Johnny Weissmuller

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Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan in Tarzan and His Mate.
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Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan in Tarzan and His Mate.
Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in "Tarzan and His Mate", 1934.
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Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in "Tarzan and His Mate", 1934.

Johnny Weissmuller (June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven world records. After his swimming career, he became the sixth actor to portray Tarzan in films, a role he played in twelve motion pictures. Other actors also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller was the best-known. His distinctive, ululating Tarzan yell is still often used in films.

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[edit] Early life

He was registered as János Weissmüller when he was born in Freidorf near Temeschburg, Banat, at the time part of Austria-Hungary (today a suburb of Timişoara, Romania), the son of German-speaking parents of jewish and roman catholic backround, Petrus Weißmüller and Elisabeth Kersch, according to his Hungarian birth and (Roman Catholic) baptismal records. In fact, he was named Johann by his parents, but all legal records at the time used the Hungarian forms of personal names.

When Johnny was seven months old, the family emigrated to the United States aboard the S.S. Rotterdam. They left Rotterdam on January 14, 1905, and arrived in New York twelve days later, with their names recorded in English as Peter, Elizabeth and Johann Weissmuller. Peter had been born 1876-12-31.

After a brief stay in Chicago, Illinois, visiting relatives, they moved to the coal mining town of Windber, Pennsylvania in the Pittsburgh region. Peter Weissmuller worked as a miner, and his youngest son, Peter Weissmuller, Jr., was born in Windber on September 3, 1905. Peter Jr is listed on one census as born in Illinois.

After several years in Western Pennsylvania, they moved to Chicago. Johnny's father owned a bar for a time and his mother became head cook at a famed restaurant. His father worked as a brewer for the United States brewery in Chicago. His parents were later divorced, as is shown by the divorce document filed in Chicago by Elizabeth Weissmuller, although a lot of sources state incorrectly that Weismuller's father died of tuberculosis contracted from working in coal mines and left her a widow. Peter actually lived to old age and had sired another large family. By 1930 he had married his second wife, Anna, with whom he had a son named Edward and a daughter Ruth, and a grandson named Peter. Elizabeth Weissmuller appears with her sons on the Cook County census claiming to be a widow.

From an early age, Johnny and his brother were aggressive swimmers. The beaches of Lake Michigan became their favorite summer recreation place. He then joined the Stanton Park pool, where he won all the junior swim meets. At the age of twelve he earned a spot on the YMCA swim team.

[edit] Swimming career

Olympic medal record
Competitor for Flag of United States United States
Men’s swimming
Gold 1924 Paris 100 m freestyle
Gold 1924 Paris 400 m freestyle
Gold 1924 Paris 4x200 m freestyle relay
Gold 1928 Amsterdam 100 m freestyle
Gold 1928 Amsterdam 4x200 m freestyle relay
Men’s water polo
Bronze 1924 Paris Team

When Weissmuller left school, he worked as a bellhop and elevator operator at the Plaza Hotel in Chicago and trained for the Olympics with swim coach William Bachrach at the Illinois Athletic Club, where he developed his revolutionary high-riding front crawl. He made his amateur debut on August 6, 1921, winning his first AAU race in the 50-yard freestyle.

Though he was foreign-born, Weissmuller gave his birthplace as Windber, Pennsylvania, and his birth date as that of his younger brother, Peter Weissmuller. This was to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of the United States Olympic team, and was a critical issue in being issued an American passport.

On July 9, 1922, Weissmuller broke Duke Kahanamoku's world record on the 100-meters freestyle, swimming it in 58.6 seconds. He won the title in that distance at the 1924 Summer Olympics, beating Kahanamoku on February 24, 1924. He also won the 400-meters freestyle and the 4 x 200 meters relay. As a member of the American water polo team, he also won a bronze medal. Four years later, at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, he won another two Olympic titles.

In all, he won five Olympic gold medals, one bronze medal, won fifty-two U.S. National Championships and set sixty-seven world records. Johnny Weissmuller never lost a race and retired from his amateur swimming career undefeated.

[edit] Motion picture career

In 1929, Weissmuller signed a contract with BVD to be a model and representative. He traveled throughout the country doing swim shows, handing out leaflets promoting that brand of swimwear, giving his autograph and going on talk shows. In that same year, he made his first motion picture appearance as an Adonis wearing only a figleaf in a movie titled Glorifying the American Girl and he appeared as himself in the first of several Crystal Champions, a movie short featuring Weissmuller and other Olympic champions at Silver Springs, Florida.

His career really began when he signed a seven year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and played the role of Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932). The movie was a huge success and the 6'3" Weissmuller became an overnight international sensation. Even the author, Edgar Rice Burroughs, who created the character of Tarzan in his books, was pleased.

Weissmuller starred in six Tarzan movies for MGM with actress Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane. The last three also included Johnny Sheffield as Boy. Then, in 1942, Weissmuller went to RKO and starred in six more Tarzan movies. Sheffield appeared as Boy in the first five features for that studio. Another co-star was blonde actress Brenda Joyce, who played Jane in Weissmuller's last four Tarzan movies. In a total of twelve Tarzan movies, Weissmuller earned an estimated $2,000,000 and established himself as the best-known of all the actors who have ever portrayed Tarzan. Although not the first Tarzan in movies (that honour went to Elmo Lincoln), he was the first to be associated with the now traditional ululating, yodeling Tarzan yell. (During an appearance on television's Mike Douglas Show in the 1970's, Weissmuller explained how the famous yell was created. Recordings of three vocalists were spliced together to get the effect--a soprano, an alto, and a hog caller!)

When he finally left that role, he immediately traded his loincloth costume for jungle fatigues and appeared fully clothed in the role of Jungle Jim (1948) for Columbia. He made thirteen Jungle Jim movies between (1948) and (1954). Within the next year, he appeared in three more jungle movies playing himself.

Weissmuller, left (with actor George O'Brien (Actor))
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Weissmuller, left (with actor George O'Brien (Actor))

In 1955, he began production of the Jungle Jim television adventure series for Screen Gems, a film subsidiary of Columbia. The show ran for twenty-six episodes, which played over and over on network and syndicated TV for many years.

Weissmuller had five wives: band and club singer Bobbe Arnst (married 1931-divorced 1933); actress Lupe Vélez (married 1933-divorced 1939); Beryl Scott (married 1939-divorced 1948); Allene Gates (married 1948-divorced 1962); and Maria Bauman (married 1963-his death 1984).

According to a movie site on the Internet, he also married and divorced Camilla Louiee, but that claim has been challenged. Weissmuller reportedly said that Louiee ran off and married another man instead of him.[citation needed]

With his third wife, Beryl, he had three children, Johnny Scott Weissmuller (or Johnny Weissmuller, Jr., also an actor) (born September 23, 1940, died July 27, 2006), Wendy Anne Weissmuller (born June 1, 1942) and Heidi Elizabeth Weissmuller (July 31, 1944-November 19, 1962).

[edit] Later life

In the late 1950s, Weissmuller moved back to Chicago and started a swimming pool company. He also lent his name to other business ventures, but did not have a great deal of success. He retired in 1965 and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was Founding Chairman of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In 1970, he attended the British Commonwealth Games in Jamaica where he was presented to Queen Elizabeth. He also made a cameo appearance with former co-star Maureen O'Sullivan in The Phynx (1970).

Weissmuller lived in Florida until the end of 1973, then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was a greeter at the MGM Grand Hotel for a time. In 1974, he broke a hip and leg. While hospitalized he learned that, in spite of his strength and lifelong daily regimen of swimming and exercise, he had a serious heart condition.

In 1976, he appeared for the last time in a motion picture playing a movie crewman who is fired by a movie mogul, played by Art Carney, in Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and he also made his final public appearance in that year when he was inducted into the Body Building Guild Hall of Fame.

Weissmuller suffered a series of strokes in 1977. For a time in 1979, he was a patient in the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. Later he and his last wife, Maria, moved to Acapulco, Mexico, which was the location of his last Tarzan movie.

Johnny Weissmuller died on January 20, 1984 of a pulmonary edema at his retirement home in Acapulco. He is buried in the Valley of The Light Cemetery there.

His former co-star and movie son, Johnny Sheffield, said of him, "I can only say that working with Big John was one of the highlights of my life. He was a Star (with a capital "S") and he gave off a special light and some of that light got into me. Knowing and being with Johnny Weissmuller during my formative years had a lasting influence on my life."

Johnny Weissmuller has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Misc

  • Johnny was featured on the cover of The Beatles Album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • Johnny's name was used on an episode of Family Guy entitled "He's Too Sexy For His Fat" (season 2, episode 17) when Stewie was reluctant to go swimming and became immediately confident once he hit the water. He said "...I feel like a young Johnny Weissmuller"
  • Chuck Wissmiller, of the television series Family Plots, is the nephew of Johnny Weissmuller.

[edit] Literature

  • Johnny Weismuller Jr., Tarzan My Father, Toronto: ECW Press 2002

[edit] Media

[edit] External links

Olympic champions in men's 100 m freestyle
1896: Alfréd Hajós | 1906: Charles Daniels | 1908: Charles Daniels | 1912: Duke Paoa Kahanamoku | 1920: Duke Paoa Kahanamoku | 1924: Johnny Weissmuller | 1928: Johnny Weissmuller | 1932: Yasuji Miyazaki | 1936: Ferenc Csík | 1948: Walter Ris | 1952: Clarke Scholes | 1956: Jon Henricks | 1960: John Devitt | 1964: Don Schollander | 1968: Michael Wenden | 1972: Mark Spitz | 1976: Jim Montgomery | 1980: Jörg Woithe | 1984: Rowdy Gaines | 1988: Matt Biondi | 1992: Aleksandr Popov | 1996: Aleksandr Popov | 2000: Pieter van den Hoogenband | 2004: Pieter van den Hoogenband
Olympic champions in men's 400 m freestyle
1906: Otto Scheff | 1908: Henry Taylor | 1912: George Hodgson | 1920: Norman Ross | 1924: Johnny Weissmuller | 1928: Alberto Zorrilla | 1932: Buster Crabbe | 1936: Jack Medica | 1948: William Smith | 1952: Jean Boiteux | 1956: Murray Rose | 1960: Murray Rose | 1964: Don Schollander | 1968: Mike Burton | 1972: Brad Cooper | 1976: Brian Goodell | 1980: Vladimir Salnikov | 1984: George DiCarlo | 1988: Uwe Daßler | 1992: Yevgeny Sadovyi | 1996: Danyon Loader | 2000: Ian Thorpe | 2004: Ian Thorpe


Olympic champions in men's 4x200 m freestyle relay

1908 Great Britain - John Henry Derbyshire, Paul Radmilovic, William Foster, Henry Taylor
1912 Australasia - Cecil Healy, Malcolm Champion, Leslie Boardman, Harold Hardwick
1920 United States - Perry McGilivray, Pua Kela Kealoha, Norman Ross, Duke Kahanamoku
1924 United States - Walter O'Connor, Harry Glancy, Ralph Breyer, Johnny Weissmuller
1928 United States - Austin Clapp, Walter Laufer, George Kojac, Johnny Weissmuller
1932 Japan - Yasuji Miyazaki, Masonori Yusa, Takashi Yomoyama, Hisakichi Toyoda
1936 Japan - Masanori Yusa, Shigeo Suguira, Masaharu Taguchi, Shigeo Arai
1948 United States - Walter Ris, James McLane, Wallace Wolf, William Smith
1952 United States - Wayne Moore, William Woolsey, Ford Konno, James McLane
1956 Australia - Kevin O'Halloran, John Devitt, Murray Rose, Jon Henricks
1960 United States - George Harrison, Richard Blick, Michael Troy, Jeffrey Farrell
1964 United States - Stephen Clark, Roy Saari, Gary Ilman, Don Schollander
1968 United States - John Nelson, Stephen Rerych, Mark Spitz, Don Schollander
1972 United States - John Kinsella, Fred Tyler, Steve Genter, Mark Spitz
1976 United States - Mike Bruner, Bruce Furniss, John Naber, Jim Montgomery
1980 Soviet Union - Sergei Kopliakov, Vladimir Salnikov, Ivar Stukolkin, Andrei Krylov
1984 United States - Michael Heath, David Larson, Jeffrey Float, Bruce Hayes
1988 United States - Troy Dalbey, Matthew Cetlinski, Doug Gjertsen, Matt Biondi
1992 Unified Team - Dmitri Lepikov, Vladimir Pychnenko, Veniamin Taianovich, Yevgeny Sadovyi
1996 United States - Josh Davis, Joe Hudepohl, Bradley Schumacher, Ryan Berube
2000 Australia - Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim, Todd Pearson, Bill Kirby
2004 United States - Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Peter Vanderkaay, Klete Keller
Preceded by
Frank Merrill		 Actors to portray Tarzan
1932-1948		 Succeeded by
Buster Crabbe
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