Frankenstein has been around in movies since the silent era, and several great actors have taken on the role of Frankenstein’s Monster in these films. The earliest version of Frankenstein came in 1910 in an Edison Studios silent film, but it wasn’t until 1931 that Mary Shelley’s creation became a universally beloved monster in James Whale’s Frankenstein.
Since that time, four different actors played Frankenstein’s Monster for Universal Studios, and Hammer Studios revived the Creature in the 1950s. There have been more than 50 movies with Frankenstein and his Monster in them, and the most recent, and possibly the most loyal to the original Frankenstein novel, arrived in 2025 from filmmaker Guillermo del Toro.
Robert De Niro
In 1994, Kenneth Branagh took a chance on making a Frankenstein movie. Using the template of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Branagh made his version, titled Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. However, despite using the author’s name in the title, this version varied somewhat from the original source novel in its tone and feel.
That said, one of the greatest actors of his generation played Frankenstein’s Monster opposite Branagh as Dr. Frankenstein. The movie received mixed to negative reviews, but no one criticized Robert De Niro’s performance as The Creature. In a film that seemed often confused about its story, De Niro delivered a masterclass performance.
De Niro doesn’t feel right as Frankenstein’s Monster, but somehow he managed to pull it off, which puts him on a level above most of the actors who played the tragic creature. It isn’t a perfect adaptation of the novel’s Creature, but De Niro delivers the right amount of rage, pathos, and self-loathing, making him a sympathetic and tragic creation.
Kevin James
It isn’t an insult to have Frankenstein from Hotel Transylvania above people who played live-action versions of the Creature. That is because, despite being an animated kids’ film, the Hotel Transylvania series remains entertaining. One of the best monsters in Hotel Transylvania is Frankenstein, who prefers to be called Frank.
The first movie was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, the brilliant animation director who brought the world Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Primal, and Star Wars: Clone Wars. While most people only associate Hotel Transylvania with Adam Sandler, that is a fact that discounts how great it was as an animated film by a master of his craft.
Kevin James voices Frankenstein in the movies, playing the Monster as a kind-hearted and often goofy friend, someone who would do almost anything to help out those he cared about. It was a fun performance, and James did a fantastic voice acting job in the role.
Bela Lugosi
While it might be hard to believe, the greatest actor to ever portray Dracula also played Frankenstein’s Monster in one movie for Universal Studios. After Boris Karloff stepped down from the character following his role in Son of Frankenstein, three different actors took over the role of the Creature. Bela Lugosi played Dracula in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
Lugosi played the Creature here because the person who played him in the previous movie was Lon Chaney Jr. Alas, Chaney Jr. was also the actor who played the Wolf Man for Universal Studios, which meant that they had to find a new actor to play Frankenstein’s Monster when the two meet, and that ended up being Lugosi.
Ironically, the next movie saw Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein all together, and Bela Lugosi entirely held out of that film, not playing any of the characters. Despite that, Lugosi is one of the most iconic actors in the Universal Monsters movies, and playing Frankenstein’s Monster cemented his importance to the studio.
Tom Noonan
Not many people talk about this Frankenstein’s Monster, but for an entire generation of kids, The Monster Squad remains one of the best monster mash movies of all time. The film was such a great cult classic that it remains popular today and even had a documentary called Wolfman’s Got Nards that was released as a retrospective in 2018.
Tom Noonan starred as Frankenstein’s Monster in the movie. This film follows pre-teens who love Universal Monster movies and learn that the monsters are real, and they have a way to possibly open a wormhole and cast the monsters into limbo, saving the world from their evil. However, Frankenstein’s Monster is not evil and actually helps the kids.
That is a nice change since Mary Shelley’s novel explains that the Creature is not an inherently evil being, although he is a murderous creation when pushed. Here, the Creature helps the kids and even sacrifices himself to ensure the other monsters are properly eliminated, making him a hero for a change.
Lon Chaney, Jr.
After Boris Karloff left the role, tiring of the makeup process every time he made one of the movies, Lon Chaney Jr. took his place. However, this only lasted for one movie, with him playing the Creature in The Ghost of Frankenstein. That said, there might not be a better person to play a creature under prosthetics than Chaney Jr.
The reason he didn’t last longer than one movie was that the next film had Frankenstein’s Monster meeting up with the Wolf Man, and that was Chaney Jr.’s main role for Universal Studios. Chaney handed it off to Bela Lugosi and then Glenn Strange after that.
While this movie, and the ones that followed, lacked the critical praise of the earlier Universal Monster movies, it was hard to discount Chaney’s performance, although it did lack some of the somber terror that Boris Karloff brought to the role.
Glenn Strange
Glenn Strange equaled Boris Karloff for the number of movies in which he played Frankenstein’s Monster. For Strange, he got his start in The House of Frankenstein and then followed it up with House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. This means he was the last Frankenstein actor when Universal stopped using the character.
While Karloff is who most people associate with Frankenstein’s Monster, Strange’s prolific appearances in the role make him someone who is easily recognized as well. Sadly, as great as Strange was in the role, his performances were often held down by the lowering production quality, as Universal began to take money away from the monster movies.
However, Strange does deserve credit for his performance in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which was the best Universal Monster movie since The Wolf Man. Strange held his own alongside Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Dracula, as the monsters played it straight throughout the entire horror-comedy.
Peter Boyle
The greatest comedy ever made surrounding Frankenstein and his Monster arrived in 1974 with Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. Gene Wilder starred as Dr. Frankenstein, and also co-wrote the script. Peter Boyle starred as Frankenstein’s Monster in what might be the most famous version of the character outside the original Universal movies.
Of course, the signature moment here was when Frankenstein’s Monster donned a top hat and did a song and dance number with his creator to “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” It was a ridiculous moment that was hilarious in the context of the film and helped elevate this to one of the best spoof movies ever made.
While this was Gene Wilder’s movie, Boyle was great as Frankenstein’s Monster, and this was a brilliant satire that deserves all the praise it has received.
Christopher Lee
In 1957, Hammer Films began to work on reviving the classic Universal Monsters with their own slate of movies, most of them focusing on Dracula and Frankenstein. Both franchises cast British stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in the lead roles. Lee played Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster while Cushing played Van Helsing and Dr. Frankenstein.
While Lee was better remembered for his role as Dracula in that series of movies, he was also great when he took on the role of Frankenstein’s Monster in The Curse of Frankenstein. However, unfortunately, Lee only played the Creature in this first movie in the series before different actors took over the role in later films.
While he wasn’t as prolific as other Frankenstein actors for Hammer Films, Lee was still the best horror actor to play Frankenstein’s Monster, and one of the best horror actors in the history of cinema, regardless of movie roles.
Jacob Elordi
Jacob Elordi is the man who plays Frankenstein’s Monster in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein in 2025. The big thing about Elordi is that he is precisely what Mary Shelley created in her novel, a Creature who becomes well-read and intelligent and wants nothing more than to no longer be alone in his life.
There are changes in Del Toro’s Frankenstein from the novel, not the least of which is Frankenstein’s Monster not being a cold-blooded killer in this movie. As a result, Elordi takes his character and makes him ultimately sympathetic, the true hero of this story, while Dr. Frankenstein is easily the immoral monster the novel showed him to be.
Elordi deserves all the award recognition he gets because he did something in the role that no one before him had done. He made Frankenstein’s Monster a character who was able to eclipse even his maker and became the best creation in the story.
Boris Karloff
While Jacob Elordi deserves all the praise he receives for his role as Frankenstein’s Monster in the 2025 movie, it is Boris Karloff who will always be remembered as the most iconic version of Frankenstein ever in a film. He wasn’t the first, but he was the actor who made the Creature an icon for years to come.
Karloff also knew when to step out of the role. While he chose to leave the role because he was tiring of the hours spent in a makeup chair, Karloff didn’t stop acting in horror movies and continued to show his range in several other iconic horror roles for Universal Studios over the years.
However, in the end, Boris Karloff will always be remembered as Frankenstein’s Monster, and he is the best horror actor to ever step into this immense role.