Bruce Bennett
Acting
- Born:
- 1906-05-19
- Died:
- 2007-02-24
- Place of birth:
- Tacoma, Washington, USA
Biography
Bruce Bennett (born Harold Herman Brix) was an American actor and Olympic silver medalist shot putter. His first career was as an athlete. At the University of Washington, where he majored in economics, he played football (tackle) in the 1926 Rose Bowl and was a track-and-field star. Two years later, he won the Silver medal for the shot put in the 1928 Olympic Games. Brix moved to Los Angeles in 1929 after being invited to compete for the Los Angeles Athletic Club and befriended actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who arranged a screen test for him at Paramount. In 1931, MGM, adapting author Edgar Rice Burroughs's popular Tarzan adventures for the screen, selected Brix to play the title character. Brix, however, broke his shoulder filming the 1931 football film Touchdown, so swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller replaced Brix and became a major star. After Ashton Dearholt convinced Burroughs to allow him to form Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, Inc., and make a Tarzan serial film, Dearholt cast Brix in the lead. Pressbook copy has it that Burroughs made the choice himself, but, in fact, in his biography, Brix confirmed that Burroughs never even saw him until after the contract was signed, and then only briefly. The film was begun on location in Guatemala, under rugged conditions (jungle diseases and cash shortages were frequent). Brix did his own stunts, including a fall to rocky cliffs below. The Washington Post quoted Gabe Essoe's passage from his book Tarzan of the Movies: "Brix's portrayal was the only time between the silents and the 1960s that Tarzan was accurately depicted in films. He was mannered, cultured, soft-spoken, a well educated English lord who spoke several languages, and didn't grunt."[4] Brix shown in the opening credits of the serial The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935). Due to financial mismanagement, Dearholt had to complete filming of much of the serial back in Hollywood, and Brix, although his travel and daily living expenses in Guatemala were covered throughout the shoot, never received his contracted salary, along with the rest of the cast. The finished film, The New Adventures of Tarzan, was released in 1935 by Burroughs-Tarzan, and offered to theatres as a 12-chapter serial or a seven-reel feature. A second feature, Tarzan and the Green Goddess, was culled from the footage in 1938.
Known For
Filmography
Tarzan: Lord of the Movies
Discovering Treasure: The Story of 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'
Tarzan at the Movies, Part 2: The Many Faces of Tarzan
Laat de dokter maar schuiven
The Clones
Deadhead Miles
Lassie: Well of Love
Torpedo of Doom
Branded
Kraft Suspense Theatre
The Virginian
The Outsider
Fiend of Dope Island
The Alligator People
The Cosmic Man
77 Sunset Strip
The Texan
Flaming Frontier
Perry Mason
Ain't No Time for Glory
Panic!
Three Violent People
Love Me Tender
Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer
West Point
The Three Outlaws
The Bottom of the Bottle
Hidden Guns
Robbers' Roost
Damon Runyon Theater
Strategic Air Command
The Big Tip Off
Lassie
Dragonfly Squadron
Stories of the Century
With This Ring
Letter to Loretta
Dream Wife
Cavalcade of America
Sudden Fear
Angels in the Outfield
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
The Last Outpost
The Great Missouri Raid
The Second Face
Lux Video Theatre
Shakedown
Mystery Street
Undertow
Without Honor
The Doctor and the Girl
The House Across the Street
The Younger Brothers
To the Victor
Smart Girls Don't Talk
Silver River
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Dark Passage
Cheyenne
Nora Prentiss
The Man I Love
A Stolen Life
Beer Barrel Polecats
Danger Signal
Mildred Pierce
I'm from Arkansas
U-Boat Prisoner
There's Something About a Soldier
Sahara
Frontier Fury
The More the Merrier
Murder in Times Square
Underground Agent
Sabotage Squad
Atlantic Convoy
Submarine Raider
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!
Honolulu Lu
Three Girls About Town
The Officer and the Lady
Two Latins from Manhattan
Dutiful But Dumb
So Long Mr. Chumps
The Phantom Submarine
The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date
West of Abilene
No Census, No Feeling
Glamour for Sale
The Spook Speaks
Before I Hang
The Secret Seven
How High Is Up?
Girls of the Road
The Taming of the Snood
Babies for Sale
Boobs in the Woods
The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady
Island of Doomed Men
Escape to Glory
The Man from Tumbleweeds
The Man with Nine Lives
Hi-Yo Silver
Blazing Six Shooters
The Heckler
Five Little Peppers at Home
Convicted Woman
Cafe Hostess
Invisible Stripes
My Son Is Guilty
Blondie Brings Up Baby
Five Little Peppers And How They Grew
Daredevils of the Red Circle
Hawk of the Wilderness
Land of Fighting Men
The Fighting Devil Dogs
Tarzan and the Green Goddess
The Lone Ranger
Amateur Crook
Danger Patrol
Sky Racket
Million Dollar Racket
Flying Fists
A Million to One
Silks and Saddles
Two Minutes to Play
Shadow of Chinatown
Shadow of Chinatown
The New Adventures of Tarzan
The New Adventures of Tarzan
Student Tour
Death on the Diamond
Treasure Island
Riptide
Meet the Baron
College Humor
Movie Crazy
Million Dollar Legs