Buster Crabbe(1908-1983)
- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Buster Crabbe graduated from the University of Southern California. In
1931, while working on
That's My Boy (1932) for Columbia
Pictures, he was tested by MGM for Tarzan and rejected. Paramount
Pictures put him in
King of the Jungle (1933) as
Kaspa, the Lion Man (after a book of that title but clearly a copy of
the Tarzan stories). Publicity for this film emphasized his having won
the 1932 Olympic 400-meter freestyle swimming championship and
suggested a rivalry with
Johnny Weissmuller. Producer
Sol Lesser wanted Crabbe for an independent
Tarzan the Fearless (1933),
though he first had to get
James Pierce to waive rights to the
part already promised to him by his father-in-law,
Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film was
released as both a feature and a serial; most houses showed only the
first serial episode, which critics panned as a badly organized
feature. Just prior to the film's release, Crabbe married his college
sweetheart and gave himself one year to either make it as an actor or
start law school at USC. Paramount put him in a number of Zane Grey
westerns, then Universal Pictures gave him the lead in very
successful sci-fi serials (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers) from 1936 to 1940. In
1940, he began a string of Billy the Kid westerns for low-budget (very
low-budget) studio PRC. After World War II, he devoted much of his
time to his swimming pool corporation and operation of a boys' camp in
New York. In 1950, he made the serials
Pirates of the High Seas (1950)
and King of the Congo (1952).
In addition, he was very active on television in the 1950s. In 1953, he
hosted a local show in New York City that featured his serials. He
played the title role in the adventure series
Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955).
During television's "Golden Age", he had several "meaty" lead roles on
such weekly anthology series as "Kraft Theater" ("Million Dollar
Rookie") and "Philco Television Playhouse" ("Cowboy for Chris") He
later returned to western features to play Wyatt Earp in
Badman's Country (1958) and gave
a stellar performance. Buster Crabbe died at age 75 of a heart attack
on April 23, 1983.