How Buster Crabbe Got His Big Break in Tarzan the Fearless

Did you know that Buster Crabbe’s daughter died as a result of anorexia, and that the Tarzan star was an Olympic gold-medal winner? Buster Crabbe was an Olympic swimmer that used his career as an athlete to start up a career in the entertainment industry. Over the course of his acting career, Buster became known for performing in a variety of serials. Some of the iconic roles that Buster played over the course of his career include Tarzan and Buck Rogers. Towards the end of his life, Buster became a successful businessman after the acting gigs that he was being offered dwindled.

▬Contents of this video▬
00:00 - Intro
00:27 - Buster Crabbe Was Born to Play a Jungle Man
01:52 - The Role of Tarzan Got Buster’s Foot in the Door
03:34 - What Buster Did During World War II
05:10 - Buster’s Transition to the Small Screen
06:49 - Buster Suffered a Personal Tragedy in the 1950s
07:19 - Outro

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Buster Crabbe was born in California but raised in Hawaii. It was in Hawaii that the young man developed a penchant for swimming. After graduating from college in California, Buster became an Olympic swimmer. He won a gold medal at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and this victory led to Buster playing the titular role in 1933’s Tarzan the Fearless. Tarzan the Fearless wasn’t the first film serial based upon the character of Tarzan. In fact, the serial was produced to compete with 1932’s Tarzan the Ape Man, which had featured another Olympic swimmer in the title role. That swimmer would be Johnny Weissmuller.

Buster Crabbe only portrayed the character of Tarzan once, while Johnny Weissmuller kept playing him for two decades. Despite this, Buster’s turn as the character was successful enough that it led to Buster receiving similar roles in other films and serials. Besides Tarzan, some of the most notable characters that Buster played over the course of his career include Flash Gordon and Billy the Kid. In the late 1950s, Buster performed the titular lead on a television series by the name of Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion.

After Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion came to an end, Buster decided that it was time to find a future for himself outside of the entertainment industry. The actor became a successful businessman towards the end of his life. Join Facts Verse as we explore how Buster Crabbe got his big break in Tarzan the Fearless.

How Buster Crabbe Got His Big Break in Tarzan the Fearless