~ Pass Me a Banana Please ~

Flipping through the channels the other night, I came across an old Tarzan movie in black & white.  I believe it was called, "Tarzan Escapes" starring Johnny Weismuller, former Olympic gold medal swimmer. I started wondering how many actors have played Tarzan so I looked it up.  The first guy to play Edgar Rice Burroughs's jungle king was Elmo Lincoln in two silent films in 1918.  New York Firefighter Gene Pollar starred in one movie in 1920.  Then next came, James Pierce, who married Burroughs's daughter and had one movie as the ape man in 1927.  A guy named Frank Merrill followed with three movies in 1928 to 1929.

Then Johnny Weissmuller took over in the 30's and made those twelve movies as Tarzan before switching to become "Jungle Jim" for 13 movies.  I should mention Buster Crabbe who played Tarzan in 1933 once before becoming "Flash Gordon" for which he is more remembered. In addition, Herman Dix made two movies as Tarzan in the 1930's and Glen Morris made one. Lex Barker made five movies as Tarzan between 1949 and 1953.

Then we come to a guy many believe was the best movie Tarzan, Gordon Scott, who starred as the ape man six times between 1955 and 1960. Jock Mahoney took over the role for two films in the early 60's and was followed by ex pro football linebacker Mike Henry for three movies. Myles O'Keefe played Tarzan to Bo Derek's Jane in 1981's "Tarzan of the Apes". 

Christopher Lambert starred in "Greystoke" in 1984, a movie thought to be closest to the real story conceived by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Finally, Casper Van Dien starred in 1998's Tarzan and the Lost City.  TV Tarzans include Ron Ely between 1966 to 1970, Joe Lara in a 1989 CBS Television movie and one, 22 episode seasons, and Canadian born Wolf Larsen was Tarzan for three seasons. A guy named Travis Fimmel had a short eight episode run as Tarzan on Television in 2003.  There you go.

That's many ape men if you ask me.

And speaking of Apes...:

Now this Ape certainly does know how to dance.