Trivia

He won a silver medal in the 1928 Olympics for the shot put.

A onetime University of Washington football and track-and-field star, he played in the 1926 Rose Bowl as tackle for the Huskies. He graduated in 1928 with a bachelor's degree in economics.

Broke his shoulder while filming Touchdown! (1931), which cost him the role of MGM's Tarzan, which went to Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller. The injury also caused him to fail to qualify for the 1932 Olympic trials while holding the world record for shot put.

He enjoyed parasailing and skydiving, leaping out 10,000 feet over Lake Tahoe when he was 96.

Moved to Los Angeles in 1929 after being invited to compete for the Los Angeles Athletic Club and became friends with actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who arranged a screen test for him at Paramount.

Lost out at Warner Bros. to test for stronger acting roles because he was too identified as "Herman Brix, former Tarzan and all-around action star." He went into hiding for a time, studied, then won a Columbia Pictures contract and eventually a Warner Bros. contract as Bruce Bennett.

Brix was MGM's choice to play Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) but lost the role when he suffered a separated shoulder from a tackle in the sports film Touchdown! (1931). Johnny Weissmuller became a big star when he won the role. Bruce recuperated and did get to play "Tarzan" in the low-budget indie serial The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935).

His father was a lumberman who owned a couple of different logging camps. Bruce built up his physique working in these lumber camps as a youth.

Retired from acting in the '60s and became commercially employed.

Was the fourth born in a family of five children of an immigrant couple from Germany. His eldest brother and father's favored son, Hermann, died before his birth and was given his middle name in this child's memory. To please his father, by high-school he had discontinued using his own first name, Harold, in favor of his middle name, Herman.

Urban legend has it that Brix was personally selected by Edgar Rice Burroughs to play Tarzan in the independent serial The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935). In fact, this notion came from publicity material in the serial's press book. As he told his biographer, Mike Chapman, he only met Burroughs briefly, for a handshake and photo-op, days after he had been chosen and contracted for the part by the serial's producer, Ashton Dearholt.

Preferred to live a very private life, mostly declining to be interviewed.

At one point, he took a break from acting so as to learn more about his craft.

Was father to Christopher Brix and Christina Katich; had three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

He continued to pursue his lifelong interest in parasailing and skydiving. He last skydived at the age of 96, descending from an altitude of 10,000 feet near Lake Tahoe.

After Ashton Dearholt convinced Burroughs to allow him to form Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, Inc., and make a Tarzan serial film, Dearholt cast Brix in the lead. Pressbook copy has it that Burroughs made the choice himself, but, in fact, in his biography, Brix confirmed that Burroughs never even saw him until after the contract was signed, and then only briefly. The film was begun on location in Guatemala, under rugged conditions (jungle diseases and cash shortages were frequent). Brix did his own stunts, including a fall to rocky cliffs below. The Washington Post quoted Gabe Essoe's passage from his book Tarzan of the Movies: "Brix's portrayal was the only time between the silents and the 1960s that Tarzan was accurately depicted in films. He was mannered, cultured, soft-spoken, a well educated English lord who spoke several languages, and didn't grunt."[4] Due to financial mismanagement, Dearholt had to complete filming of much of the serial back in Hollywood, and Brix, although his travel and daily living expenses in Guatemala were covered throughout the shoot, never received his contracted salary, along with the rest of the cast. The finished film, The New Adventures of Tarzan, was released in 1935 by Burroughs-Tarzan, and offered to theatres as a 12-chapter serial or a seven-reel feature.

Had two children, Christopher and Christina, by longtime wife Jeannette, who died in 2000. They named their children after his parents.

Outside his acting career, Bennett became a very successful businessman during the 1960s.

Brix moved to Los Angeles in 1929 after being invited to compete for the Los Angeles Athletic Club and befriended actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who arranged a screen test for him at Paramount.

He attended the "Hollywood Collectors & Celebrities Show" at Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn, in North Hollywood, California.

Brix continued to work in serials and action features for low-budget studios until 1939.