Johnny Weissmuller

Overview

Born
June 2, 1904 · Freidorf, Hungary, Austria-Hungary [now Timisoara, Timis County, Romania]
Died
January 20, 1984 · Acapulco, Mexico (pulmonary edema following a series of strokes)
Birth name
Peter Johann Weissmüller
Nickname
- Big John
Height
6′ 3″ (1.91 m)

Mini bio

Johnny Weissmuller was born as Peter Johann Weißmüller in Freidorf, today a district of the city of Timisoara in Romania, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Weissmuller would later claim to have been born in Windber, Pennsylvania, probably to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of the US Olympic team. Weissmüller was one of two boys born to Petrus Weissmuller, a miner, and his wife Elisabeth Kersch, who were both Banat Swabians, an ethnic German population in Southeast Europe. A sickly child, he took up swimming on the advice of a doctor. He grew to be a 6' 3", 190-pound champion athlete - undefeated winner of five Olympic gold medals, 67 world and 52 national titles, holder of every freestyle record from 100 yards to the half-mile. In his first picture, Glorifying the American Girl (1929), he appeared as an Adonis clad only in a fig leaf. After great success with a jungle movie, MGM head Louis B. Mayer, via Irving Thalberg, optioned two of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan stories. Cyril Hume, working on the adaptation of Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), noticed Weissmuller swimming in the pool at his hotel and suggested him for the part of Tarzan. Weissmuller was under contract to BVD to model underwear and swimsuits; MGM got him released by agreeing to pose many of its female stars in BVD swimsuits. The studio billed him as "the only man in Hollywood who's natural in the flesh and can act without clothes". The film was an immediate box-office and critical hit. Seeing that he was wildly popular with girls, the studio told him to divorce his wife and paid her $10,000 to agree to it. After 1942, however, MGM had used up its options; it dropped the Tarzan series and Weissmuller, too. He then moved to RKO and made six more Tarzans. After that he made 13 Jungle Jim (1948) programmers for Columbia. He retired from movies to run a private business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
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Trademark

muscular pectorals
Best known as one of the most popular on screen Tarzan and for inventing his trademark roar.
Showing his swimming skills in Tarzan films.

Trivia

Was the first man in the world to swim 100 m. freestyle in less than a minute.
Won five Olympic Gold Medals from 1924-1928 for swimming. Broke the record in each race. From 1921-1929, he won every free style race he entered.
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.
Weissmuller had a close call in Cuba during the time of the Cuban Revolution. While playing golf, he and his friends found themselves suddenly surrounded by a group of Fidel Castro's soldiers intent on kidnapping them, or worse. Thinking fast, Weissmuller immediately gave his trademark Tarzan yell. The soldiers immediately recognized it and were so delighted to meet Tarzan that they began to clap and escorted the group back to a safe area, where Weissmuller was presented a $100 bill.
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Quotes

[on playing Tarzan in 12 films between 1932-1948] How can a guy climb trees, say "Me, Tarzan, you, Jane", and make a million? The public forgives my acting because they know I was an athlete. They know I wasn't make-believe.
I have always been vitally interested in physical conditioning. I have long believed that athletic competition among people and nations should replace violence and wars.
I started out as a scrawny kid in Chicago, and even that was lucky. It got me to swimming. Then all the good breaks in the world happened-and kept on happening.
I'd like to move into the Douglas Fairbanks type of action pictures. I'm no great actor, but my fans like me, so why shouldn't I give it a whirl?
I've had about as perfect a 55 years as any human could have.