Rondo Hatton - Legacy

Legacy

Hatton's name - and simple but brutish face - have become recurring motifs in popular culture. In an episode of the 1970s television series, The Rockford Files, Jim Rockford, exasperated at a friend who dismisses himself as unattractive, exclaims "you're no Rondo Hatton!" Hatton's physical likeness appears as the Lothar character in Dave Stevens' 1980s Rocketeer Adventure Magazine stories, as well as Disney's 1991 film version, The Rocketeer, where the character is played by actor Tiny Ron in "Hatton" make-up.

The 2000 AD comic book character Judge Dredd, who is rarely seen without his helmet on, used "face-changing technology" to make himself look like Rondo Hatton in a 1977 issue - the first time the character's face was shown. As the artist Brian Bolland revealed in an interview with David Bishop: "The picture of Dredd’s face – that was a 1940s actor called Rondo Hatton. I've only seen him in one film." Additionally, the character "The Creep" in the Dark Horse Presents comic-book series strongly resembled Hatton.

Hatton is regularly name-checked in the novels of Robert Rankin, (often referred to as "the now-legendary Rondo Hatton") and credited as appearing in films which are either fictional, or which he clearly had no part in, such as the Carry On films. Rankin's references to Hatton routinely occur in the form of "he had a Rondo Hatton" (hat on). Another namecheck occurs in Rafi Zabor's PEN/Faulkner-award winning 1998 novel The Bear Comes Home, where the name is used as a nickname for good-natured but unrefined minor character Tommy Talmo. In the 2004 Stephen King novel, The Dark Tower VII, a character is described as looking "like Rondo Hatton, a film actor from the 30's, who suffered from acromegaly and got work playing monsters and psychopaths..." The episode of Doctor Who entitled "The Wedding of River Song" features Mark Gatiss as a character whose appearance (achieved through prosthetics) is based on Hatton's, credited under the pseudonym "Rondo Haxton" for his performance.

The play with music entitled "The Return of Dr. X" written by Welsh playwright Chris Amos contains a dedication to Rondo Hatton and the story (of a horror star named Gabriel Haydon) is loosely based on the life of Rondo Hatton. The show has been produced in several UK regional theatres and was nominated for the Cameron MackIntosh Award in 2000.

Since 2002, The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards represent Hatton in both name as well as his likeness. The physical award is a representation of Hatton, and is based on the bust of "The Hoxton Creeper," portrayed by Hatton in the 1946 Universal Pictures film House of Horrors.