Lex Barker was known for playing Tarzan for RKO Pictures between 1949 and 1953, and portraying leading characters from Karl May's novels, notably as Old Shatterhand in a film series by the West German studio Constantin Film.
30 Facts About Lex Barker
2.
Lex Barker had an elder sister, Frederica Amelia "Freddie" Barlow.
3.
Lex Barker attended Princeton University, but dropped out to join a theatrical stock company, much to his family's chagrin.
4.
Lex Barker had a small role in Orson Welles's disastrous Five Kings, which met with so many problems in Boston and Philadelphia that it never made it into New York City.
5.
In February 1941,10 months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lex Barker left his fledgling acting career and enlisted in the United States Army.
6.
Lex Barker rose to the rank of major during the war.
7.
Lex Barker was wounded in action fighting in Sicily.
8.
Lex Barker had small roles in The Farmer's Daughter, Crossfire, and Under the Tonto Rim.
9.
In Tarzan's Magic Fountain, Lex Barker became the tenth official Tarzan of the movies.
10.
Lex Barker's Jane was Brenda Joyce who had been in Weissmuller's last three films.
11.
In Tarzan's Peril, Lex Barker's Jane was Virginia Huston, with African location footage.
12.
Lex Barker got the chance to play a non-Tarzan role in Battles of Chief Pontiac, a Western.
13.
Lex Barker returned to the role one last time in Tarzan and the She-Devil.
14.
Lex Barker supported Randolph Scott in Thunder Over the Plains.
15.
Lex Barker went to Columbia to make Duel on the Mississippi.
16.
Lex Barker had a rare non-Western role in The Price of Fear, a film noir with Merle Oberon.
17.
Lex Barker was in the war movie Away All Boats and the thriller The Girl in the Kremlin.
18.
Lex Barker went to 20th Century Fox for The Deerslayer, then did The Girl in Black Stockings.
19.
In 1957, as he found it harder to find work in American films, Lex Barker moved to Europe, where he found popularity and starred in over 40 European films, including two movies based on the novels by Italian author Emilio Salgari.
20.
Lex Barker started his European career with a British thriller The Strange Awakening.
21.
Lex Barker went to Italy to star in Captain Falcon, Son of the Red Corsair, The Pirate and the Slave Girl, and Terror of the Red Mask.
22.
Lex Barker had a short but compelling role as Anita Ekberg's fiance in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita.
23.
Lex Barker went back to swashbucklers: Knight of 100 Faces, Pirates of the Coast, Robin Hood and the Pirates, and The Secret of the Black Falcon.
24.
Lex Barker did the comedy Breakfast in Bed, then the adventure movie Storm Over Ceylon.
25.
Lex Barker returned to Italy for The Executioner of Venice and Kali Yug: Goddess of Vengeance.
26.
Lex Barker reprised his role as Old Shatterhand in Apache Gold, Old Shatterhand and Last of the Renegades.
27.
In 1966, Lex Barker was awarded the "Bambi Award" as Best Foreign Actor in Germany, where he was a very popular star.
28.
Lex Barker even recorded two songs in German: "Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir" and "Madchen in Samt und Seide".
29.
Lex Barker returned to the United States occasionally and made a handful of guest appearances on American television episodes, but Europe, and especially Germany, was his professional home for the remainder of his life.
30.
Lex Barker was cremated and the ashes were taken by his estranged wife Tita to Spain.