured by a father who acted as his coach. The film didn't win him the Mr. Olympia title, but it gave him something more valuable in the entertainment industry. TV producers saw in him a physical humanity that no other athlete had.

The Latex and Green Paint Monster

Richard Kiel, the actor who played Jaws in the James Bond films, was the first choice to play the green giant. After a couple of days of filming, the producers decided he wasn't muscular enough. Ferrigno got the call on a Thursday, and by Monday he was on the set of The Incredible Hulk.

He spent three hours a day in the makeup chair. The green paint was a mix of industrial dyes that constantly irritated his skin. And sweat made the color wear off during action scenes. He had to sleep in hotels with plastic-lined sheets so he wouldn't ruin the furniture.

The series aired from 1977 to 1982. Ferrigno didn't speak on screen. He only growled and threw papier-mâché cars. But his look of pain as his clothes tore connected with millions of viewers around the world.

It was the end of an analog era.

In 1983 he tried to make the leap to big-budget films with Hercules. It was a chaotic shoot in Italy where the special effects were primitive and the script barely existed. The movie received harsh reviews for the dubbing of his voice (due to his speech difficulties from deafness) and for its lack of pacing. The industry quickly typecast him in brute-force roles with no complex dialogue.

Survival and the Return of the Voice

During the nineties he worked on B-movies and TV movies that barely made it to video store shelves. But he knew how to manage his personal brand before that term existed. He started charging for autographs at comic conventions when other actors of his generation considered it humiliating.

In 2000 his career took an unexpected turn. The comedy The King of Queens hired him to play himself as a neighbor of the leads. It worked because Ferrigno poked fun at his own image as a tough guy obsessed with the gym.

His real voice finally began to be heard.

Marvel Studios brought him back in 2008 to voice the Hulk in the movie starring Edward Norton. He repeated this voice work in The Avengers in 2012 and in several later sequels. Even though the character was digital, the roar was still that of the kid from Brooklyn.

In 2021 he underwent surgery to receive a cochlear implant. It was the first time in decades that he could hear high-frequency sounds clearly. In 2022 he appeared in the series The Offer, playing mobster Lenny Montana during the filming of The Godfather.

In 2024 he finished filming The Hermit under the direction of Salvatore Sclafani. He plays a blind cannibal who makes jerky from human flesh. Ferrigno still trains 80 minutes every morning, and his current weight is 104 kilos.