Wissenswertes

His appearance has endured far longer than even the best of his films. His likeness was the basis for the villain in Rocketeer (1991). Also, in recent years the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, awarded each year for the best in horror research, appreciation and film restoration, uses his name and consists of a statuette based on the mammoth bust of Hatton as the Creeper, seen in Universal's House of Horrors (1946). More information about the "Rondos" can be found at www.rondoaward.com.

By all accounts a kind, sensitive man, sources differ on whether he was pragmatic or extremely unhappy at the way Universal exploited his disfigurement; but, as he was under contract, he could do nothing about it.

His autograph is considered highly scarce in the collector's market.

He had metal cheekbones, the original ones having been surgically removed due to his condition.

Both House of Horrors (1946) and The Brute Man (1946) were released after Hatton's death. Additionally, Universal did not release "Brute Man" but rather sold the rights to Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), ostensibly because it was discontinuing distributing "B" films, but with all references to Universal even as producer deleted from all credits and advertising.

He played three different "Creeper" characters. In Die Perle der Borgia (1944) he is "The Hoxton Creeper", a British mute. In House of Horrors (1946) and The Brute Man (1946) he can talk. He is unnamed in "House of Horrors" but in "The Brute Man" he has the character name "Hal Moffet.".

Two Faces of Horror (2020), a documentary about Robert A. Burns and his obsession with Rondo, was in production in 2018 and finally released in 2020.

In his time, his profession as an actor arguably made him the world's most famous victim of acromegaly. Three decades later this would be exceeded by French-born professional wrestler Andre Rene Rousimoff (known in the ring as André René Roussimoff), whose enormous size was the result of the malady.

French wrestler---and allegedly posthumous chess player---Maurice Tillet suffered from the same health condition of acromegaly as Rondo, and both died of a heart attack. They eerily looked very similar---particularly when comparing their sculpted busts---and lived only to approximately the same age, with Maurice dying at 50 and Rondo at 51.

Profiled in "Character Actors in Horror and Science Fiction Films, 1930-1960" by Laurence Raw (2012).

Buried at American Legion Cemetery, Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida.