John Bloom(1944-1999)

The big, bulky and extremely tall John F. Bloom was an imposingly massive 7 foot 4 inch tall giant who was born on February 19, 1944 and grew up both in and around Los Angeles, CA. He originally worked as an accountant until he was convinced to take up acting in 1971 by the legendary Grade Z schlock/exploitation/drive-in filmmaker Al Adamson. Bloom made his film debut as the Frankenstein Monster in the hilariously horrible horror film Dracula contre Frankenstein (1971). He also appeared in supporting roles in the films Brain of Blood (1971) and Angels' Wild Women (1971) for Adamson as well, playing a hulking warrior and a motorcycle gang member, respectively.

Among Bloom's more memorable film roles are a gentle and dim-witted behemoth of a handyman who has the head of a vicious killer grafted onto his body in the deliciously cheesy horror film Amok, l'homme à deux têtes (1971), a murderous alien who terrorizes Los Angeles in the not-half-bad horror/sci-fi film The Dark (1979), the intimidating bodyguard of an Indian pimp in the hilariously raunchy and raucous film Le palace en folie (1984), a cannibal hillbilly named the Reaper in the terrible horror film La colline a des yeux n° 2 (1984), and an enormous antagonistic alien who fights with Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in the science fiction film Star Trek VI : Terre inconnue (1991).

Bloom continued working throughout the 1980s and early 1990s playing tall, hulking thugs or seedy criminals in minor to small roles in films and TV series until health problems led to his semi-retirement in the mid-1990s. Being a giant, he suffered from acromegaly for his entire life, which took a toll on his health and led to an enlarged heart, among other physical problems. John Bloom died of heart failure on January 15, 1999 at the age of 54.