Background

Alexander Crichlow Barker, Jr. was born on May 8, 1919, in Rye, New York. He was the second child of Alexander Crichlow Barker, Sr. , a wealthy Canadian-born building contractor, and his American wife, the former Marion Thornton Beals.

Education

Barker's education was meant to prepare him to continue in his father's footsteps. He attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where he starred in both football and track. After graduating from Exeter he advanced to Princeton University, but there the well-laid plans of the Barker family went awry; Lex, Jr. , soon discovered that he had little interest in engineering.

Career

To avoid summer school, Barker took up with a summer stock company in Princeton, and soon "caught the acting bug. " A year later, in 1942, Barker was spotted by a Twentieth Century-Fox talent scout and offered a screen test. The audition won him a contract from the studio, but his film career was temporarily put on hold when he enlisted in the army after the outbreak of World War II. Barker rose to the rank of major and served as the aide-de-camp to General Mark Clark. In 1944, Barker received a head wound from artillery fire, was captured by the German Army, and then spent some time in a prisoner-of-war camp. With the end of the war in 1945, Barker returned to Hollywood, where he resumed his career.

Although Fox re-signed him, the studio put him only into one bit part (in Doll Face) during his first year. He had little better luck at Warner Brothers, which he moved to in 1946. Because of his striking good lucks and impressive physique, Barker was too noticeable to play supporting roles, yet Warner Brothers wasn't ready to give him a shot at a leading role.

Barker's career was on the decline when RKO rescued him in 1948. The studio, having failed to re-sign Johnny Weissmuller to its successful Tarzan series, was looking for a new Ape Man, and Barker's build and looks gained him the role. RKO was anxious about finding a worthy successor to the hugely popular Weissmuller, an Olympic gold medalist in swimming who had come to personify the Tarzan character. Although Barker, the tenth actor to play the role, adequately portrayed Tarzan, he never reached Weissmuller's popularity.

Barker's first Tarzan movie, Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949), received generally favorable reviews from the critics. Some still appeared brokenhearted at losing Weissmuller, but at least one reviewer commented, "Barker's handsome physique fits the Burroughs description, and he is actor enough to make the jungle man a more animated person than he has been. " Barker, in noting RKO's attempt to increase Tarzan's basic intelligence, noted wryly, "Tarzan is progressing. I have more dialogue than my predecessors. Two-syllable words, too. " One problem with the Tarzan series after Weissmuller - more apparent to critics than to fans, who continued to flock to each new release - was that the writers were simply running out of steam. Plots tended increasingly toward mechanical action picture models, with roaming elephants and threatening "natives" thrown in to satisfy audiences.

Barker's next film, Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950), was given a lukewarm reception by the critics, who ridiculed the plot and were generally unenthusiastic about the new Jane, Vanessa Brown. Tarzan's Peril, released the following year, was perhaps the most successful of Barker's Ape Man films, but the following efforts, Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952), and Tarzan and the She-Devil (1954), were generally panned, and each saw a dip in box office receipts. Barker, however, was generally credited with performing well despite the limitations of the role. These limitations, including the often inane plotting, shallow characterization, and limited vocabulary - Barker spoke just eighty-three lines in one film - had helped drive Weissmuller away from the role. Barker believed RKO was ready to develop the series further, but director/producer Sol Lessor, who owned the film rights to the Tarzan series, refused to go beyond the tested (and profitable) formula. Lessor, in fact, claimed that Tarzan's Savage Fury was fatally flawed by its excessive dialogue. "Tarzan had 137 lines in that one, " he complained. "Nearly talked himself to death. "Barker's Tarzan never did get beyond the two-syllable stage, and by the fourth film Barker was looking for a way out. In 1952, Barker announced to the press, "My career has reached a crisis. It's time for a change. I'm definitely determined to get out of the jungle. Actually, I don't regret having taken the role of Tarzan, because with it I've achieved a sort of stardom which I couldn't have gained any other way. "

Barker soon discovered, however, that the "sort of stardom" Tarzan conferred was not easily transferable to other roles. His opportunities were generally low-budget Westerns, the most satisfying being The Deerslayer (1956). To the public and the studios, Barker and Tarzan were interchangeable. As Barker later related, "I was all set to play Sherlock Holmes' brother in Billy Wilder's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and then the [producers] in Hollywood cabled back that I had the 'aura' of Tarzan about me. So they hired Christopher Lee, who is noted for playing Dracula. How's that for an aura!" In 1953, when Barker married his third wife, film star Lana Turner, one headline screamed, "Tarzan and Turner to Marry!" Barker became increasingly frustrated with what he perceived as Hollywood's narrowmindedness.

In Europe, Barker's Tarzan legacy opened many doors. Although most of the roles he took were for adventure films, they offered more complexity of character than his American roles. His career got an extra boost when the internationally recognized Italian director, Frederico Fellini, cast him in a pivotal role in the classic La Dolce Vita (1960). "No producer would have handed me the break Fellini did when he cast me in the sensational La Dolce Vita, " Barker reported, "which started me on an acting career in Europe. " By the mid-1960's, Barker had achieved the kind of stardom in Europe he had yearned for in the United States. He was among the highest-grossing stars in Germany and Italy, known particularly for his depiction of "Old Shatterhand" in a series of movies based on the frontier sagas of German writer Karl May.

By this time, Barker had begun to produce films as well. Now fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, and German, he had become a sort of movie ambassador to the world, helping to coordinate numerous film collaborations between different countries.

In 1966, Barker became a Swiss citizen. By 1970, Barker had made over sixty films outside of the United States. Because the European film industry was experiencing a slowdown, Barker turned back to America for work. Hollywood was no more impressed with his European credentials than with his Tarzan work, however, and Barker received few offers before his death of a heart attack three years later.

Achievements

• He is known mostly for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels. In 1966, he won the German equivalent of the Oscar for best foreign actor.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Tarzan Collection Starring Lex Barker (5 Disc)

    (Faced with the task of donning the Tarzan mantle after Jo...)

  • Who Killed Johnny Ringo
  • Code 7, Victim 5
  • Winnetou And The Red Gentleman
  • Terror Of The Red Mask
  • Battles of Chief Pontiac
  • Robin Hood and the Pirates
  • Winnetou The Last Shot
  • A Place Called Glory
  • Tarzan, Lord of the Movies Hosted By Gordon"Tarzan" Scott: A Documentary Of Classic Tarzan Films
  • Secret Of The Black Falcon

Personality

He had an athletic body shape, blue eyes and blond hair.

Connections

Baker married and divorced Constance Thurlow (1942-1949; they had two children) and Arlene Dahl (1951 - 1952), and he had mounting alimony payments. Then he married Lana Turner. His fourth wife, Irene Lambert, was Swiss; she died in 1962, shortly after giving birth to a son. In 1965, Barker wed for the last time, marrying Maria del Carmen Cervera, a Spanish former beauty queen.

Father:

Alexander Crichlow Barker

Mother:

Marion Thornton Beals

Wife:

Lana Turner

actress

Wife:

Arlene Dahl

actress

Wife:

Constance Thurlow

Wife:

Irene Lambert

actress

Daughter:

Lynn Thurlow Barker

Maria del Carmen:

beauty queen

Son:

Christopher Barker

Son:

Alexander "Zan" Crichlow Barker III

References

• Detour - A Hollywood Tragedy: My Life with Lana Turner, My Mother
• Lex Barker