Johnny Weissmuller

Johnny Weissmuller (born Janos Weißmüller; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was an Austrian-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller 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.

Spouses:

Maria Brock Mandell Bauman (1963–84; his death)
Allene Gates (1948–62)
Beryl Scott (1939–48; 3 children)
Lupe Vélez (1933–39)
Bobbe Arnst (1931–33)

After his swimming career, he became the sixth actor to portray Edgar Rice Burroughs's ape man Tarzan in films, a role he played in twelve motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best known. His character's distinctive, ululating Tarzan yell is still often used in films.

Weissmuller had five wives:

band and club singer Bobbe Arnst (married 1931 – divorced 1933);

actress Lupe Vélez (married 1933 – divorced 1938);

Beryl Scott (married 1939 – divorced 1948);

Allene Gates (married 1948 – divorced 1962); and

Maria Baumann (married 1963 – his death 1984).

With his third wife, Beryl, he had three children:

 Johnny Weissmuller, Jr. (September 23, 1940 – July 27, 2006),

Wendy Anne Weissmuller (b. June 1, 1942), and

Heidi Elizabeth Weissmuller (July 31, 1944 – November 19, 1962).

In 1974, Weissmuller broke both his hip and leg, marking the beginning of years of declining health. 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 1977, Weissmuller suffered a series of strokes. In 1979, he entered the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Californiafor several weeks before moving with his last wife, Maria, to Acapulco, Mexico, the location of his last Tarzan movie.

On January 20, 1984, Weissmuller died from pulmonary edema at the age of 79. He was buried in Acapulco at Valley of the Light Cemetery. As his coffin was lowered into the ground, a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times, at his request.

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