byname of PETER JOHN WEISSMULLER, original name JONAS WEISSMULLER (b. June 2, 1904, Freidorf, near Timisoara, Rom.--d. Jan. 20, 1984, Acapulco, Mex.), American freestyle swimmer of the 1920s who won five Olympic gold medals and set 67 world records. He became even more famous as a motion-picture actor, most notably in the role of Tarzan, a "noble savage" who had been abandoned in a jungle as an infant and was reared by apes.

Weissmuller, whose parents immigrated to the United States when he was three, attended school only through the eighth grade but was trained in swimming at the Illinois Athletic Club in Chicago. He was a member of several championship relay and water-polo teams that represented the club during the 1920s. In individual freestyle swimming he was U.S. outdoor champion at 100 yards (1922-23, 1925 [no competition 1924]), 100 metres (1926-28), 200 metres (1921-22), 400 metres (1922-23, 1925-28 [no competition 1924), and 800 metres (1925-27); and U.S. indoor titleholder at 100 yards (1922-25, 1927-28) and 220 yards (1922-24, 1927-28). At the 1924 Olympic Games he won three gold medals, for the 100-metre and 400-metre freestyle and the 800-metre relay (he also won a bronze medal as a member of the U.S. water-polo team); in 1928 he won two more gold medals, for the 100-metre freestyle and 800-metre relay.

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Despite his athletic records, Weissmuller is best known for his motion-picture role as Tarzan of the Apes, a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Weissmuller starred in 12 Tarzan films between 1932 and 1948, beginning with Tarzan the Ape Man (1932). He later created the role of Jungle Jim, a guide, for both television and motion pictures. His autobiography, Water, World, and Weissmuller, appeared in 1967.

About "Tarzan"

Several generations of movie buffs have regarded Johnny Weissmuller as the definitive Tarzan, though Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle king has been portrayed by numerous others since 1918, when beefy Elmo Lincoln first swung onto the screen. Weissmuller and his emulators There were other silent-film versions of the Tarzan tale, but the next film to make a major impact was the early talkie TARZAN, THE APE MAN (1932), which starred Olympic swimming hero Weissmuller. Though it wasn't particularly faithful to Burroughs' book, it was an entertaining, well-made film that captured the imagination of a Depression-era audience, and led to a string of equally entertaining sequels.

Buffs generally cite TARZAN AND HIS MATE (1934) as the best of all. This and the other 1930s entries in this series were "class" films with fine production values, plenty of action, and strong supporting casts, led, of course, by lovely Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane. (The success of these films inspired other producers to try and cash in with their own Tarzan projects, most of which were second-rate endeavors, though they all starred good-looking men who, like Weissmuller, had been Olympic medal winners: Buster Crabbe, Herman Brix—later known as Bruce Bennett—and Glenn Morris.) The later MGM outings such as TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE became more contrived, like other series films, with often-excessive comedy relief supplied by Cheetah the chimp, and family interest sparked by the arrival of Johnny Sheffield as Boy. When MGM lost interest in the series, Weissmuller continued making Tarzan movies for producer Sol Lesser at RKO, without O'Sullivan and without that MGM production sheen.

Lex Barker, Gordon Scott, and others Lex Barker took over the role in 1949, and the series became progressively more routine; Barker did his last jungle outing in 1955. Since then a number of people have played Tarzan, including Denny Miller (who starred in a 1959 remake of Weissmuller's 1932 film, filled with tinted stock footage from the original), Jock Mahoney (who also played supporting roles in two other Tarzan films), Mike Henry, and Gordon Scott, the latter faring best in some well-produced British-made adventure stories (including TARZAN'S GREATEST ADVENTURE, an excellent jungle tale shot in color, with young Sean Connery in the cast). Ron Ely took on the role for a Mexican-filmed TV series, and some of these episodes have been strung together into ersatz feature films.

Johnny Weissmullers Filmography

Johnny Weissmuller Photos

Johnny Weissmuller Internet Links

1. AMC's Ultimate Weissmuller Directory
2. The Tarzan "YELL" Revealed
3. Tarzan and Jungle Jim rare videos for sale
4. More Links coming later....