Remembering Olympic gold medalist Johnny Weissmuller on the anniversary of his birth.
Weissmuller portrayed “Tarzan” in six MGM films and six for RKO, a role for which he became more closely identified than his triumphs in the athletic world, as a five-time Olympic swimming champion.
He was born Janos Weissmuller on June 2, 1904, to Petrus and Elizabeth Weissmuller in the village of Freidorf, in the Banat region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Romania). The next year, the family emigrated to the U.S., where brother Peter was born.
An avid swimmer from childhood, the future Tarzan was discovered by and trained under “Big Bill” Bachrach of the Chicago Athletic Club, winning his first race, the 50-yard freestyle, in 1921. He remained undefeated until his retirement, compiling a record 36 individual championships and 67 world championships while setting 94 American records and 51 world records, winning five gold medals in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics.
Following his retirement from athletics, Weissmuller was touring the country to endorse BVD swimwear when he was discovered and cast as the jungle lord in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “Tarzan the Ape Man” opposite starlet Maureen O’Sullivan as his mate Jane. The films achieved cinematic immortality, and the pair remain pop culture icons, forever associated with the popular characters.
MGM’s contract with Weissmuller limited him to playing Tarzan onscreen, but he was able to tour with Billy Rose’s Aquacade, as the featured swimmer with Eleanor Holm and Esther Williams. After aging out of the Tarzan role, he donned safari khakis to play Alex Raymond’s hero, “Jungle Jim”, in a series of 16 films and a 26-episode television series in 1955-56.
Weissmuller’s five marriages included actresses Bobbe Arnst and Lupe Velez, socialite Beryl Scott, amateur golfer Allene Gates, and German expatriate Maria Bauman. He and Scott had three children: John Scott, Jr., Wendy Anne, and Heidi Elizabeth. After a series of strokes and other health problems, Weissmuller died of a pulmonary edema at his Acapulco home on January 20, 1984, age 79.
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