Tarzan Is Fan Favorite For 50 Years of Film
Movie makers are naturally attracted to a sequel and, if things go really well, a series. Fans respond to a strong central character and name recognition. Sometimes it is the name of the movie star – John Wayne comes to mind – and sometimes it is the name of the character. For the latter, there have been many high performing movie series since film began, but of all the character-driven series, none comes close to Tarzan.
In fact, it’s hard to count the number since the name itself has been associated with movie releases, movie serials, television series, television movies, radio programs, Broadway productions – there have been two in the U.S. — and animations, both generated for TV and the widescreen. The number increases when you factor in the country of origin since Tarzan pictures have been released worldwide.
The character’s inception, dating to the early 20th Century, coincided with the innovation of movies. The first Tarzan book of 25 total was published eight years after the release of the first-ever feature-length film in 1906. Edgar Rice Burroughs introduced the ape man in 1912, publishing Tarzan: A Romance of the Jungle in “All-Story” magazine. He wrote the first Tarzan novel in 1914. By 1918, when Hollywood officially introduced Tarzan to the silent screen, a marriage made on the backlot sets of RKO and MGM was officially solemnized.
The first actor to play Tarzan was Elmo Lincoln, appearing in the silent picture Tarzan of the Apes in 1918. He would return for a second and final outing in 1921 with Adventures of Tarzan. In between there were two other silent movie Tarzans, both appearing in 1920: Gene Pollar in The Revenge of Tarzan, and Perce Dempsey Tabler in The Son of Tarzan. Before the decade’s end, two other actors, James Pierce and Frank Merrill, would claim the role. Merrill’s version was a tentative step toward sound production.
Current estimates are that there have been more than 100 film versions of Tarzan. The number of actors who have played him – counting only those from American releases and brave enough to wear the loincloth – is 20-plus. Of this number, the best known is likely Johnnie Weissmuller, a former Olympic champion swimmer who was introduced in the second “talkie” version of Tarzan the Ape Man in 1932, along with Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane and, in later films, Johnny Sheffield as Boy. Weissmuller was the sixth incarnation of Tarzan, but even he did not have the part exclusively. Buster Crabbe was the ape man in a serial version in 1933.
Weissmuller eventually made 12 Tarzan pictures, from 1932 until his final outing in 1948. In between there were two other Tarzans in addition to Crabbe. Henry Brix, who later changed his acting name to Bruce Bennett, played the character in 1935’s The New Adventures of Tarzan. An actor named Glenn Morris played the part in Tarzan’s Revenge (1938). Weissmuller’s other Tarzan pictures were Tarzan and His Mate (1935), Tarzan Escapes (1936), Tarzan Finds a Son (1939), Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941), Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942), Tarzan Triumphs (1943), Tarzan’s Desert Mystery (1943), Tarzan and the Amazons (1945), Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946), Tarzan and the Huntress (1947), and Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948).
From 1949 through 1960, movie fans were offered 12 more full length Tarzan movies. That equals one per year. All but one of these starred either Lex Barker, who replaced Weissmuller in ’49, or Gordon Scott. The one-off Tarzan was Denny Miller in a 1959 remake of Tarzan the Ape Man. Movie titles for Barker were Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949), Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950), Tarzan’s Peril (1951), Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952), and Tarzan and the She Devil (1953).
Gordon Scott would end the decade with six Tarzan films: Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle (1955), Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957), Tarzan’s Fight for Life (1958), Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (1959), Tarzan the Magnificent (1960), and Tarzan and the Trappers (a made for television movie in 1960).
The Sixties brought at least three more Tarzan actors and six more movies. There was a new ape man as the decade began, Jock Mahoney in Tarzan Goes to India (1962). He repeated in Tarzan’s Three Challenges, 1963, then was replaced by Mike Henry – Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966), Tarzan and the Great River (1966), and Tarzan and the Jungle Boy (1968). Actor Ron Ely played a television version of Tarzan and starred in two full length movies, Tarzan’s Jungle Rebellion (a made for television movie, 1967), and Tarzan’s Deadly Silence (1970).
The entire Tarzan series went silent in the 1970s, while in the mid-1980s, two movies tried to break the mold of those “older” Tarzan pictures. Another remake of Tarzan the Ape Man in 1981 was really focused on the female star, Bo Derek. For the record, Tarzan was played by Miles O’Keefe. The more traditional Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan was released in 1984 starring a sized-down ape man, Christopher Lambert. His character was described as “wiry,” different from the bulked-up Tarzans of the previous 70 years.
