Gordon Scott, in loving memory...

[jmcc]

From NYTimes.com:

Gordon Scott, 80, Dies; Film Actor Best Known for Playing Tarzan

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 5, 2007

Correction Appended

BALTIMORE, May 4 (AP) — Gordon Scott, a handsome, muscular actor who portrayed Tarzan in the 1950s, died here on Monday. He was 80.


Gordon Scott in the 1957 movie “Tarzan and the Lost Safari.”

The cause was complications after heart surgery, said a spokesman for Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Mr. Scott was one in a long line of actors, including Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe, who portrayed Tarzan, the vine-swinging hero of the jungle created by the writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. Among his movies were “Tarzan and the Lost Safari” (1957), “Tarzan’s Fight for Life” (1958), “Tarzan and the Trappers” (1958), “Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure” (1959) and “Tarzan the Magnificent” (1960).

“He was an absolutely wonderful Tarzan who played the character as an intelligent and nice man who carried himself well, much as my grandfather had originally written it,” Mr. Burroughs’s grandson Danton Burroughs told The Baltimore Sun.

Mr. Scott was born Gordon W. Werschkul in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 3, 1926. He was a lifeguard at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas when he was discovered by the Hollywood producer Sol Lesser, said his brother, Rafield Werschkul. He was chosen over 200 other candidates to play Tarzan and signed to a seven-year contract.

During the production of his first film, “Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle,” in 1954, he fell in love with his co-star, Vera Miles. The couple married that year and divorced four years later.

In addition to his brother, of Portland, his survivors include two sisters, Janice McKeel of Salem, Ore., and Betty Lou Hyatt of Sisters, Ore.

After the Tarzan movies, Mr. Scott appeared in westerns and gladiator films.

His later years were spent in Baltimore, in a row house owned by Roger and Betty Thomas. “My husband has been a fan of his since he was a child,” Betty Thomas said. “When we were in Hollywood about eight years ago, we looked him up. We invited him for a visit. He came and never left.”

Correction: May 10, 2007

An obituary by The Associated Press on Saturday about Gordon Scott, an actor who played Tarzan in the 1950s, misspelled his surname at birth. He was Gordon W. Werschkul, not Werschkull. The obituary also misspelled the given name of his surviving brother. He is Rafield Werschkul, not Rayfield.

(source)

Another links:

newsone.ca, eastvalleytribune.com

[j7wild]

I remember Johnny Weissmuller in the Tarzan movies but not him.