#JOHNNY WEISSMULLER TARZAN MOVIE#

He left acting in the 1950s to enter the business world. I took one look and went back to the jungle.'

He had tried to break out of the jungle motiff with a 1946 film, 'Swamp Fire.' In later years he said, 'I played a Navy lieutenant in that one. In addition to movies, he played Jungle Jim on television for 10 years. He also abandoned swinging through trees on vines and wrestling crocodiles. Weismuller in bush jacket rather than loin cloth. That series had some of the flavor of Tarzan but featured Mr. In 1948, he made the first of his 'Jungle Jim' movies. When producer Sol Lesser wouldn't give him a larger share of the profits, and suffering increasing weight and age, he left the film series and formed his own company, John Weissmuller Productions. 'I went to the back lot at MGM, they gave me a G-string and said, 'Can you climb a tree? Can you pick up that girl?' I could do all that, and I did all my own swinging because I had been a YMCA champion on the rings,' Mr. After a screen test, the former swimmer became the daring, chest-thumping king of the jungle. Weissmuller was working out at the Hollywood Athletic Club's pool when he was 'discovered' by novelist Cyril Hume, who was writing a screenplay for a picture about Tarzan, the jungle hero created by author Edgar Rice Burroughs.

#JOHNNY WEISSMULLER TARZAN MOVIE#

The last movie in the series was the 1947 'Tarzan and the Mermaids.' Many of his Tarzan films included costar Maureen O'Sullivan as his mate, Jane.Ī handsome 200-pounder in 1930, Mr. His first jungle picture was 'Tarzan the Ape Man' in 1930. Although there were other Tarzans before and after him, Mr. He was the chest-beating, loin-clothed hero in Tarzan movies for two decades.

Johnny Weissmuller, 79, the Olympic swimming gold medalist who rose to worldwide fame as 'Tarzan of the Jungle' in 18 motion pictures, died of a pulmonary edema Jan.

Johnny weissmuller tarzan