JOHNNY WEISSMULLER

Johnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian (now Romania) actor from the 1920s to the 1970s, born this day in 1904. While he is of course best remembered for playing Tarzan starting in 1932 (in "Tarzan the Ape Man", followed by "Tarzan and His Mate", and many others!), he also later starred as Jungle Jim from 1948 to 1955, and then played the same character in 26 episodes of a TV series, when he was over fifty years old! But long before his movie exploits he was the 1924 Olympic swimming champion, and he set a number of world records, and he never lost a single race! In 1940, at the age of 36, he broke his own world record in the 100-yard freestyle, which he had set 13 years earlier, and which stood for another 4 years before finally being broken after 17 years! Weissmuller had an active private life, marrying five times, including a tumultuous one to actress Lupe Velez. In 1974, he broke both his hip and leg and while hospitalized, he discovered that despite being in wonderful physical health all his life, he had a serious heart condition. In 1977, he suffered a series of strokes and in 1979 he moved with his last wife, Maria, to Acapulco, Mexico, the location of his last Tarzan movie. He passed away in 1984 at the age of 79 and as his coffin was lowered into the ground, a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times, at his request!