Erbzine.com Homepage
First and Only Weekly Online Fanzine Devoted to the Life and Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Since 1996 ~ Over 15,000 Webpages in Archive
ERBzine.com/scott
GORDON SCOTT
One of the greatest of the film Tarzans 
died on April 30, 2007

"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," 

~ Danton Burroughs 
"I am positive were Burroughs alive today, he would fully agree that the Tarzan films are getting better and that Gordon Scott makes a truly magnificent Apeman."
~ Maurice B. Gardner - Film Critic

THE GORDON SCOTT TRIBUTE

1926-2007
Memorial

Biography
Filmography

Gallery 1
Dell

Gallery 2
Tarzan Stills

Gallery 3
Foreign Stills

Gallery 4
View-Master

TARZAN FILMS STARRING GORDON SCOTT

Tarzan's 
Hidden Jungle
Tarzan 
and the Lost Safari
Tarzan's 
Fight For Life
Tarzan 
and the Trappers
Tarzan's 
Greatest Adventure
Tarzan
the Magnificent
LAST OF THE STRONGMEN


To the memory of Gordon Scott, Tarzan the Magnificent.
Painting by Paul Privitera
.

Gordon Scott; Him Tarzan In '50s, 
Only Better-Spoken
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post ~ Friday, May 4, 2007; B07
Gordon Scott and Eve Brent
Gordon Scott, 80, a screen Tarzan of the late 1950s who became a muscular star of Italian "sword and sandal" productions, died April 30 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He had pneumonia. Before becoming a screen Tarzan, Mr. Scott had been an Army drill sergeant, judo instructor, truck driver and Las Vegas hotel lifeguard.

Talent agents at the hotel pool had spotted his muscular 6-foot-2, 240-pound frame and 19-inch biceps. They whisked him to Hollywood, where Mr. Scott beat out 200 contestants to replace the previous bearer of the loincloth, Lex Barker. Mr. Scott appeared in six Tarzan films from 1955 to 1960, including "Tarzan's Hidden Jungle," which co-starred his then-wife, Vera Miles; and "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure," with a young Sean Connery playing a villain.

William Hillman, an assistant professor at a Canadian university who runs official Tarzan tribute sites, said of Mr. Scott: "There have been so many bad Tarzan films, but his stand out pretty well. They had pretty fair production values, and he was a good-looking Tarzan. He's well-regarded by most fans."

Hillman described Mr. Scott as a transitional figure who tried to break out of the formulaic use of "me Tarzan" pidgin English into a more literate lord of the jungle.

The youngest of nine children, Gordon Merrill Werschkul was born in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 3, 1926. After high school, he became an Army drill sergeant during World War II. He held a series of odd jobs before his biceps were noticed poolside at Las Vegas's Sahara Hotel in 1953.

Tarzan producers insisted on a name change because "Werschkul" reminded them of former Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller. On the set, Mr. Scott was eager to do his own stunt work but was less than thrilled to wrestle a python, as one script called for. "You know, serpents have those teeth that slant back," he recently told the Baltimore City Paper. "It's hard to pull them off you. That was a big one, I think it was 19 feet, weighed about 200 pounds.

"But it was funny -- they kept it in a warm box to make it kind of lethargic, so it wouldn't wake up, but they kept taking the shots over and over again, so it kept waking up a little bit more. By the time we got the shot, it was a really angry snake. But we got some good shots." It's unclear whether Mr. Scott was dropped from the Tarzan series or, as he claimed, he wanted to avoid typecasting. At the time, he told a reporter he did not get the respect he felt he deserved. "In Beverly Hills, people think I'm just another actor who needs a haircut," he said.

He soon went to Rome to join his former weight-training companion Steve Reeves, a former Mr. America and Mr. Universe. Reeves had made a fortune starring in European-made sword and sandal epics, based on mythology and known for their poorly dubbed dialogue and cheap special effects. The two strongmen played Remus (Mr. Scott) to Romulus (Reeves) in "Duel of the Titans" (1961). Mr. Scott went on to portray Goliath ("Goliath and the Vampires"), Julius Caesar ("A Queen for Caesar") and Hercules ("Conquest of Mycene"). He was spy Bart Fargo in "Danger!! Death Ray" as well as Zorro and Buffalo Bill in other Italian-language productions.

Mr. Scott's film career ended abruptly in the late 1960s, and he returned to the United States, trailed by a reputation as a ladies' man who seldom paid his bills, according to a 1987 article in the Toronto Star. Mr. Scott later made a living on the autograph circuit and selling knives. He lived with a series of obliging friends and "Tarzan" fans, most recently in Baltimore.

He had a troubled marriage to Miles, who apparently was under the impression that she was his first wife. She was his second or third, by varying accounts. He was seldom in contact with his surviving family, which includes a brother and two sisters. He had a son with Miles, and it's unclear how many other children he might have had. He was estranged from nearly everyone.

.
Gordon Scott, 1926-2007
Movie 'Tarzan' dies in Baltimore
Star of 1950s, 1960s dies at 80 after reclusive last years
By Frederick N. Rasmussen ~ Sun Reporter
Baltimore Sun ~ May 2, 2007
Eve Brent and Gordon Scott
Gordon Scott may have hung up his loincloth four decades ago, but he was still fondly remembered by some movie fans for his portrayal of jungle superman Tarzan and later roles in westerns and sword-and-sandals gladiator films. The actor -- who went from being an unknown Las Vegas hotel lifeguard to Hollywood star overnight, and seemed to vanish overnight after a 24-movie career -- died Monday at Johns Hopkins Hospital of complications after several heart surgeries.

Mr. Scott, who was 80, had spent the last five years of his life in a rowhouse in Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood after being befriended by Roger and Betty Thomas. They gave him a spare room in their Pontiac Avenue home. "My husband has been a fan of his since he was a child. He was his idol. When we were in Hollywood about eight years ago, we looked him up," said Mrs. Thomas, a retired licensed practical nurse who is a part-time actress. "They called each other several times, and then we invited him for a visit. He came and never left."

"I first saw him in a movie in a Rogersville, Pa., theater when I was a boy, and that was it," said Mr. Thomas, a retired factory worker. "I haven't had much time to think about his death and let it sink in. He meant the world to me, and we had lots of good times together. I was blessed to have known him." Mrs. Thomas said that since October, the former film star had been in failing health and was in and out of a nursing home and several hospitals. "He had nobody but us."

According to a surviving brother, Rayfield Werschkull of Portland, Ore., Mr. Scott was born Gordon M. Werschkull there on Aug. 3, 1926. Other sources give his birth year as 1927, but the brother noted, "I'm exactly 10 years older. We were a family of nine kids, and we all ended up going in different directions. I haven't seen Gordon, whom we called Pete, for eight or 10 years. We just didn't keep in touch," Mr. Werschkull said. Mr. Scott was in his teens when he took up bodybuilding, which he quickly found impressed women. "Vanity is the crutch of us all," Mr. Scott told City Paper reporter Chris Landers, whose profile of the actor was published in Wednesday's editions of the Baltimore weekly, with the news of his death added just before publication.

Mr. Scott attended the University of Oregon for a year and was drafted into the Army in 1944, serving as a drill sergeant and military policeman until 1947. "After the war, I bought a beverage company and Pete went to work for me delivering soda pop until one day he left and went to work at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas as a lifeguard," his brother said. "And that's where Sol Lesser, a Hollywood producer, discovered him."

Climbing trees, jumping into pools and swinging from ersatz vines for six hours, Mr. Scott beat out 200 other would-be Tarzans from across the world who had auditioned for the part. And he was an impressive physical and athletic specimen, standing 6-foot-3, weighing 218 pounds and with 19-inch biceps. In 1953, he was awarded a seven-year contract and the last name of Scott by Mr. Lesser, becoming the 11th Tarzan, replacing Lex Barker.

Tarzan was created by novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Hollywood movies based on his stories date to Elmo Lincoln (one-time locomotive engineer Otto Elmo Linkenletter), in the 1918 silent screen thriller Tarzan of the Apes. During the 1954 production of his first film, Tarzan's Hidden Jungle, Mr. Scott met and fell in love with co-star Vera Miles. The couple married in 1954 and divorced four years later.

The film was followed by Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957); Tarzan Fight for Life (1958);Tarzan and the Trappers (1958); Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959), with co-stars Sean Connery and Anthony Quayle; 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," said Danton Burroughs of Tarzana, Calif. "He also gave a wonderful rendition of Tarzan's call which didn't have so much yodel in it."

Mr. Scott, having had his fill of Tarzan, moved to Italy in 1960 and acted in spaghetti westerns and films such as Hercules and Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West. His last film. The Tramplers, made in 1966 with co-stars Joseph Cotten and James Mitchum, was released in 1968.

Mr. Scott supported himself later by attending autograph shows, film conventions and living off residuals. "He was always a big spender and loved to party," Mr. Scott's brother recalled. "If he had one weakness, it was women. They were always hitting on him."

In his City Paper interview, Mr. Scott said that being an actor "is one thing I never thought about doing, but once you're in it, it spoils you for anything else if you're successful at it. The money's so easy, you meet beautiful people. My god, that's the ideal situation -- kind of a fantasy world. It's the best way to travel, too. First class, and you get to see a lot of interesting places." "I was a little girl, and I remember when Uncle Pete would came up to see us," niece Jane Tyler said Wednesday from her home in Seattle. "He was driving a big pink Cadillac, and my girlfriends couldn't believe that my uncle was such a big Hollywood star. Then we lost contact and I haven't seen him in more than 30 years."

Living as a semi-recluse in the Thomas household, Mr. Scott liked to stay in his room reading or watching old black-and-white movies on television. Occasionally, he walked around the neighborhood, unrecognized by passers-by. "He'd talk about his days in Hollywood and the different film roles he had. Whenever he watched a Tarzan movie, he'd say, 'I can't believe I did those things. Just look at me now,'" Mrs. Thomas said.

Mr. Scott spent his final days on life support at Hopkins ."We tried to get information from Gordon about his family because we were worried about what might happen to him, but he'd never discuss the issue," Mrs. Thomas said. "I last saw him on Saturday and said, 'Gordon, we love you, and so does the dog and the bird.' He opened one eye for a moment and gave me a wink," she said.

Mr. Scott had been married at least three times, family members said, and is thought to have had at least three children. Plans for a memorial service to be held in Oregon in June were incomplete Wednesday. In addition to his brother, survivors include two sisters, Janice McKeel of Salem, Ore., and Betty Lou Hyatt of Sisters, Ore.

fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com 

Copyright © 2007, The Baltimore Sun
.
'Tarzan' actor dead at 80
Associated Press ~ May 03, 2007

Gordon Scott, a handsome, muscle-bound actor who portrayed Tarzan in the 1950s, has died. He was 80. Scott, who had been living in a working class section of south Baltimore, died Monday at Johns Hopkins Hospital of post-heart surgery complications, a hospital spokesman said.

Scott made 24 movies including 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). The cast in the 1959 movie included Sean Connery and Anthony Quayle. Tarzan, the vine-swinging hero of the jungle, was created by the author Edgar Rice Burroughs. Scott was among a long line of actors, including Johnny Weissmuller and Larry "Buster" Crabbe, who portrayed him.

"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," Danton Burroughs told The (Baltimore) Sun.

Scott was a lifeguard at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas when he was discovered by Hollywood producer Sol Lesser, said Scott's brother Rayfield Werschkull of Portland, Ore. He was signed to a seven-year-contract after he outperformed 200 other international candidates.

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

After the Tarzan movies, Scott appeared in Westerns and gladiator films. Scott's 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. When we were in Hollywood about eight years ago, we looked him up," said Betty Thomas. "We invited him for a visit. He came and never left." Thomas said she last saw Scott in the hospital on Saturday. She told him, "'Gordon, we love you, and so does the dog and the bird.' He opened one eye for a moment and gave me a wink."

Although some sources said Scott was born in August 1927, his brother told The Sun he was born a year later.

.
Gordon Scott Tributes Worldwide
Gordon Scott; Him Tarzan In '50s, Only Better-Spoken
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer ~ Friday, May 4, 2007; Page B07
Gordon Scott, 1926-2007: Movie 'Tarzan' dies in Baltimore

Star of 1950s, 1960s dies at 80 after reclusive last years
By Frederick N. Rasmussen ~ Sun Reporter
Baltimore Sun ~ May 2, 2007
1950s 'Tarzan' Gordon Scott Dies at 80

ABC News
1950s 'Tarzan' Gordon Scott dies at 80 

Yahoo News
Actor Gordon Scott known for portrayal of Tarzan dies

Pravda - Moscow, Russia
Gordon Scott, 80; bodybuilder and actor played Tarzan in 6 films

LA Times
1950s 'Tarzan' Gordon Scott Dies at 80

Star Tribune - Casper, Wyoming
Gordon Scott, 11th Tarzan, Passes Away 

About: Classic Films
Actor who portrayed 'intelligent and nice' Tarzan in 1950s films dies

Globe and Mail - Toronto, Canada
'Tarzan' Gordon Scott dies in Baltimore

USA Today
'Tarzan' actor dead at 80

National Post ~ Canada.com
'Tarzan' Star Gordon Scott Dies

Portrayed Classic Jungle Hero in the 1950s Films
AOL Entertainment News
Gordon Scott, ‘Tarzan’ actor in 1950s, dies

Discovered as lifeguard at hotel in Las Vegas, eventually made 24 movies
MSNBC Celebrity News
'Tarzan' Gordon Scott Dies in Baltimore 

The Guardian - UK
Gordon Scott, 'Tarzan' actor in 1950s films, passes away

The Hindu News Service
Tarzan big screen star Scott dies 

BBC News
1950s-era Tarzan Gordon Scott dies at age 80 

He was lifeguard at Sahara when he was discovered 
Las Vegas Journal/Review
Tarzan-acteur Gordon Scott overleden

Telegraaf - Netherlands
BALTIMORE - De Amerikaanse acteur Gordon Scott, die in de jaren vijftig en zestig in een aantal Tarzan-films speelde, is op 80-jarige leeftijd overleden. Dit heeft de krant The Baltimore Sun donderdag gemeld. De gespierde badmeester Scott was in 1955 voor het eerst op het witte doek te zien in Tarzan's Hidden Jungle.
Tarzam Actor Dies

Skynews - Australia
Gordon Scott, 80, was 'nice' Tarzan

International News Service - Sydney, Australia
'Tarzan' Gordon Scott passes away 

Malaysia Sun
Danton Burroughs, grandson of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice claimed that Scott played the role of the vine-swinging king of the jungle just as Rice had dreamt of.

Actor portrayed a 'wonderful' Tarzan
Ottawa Citizen, ON, Canada
Actor Gordon Scott Dies

PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria
Tarzan Dies

FemaleFirst.co.uk
Former 'Tarzan' actor Gordon Scott dies at 80

International Herald Tribune - Paris, France
Gordon Scott, 80, Dies; Film Actor Best Known for Playing Tarzan

New York Times - NY, USA
‘Tarzan‘ Gordon Scott dies in Baltimore

Hinesberg Journal, Canada
Gordon Scott, 80, actor

Known for 'Tarzan' role in the '50s
Variety


The following story on Gordon Scott was written by journalist
Chris Landers
for Baltimore's City Paper
It is reprinted here with the permission of the author and editor.

The Last of the Strongmen

Gordon Scott Was A Hero Wherever He Went
--From Hollywood To Italy To South Baltimore
by Chris Landers ~ Baltimore City Paper
 
Thirteenth-century China was "a time of myth and mysteries, conquest and courage," at least according to the opening title sequence of 1962's Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World. The film's plot concerns Samson (not the biblical Samson, but simply a large and supernaturally strong man who has chosen to go by that name) rendering assistance to a group of Buddhist monks who are trying to restore the rightful emperor to power by taking on the Mongol horde and their leader, Garak, who threatens to subvert the process of bloodline sovereignty.

Samson, played by the American actor Gordon Scott, is not from China, but finds himself there in the course of his duties of wandering the earth and righting wrongs. The fact that he wanders a fully clothed earth dressed only in a pair of boots and tight orange high-cut shorts seems to attract little notice, although it may explain the conversion, at one point in the movie, of the evil and buxom Kiutai, who takes up Samson's side and is brutally whipped by Garak for her perfidy.

Along the way, Samson wrestles a tiger, uproots a tree, beats up a group of men with the support column from a tavern balcony, and, in the seventh miracle of the title (the last miracle at any rate--they do not total seven), manages to topple the Mongol palace despite being killed, shackled, and walled into a catacomb in the palace basement (in that order).

Despite the unorthodox locale, Asian extras, and sets left over from the production company's previous film, Marco Polo, Samson is an excellent example of the sword-and-sandals gladiator pictures churned out during the 1960s. It is the kind of movie Gordon Scott calls "a laugh," the kind he says you could make standing on your head. Scott made dozens of them, and for most people Samson and the Seven Miracles is largely forgettable. Scott will be better remembered as the 11th actor to play Tarzan, a role he filled in the mid to late 1950s, but for one fan, and eventually for Scott himself, Samson was a life-changing event.

Roger Thomas grew up in Baltimore but spent the summers in farm country -- West Virginia, Pennsylvania, or Ohio. Thomas saw Scott play Samson at the Buckstown drive-in theater while his family was staying in Rogersville, Pa., in the '60s, and he never forgot it.

At the end of the movie, Samson looks directly into the camera. The hero, victorious, is asked, "Must you really leave us?"

"My task here is finished," he responds. "Destiny brought me here. Now I must go wherever there is a fight between right and wrong."

At least that's how it happens on the autographed videocassette in Thomas' collection. He remembers the line slightly differently: "Where will you go?" "Wherever I am needed."

Thomas is 62, with slicked-back hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and a pitch-perfect Johnny Cash baritone twang. He has a near photographic memory, particularly when it comes to movies. While it is possible that he has mistaken the line, it is more likely that the movie he saw as a boy, dubbed from the Italian, was a slightly different cut. Samson and the Seven Miracles has also appeared under the names Goliath and the Golden City and Maciste at the Court of the Great Khan, the second a nod to the original Italian version, in which Samson is, in fact, the stock Italian movie hero Maciste, a similarly large man of unknown origin, given to earth-wandering and wrong-righting.

Whatever the exact words, the intent is the same -- boilerplate hero stuff -- but the effect it had on Roger Thomas was undeniable. He became a fan of Gordon Scott. Decades later, after his hero came to live in the back bedroom of his South Baltimore rowhouse, Thomas asked him what the last line of the movie meant, and Scott told him, "I was talking to you. Didn't you know that?"

In its roots and in its meaning, the diluted term "fan" carries with it the sense of, if not exactly religious reverence, something close to it. From the Barry Manilow Fan Club to the Japanese otaku, the enthusiast looks to the heavenly star for something outside of everyday life. It is hero worship. It's girls screaming at the Beatles, or sleeping with the Rolling Stones. It's the autograph line outside the concert, the flash bulbs at the premiere.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that the rich are different than you and I. Had he lived to see the current age of celebrity, he might have added that the rich are closer to us than the famous. The famous live in exotic places, behind high walls, and we pay men with cameras to spy on them. They are better than us, different from us, bigger than us. They don't work regular hours, they don't eat regular food, and they emphatically do not live in our back bedrooms.

Gordon Scott lived the life of the famous. He was admired by men, and women desired him. He traveled the world and he flew first class.

In a Baltimore County nursing home recently, Thomas tried to explain his admiration for Scott, who squirmed in his chair, unable to keep from interrupting. The trappings of Scott's fame were hidden away in the dresser of the room he shared with a stranger. It is doubtful that his nurses, or even his roommate, knew of his career on film.

Thomas: "All my life, he's been the inspiration for me. I used to spend my vacation time looking for him. I never did give up."

Scott: "This is a really sick man"

Thomas: "I'm proud to be that sick. He changed me, and I didn't turn out too bad. I used to work, make my money, go to the movies. All my life it's been Gordon Scott this and Gordon Scott that."

Scott: "Can you imagine trying to live up to that shit?"

Thomas: "They don't make them any better than that in my book. Nothing. They don't have anything better today."

Scott: "That's a great compliment, and no joke, Roger."

Thomas: "It's from the heart, old friend."

Later, after Thomas has left, Scott says this: "Roger is a marvelous guy. He's more than a fan--he's more like a friend or a brother or a son. He's a real nice guy."


According to the Internet Movie Database, Scott has starred in 25 movies, but when he looks over the list, he says, "They aren't all here."

Scott has played the heroes of mythology, from Samson (tag line: "The Mightiest of Them All!") to a founder of Rome (in 1961's Romulus and Remus). He has taken a few turns as Goliath (in Goliath and the Vampires and Goliath and the Rebel Slave). Scott has been Hercules, Zorro, Julius Caesar, and Buffalo Bill. He has been a gladiator (Gladiators of Rome) and a cowboy (opposite Joseph Cotten in Gli Uomini dal passo pesante, released in America as The Tramplers). He played a spy (Danger! Death Ray!) and a sheik (or a close relative, in Kerim, Son of the Sheik).

Vera Miles ~ Gordon Scott ~ Cheetah
But to a generation of men who were boys (and women who were girls, or perhaps slightly older than girls) in the late 1950s, Gordon Scott is Tarzan, the larger-than-life ape-man whom he played in six films from 1955 to 1960, and whose picture appeared on posters and comic books around the world.

Gordon Scott isn't as big as he used to be, but then, almost no one is. In a recent series of interviews during a temporary stay at a Baltimore County nursing home, he dressed casually (though less casually than Samson), in sweats and a black-on-black Yankees cap, and sat in a wheelchair. As he spoke about his life, he pulled references from a wardrobe behind him -- a book about the men who starred as Tarzan, an October, 1964 copy of Young Mr. America magazine featuring "Gordon Scott: Hollywood's King of the Muscle Men." At the height of his fame, he weighed 240, and stood 6-foot-2, but Gordon Scott was big even before he was Gordon Scott, when he was still just Gordon Werschkul, a German-American kid growing up in Portland, Ore., where he was born in 1927. He started bodybuilding when he was about 15 -- as soon as he realized it made him a hit with the ladies. "Vanity," he says, "is the crutch of us all."

When he was drafted in 1944, his size got him held back in basic training for five months while the Army special-ordered a uniform to fit him. All the other guys he trained with went into the old Rainbow division and off to fight and die on some Pacific island. "They're under the sand, now," he says. The uniform came in time for Scott to spend the tail end of the war training other soldiers in California and Texas. After he got out, he worked a variety of jobs, until someone noticed the big man working out at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas and asked if he wanted to manage the health club. He did, and "that was two and a half of the greatest years of my life," he says, a remarkable statement, given what was to come in 1953 as he worked out poolside at the hotel.

"I was out there working on the [diving] board," he recalls. "They had a three-meter board at that time, and I was out there working out on it. After I got out of the pool, this guy introduced himself, said he was an agent and wanted to talk to me. They were casting someone to be the new Tarzan, and he wanted me to come down and meet Sol Lesser, the producer. I said, `Sure,' you know, just for a lark. I didn't take it seriously at the time. We met Lesser on a Wednesday, we tested Friday and Saturday, and I was signed Monday."

The producers had already tested some 200 actors and athletes from around the world to fill the role of Tarzan. Gordon Werschkul, who had never considered acting, became Gordon Scott, the new hero of one of the most popular and long-lived action film series ever. ("Werschkul" was a little too close to Weissmuller, as in Johnny, still the best-known Tarzan actor.) Scott's first movie was filmed in the wilderness of a back lot at RKO Studios--the same one used for Gone With the Wind. "They had a little jungle fixed up out there," he says, "and we went out."

Tarzan's Hidden Jungle, released in 1955, was not a very good movie. Nor were 1957's Tarzan and the Lost Safari, '58's Tarzan and the Trappers (which began life as a TV series before being re-edited into a feature film), or Tarzan's Fight for Life, released the same year, but people liked Scott. His size helped him there, too--he did his own stunts, just because he could, and the filmmakers could get right in there for a closeup. The fight for life got a little too real when the script called for Tarzan to wrestle a huge python.

"It can get nasty if they grab onto you," Scott says. "You know, serpents have those teeth that slant back. It's hard to pull them off you. That was a big one, I think it was 19 feet, weighed about 200 pounds. But it was funny--they kept it in a warm box to make it kind of lethargic, so it wouldn't wake up, but they kept taking the shots over and over again, so it kept waking up a little bit more. By the time we got the shot, it was a really angry snake. But we got some good shots."

All four movies were produced by Sol Lesser. ("A cheap prick," as Scott remembers, "if you'll pardon the expression. I never liked him."). But the franchise, with Scott attached, switched hands in 1959, and Tarzan got a makeover.

"Sy Weintraub, he was the new producer," Scott says. "I wasn't the only one who thought [the movies were], you know, too homey, with the kid and Jane. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote about the guy as a wild son of a bitch. [Weintraub] wanted to show that a little bit more."

The next Tarzan movie was filmed on location in Africa, and the villain was played by a pre-James Bond Sean Connery. Another difference was Tarzan's expanded vocabulary, beyond the "me Tarzan, you Jane" of previous films--a relief for Scott. That film, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure, and 1960's Tarzan the Magnificent are considered two of the best in the series. They were also Scott's last. He had offers in Europe for 10 films, and fears about getting typecast as Tarzan, so off he went. There were offers for more Tarzans, but he wasn't interested. He highballed them--said he would sign for $150,000, an unheard of price at the time, and would do only one picture a year. "I knew they wouldn't accept it," he says.

"If you're successful at [playing Tarzan], it ruins you for any other thing," he says. "Weissmuller was the same way. He was very successful at it, and he couldn't get arrested. It's like Superman--Chris Reeve was great at that, and he worked at other things, but not a great deal, because he was tagged as that."


Europe was fun, anyway. His friend Steve Reeves was there, an old buddy from a gym in Oakland, Calif., where a group that included Reeves, Scott, and Jack La Lanne had worked out together in the '40s. Reeves had helped kick off a mythological frenzy in Italian cinema with his turn as Hercules in the 1958 movie of that name and the following year's Hercules Unchained. Hercules was joined by (and largely interchangeable with) Samson, Maciste, and another Italian strongman called Ursus, and the strongmen ruled the screen. It was the perfect place for a strongman/actor like Scott. Reeves brought him in for The Duel of the Titans, released in Italy as Romolo e Remo, in which the two played the twin founders of Rome. He made movies in Italy and elsewhere in Europe for most of the rest decade, deploying his 19-inch biceps in the pursuit of truth and justice. "A lot of body films, you know, sword and sandal," he says. 

After running out of myths to adapt for the screen, Italian filmmakers set Hercules and company on anyone who could put up a fight, from vampires and pirates to moon men and the lost city of Atlantis, churning out low-budget sword and sandal pictures at a fantastic rate -- between 1958 and 1965, the four big-name heroes appeared in more than 55 films.

The movies Scott and Reeves were in always involved the heroes invoking ancient gods, so Scott would needle Reeves, calling the big man up on the phone and when Reeves answered, Scott would boom, "By the gods!" Reeves hated that.

American companies specializing in dubbed and re-cut versions of Italian films also cashed in. American International Pictures, whose logo graces the credits of Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World, made its mark on the teen-trash-horror-exploitation genre in the '50s with films like Reform School Girl and Attack of the Giant Leeches, but also distributed hundreds of dubbed foreign films to the domestic drive-in market. Anything was fair game--American International brought to U.S. shores not only the off-brand Italian strongman Colossus in Colossus and the Amazon Queen but also Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita.

The brief golden age of the strongman films ended around 1965, when poor box office receipts for the film Hercules, Samson, Maciste, and Ursus: The Invincibles showed that it was possible to have too much of a good thing. One of the writers credited on Scott's Romolo e Remo, Sergio Leone, would soon gain international fame for his work in the next big Italian-film fad--the "spaghetti western."

After the success of Leone's Dollars trilogy, beginning in 1964, the Italian film industry set its sights on the Old West. The line between the strongman pictures and the spaghetti westerns was only made bright by the heroes and costumes (some pitting, for example, Zorro against Maciste blurred even that). The plots and their comic-book morality transferred genres well, and so did Scott, with his rugged good looks and a physique that was impressive, yet not too large to be strapped into a cowboy outfit. Scott made a handful of westerns, including the film he considers one of his best: The Tramplers, with Joseph Cotten and Jim (look-alike son of Robert) Mitchum.

Being an actor, he says, "is one thing I'd never thought about doing, but once you're in it, it spoils you for anything else if you're successful at it. The money's so easy, you meet beautiful people. My god, that's the ideal situation--kind of a fantasy world. It's the best way to travel, too. First class, and you get to see a lot of interesting places."

And then, around 1966, Scott stopped making movies and returned to the United States. The reasons for his return are one of the few things he declined to discuss for this article. He had a personal matter to deal with, he says, and when it was over he had lost the desire to act.

The Tarzan films and the gladiator pictures lived on, in countless weekend television matinées, introducing new viewers, whether they knew it or not, to Gordon Scott. Danger! Death Ray! was satirized on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Scott hadn't seen it but says some of the parodies he'd seen making fun of his movies "were damn clever."


Roger Thomas never wanted to be in the movies -- that's his wife Betty's thing. He just wanted to watch them.

"In my childhood, I had strict parents," he says. "I mean, super strict. You had to do everything by the code or you paid for it. I had to do all my chores and everything, to get my money, and I knew if Gordon Scott was playing Tarzan, I could see a guy -- if I had him on my side, if I could be like that, they wouldn't do this, you know? You get beat up when you're a kid and you think, I want to be like that. Just the inspiration of it, you see him and, Man, I'm all right."

Thomas did a lot of bodybuilding himself as a young man, a lot of power lifting, and a bit of showing off. "Just a little strongman stuff," he says, "twisting iron spikes, stuff like that."

He worked at a commercial cookware manufacturing plant on North Point Boulevard, in Dundalk, handling the iron and steel. "In those days they had these big griddles, like on the stove over there," Thomas says. "They took the magnet lift to pick it up. I used to do it by hand. Then the guys I used to work with would bring me stuff and say, `Let's see you bend that.' I mean, they took this forklift -- old forklift, it's called a Pettibone, from the '40s, and it was solid iron. They put it on a Fairbanks Morse scale, it weighs 6,700. Now, this was a photo published in, I believe it was 1968, in Muscular Development magazine. I lifted the entire side off the ground -- tilted it over."

Thomas' strength got him jobs, but it was a mixed blessing. Everyone wanted him to bend something, lift something, or fight someone. "My arms used to get me the jobs," he says. "They'd say `You with the arms, come on.' After a while you learn it's not an advantage -- it's a total thing against you. It'll kill you."

No matter how big Thomas got, though, he always remembered Samson, Tarzan, Goliath, and the man who played all of them.

"I'd be unloading tractor trailers on the docks, or just wherever, or handling the iron inside," he says. "And you've got 50 different people hollering at you at one time and, you know, you can only do one thing at a time--at the most. I used to think to myself, you know, I just wonder how Gordon would handle a situation like this. It's a little crazy sounding, but it just . . . well, maybe he would do this, and I would just handle it. He always told me, `Don't worry about nothing, just do the best you can.'"

Thomas may have wanted to meet Scott his whole life, but it's not like that's all he did. When he was 7, for instance, he wanted to meet the Three Stooges. When they appeared at Gwynn Oak amusement park, he snuck under the tent to see them. Security wanted to kick him out, but Moe Howard intervened. (Hey, if the kid wants to see us that bad . . .) And so, Thomas ended up at the table -- there's Larry, there's Curly, with Moe sitting right here with his arm around him. Moe gave him a match pack (with the matches ripped out: "You don't need these, kid.") and he wrote on the inside, "To my pal Rog, from Moe Howard."

If Thomas still had that today, it would fit right in with his other stuff. Betty says he needs a whole other house to keep all that stuff--movies, artwork, knives, just about everything else. But nothing he would ever part with. Everything has a connection, a memory, a story.

Remember House on Haunted Hill? With Vincent Price? When Thomas was a kid, he told his mother that someday he would find that house, and he looked for it all over the place. He says he finally found it when his train caught fire outside of Barstow, Calif., going to Los Angeles.

"We were in the observation car," he says. "Me and Betty and a guy named Joe--an Indian, from up in L.A.--and I looked over and I see this big puff of smoke and flames shot out. I grabbed him and threw him down the stairs. I said, `Hold your breath.' He didn't. We end up in Los Angeles at the hospital at night. Now here, you're going to think this is weird, but I tell you, honest truth. I go out to get some air and I'm standing on Vermont Avenue. In my ear it sounded like this voice said to me, `Look, look, I'm here.' Right. I said to Betty, `Will you do something with me tomorrow? Now I know this is going to sound crazy, but ride down to Vermont Avenue with me.' She said, `Why?' I said, `Because I just want you to.' We got down there, looked up, there's my house. I was a guest seven times in that house, so I accomplished that, too."

His greatest non-movie-related accomplishment is likely marrying Betty, an actress who has appeared (under the name Betty Willey) in around 40 films and TV shows, mostly in small roles, beginning with a part as a cop in John Waters' 1990 Cry-Baby. Sometimes, people don't believe Betty has been in as many films as she says, so she brings pictures. That's her with Johnny Depp, her with Adam West. Waters, with whom she has worked in several films, is her favorite director, and she has appeared in Homicide, The Corner, and The Wire. She has run a karate school and been a champion swimmer. For one movie, Dead Laughing, she had to claw her way out of a grave dressed as a zombie bride. She came home in costume and surprised Roger, who was standing at the window. "I turn around," he says. "And there she is--in full makeup, with blood dripping. I almost knocked her clear through the wall. I said, `You didn't come home like this?', and she said, `Yeah I did.' I mean, it was gruesome. Your first instinct is either to jump out the window or let her have it.

"There were never two more adventurous souls, I think, than her and I at one time," he says.

They orbited the same circles around Baltimore for years without meeting -- his friend dated her sister, he and his dad helped her parents out after a car accident one day -- and then one night in 1984, she came into the grocery where he was working. She was dressed for work in her nurse's uniform, and she was mad. Someone at the store has accused her brother of stealing. Roger smoothed things over (it was the guy behind the meat counter). As he walked her to the door he said, "You look like you could use a hug." And she said, "Yeah. Can I have one?"

People called them Romeo and Juliet, and on rainy days they would get together in the lobby at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she worked, and sit and talk about how one of these days Roger would take her to Hollywood, and all the things they would do and the people they would meet, not thinking for a second that any of it would happen. But then Betty got a part in A Christmas Carol at the Fells Point Corner Theatre, and then came Cry-Baby. She would take just about any role that came along, flying out to Hollywood to meet people and audition, and while Betty was looking for work, Roger was looking for Gordon Scott.


After Scott stopped acting, he toyed with the idea of writing a book about his life. "I figure everybody gets one book," he says. But the notes and journals he had been keeping for years were stolen during his travels. "Why they would do that, I don't know," he says. "But it was a great loss to me. All the things I remembered. That kind of broke my back."

He joined up with the autograph show circuit -- appearing at fan conventions in California, Florida, and points between, making paid appearances to sign memorabilia -- often with his old friend Steve Reeves. In late April 2000, they were both scheduled to appear at an autograph show in California. "I called him and told him I was going to get there two days early," Scott says. "He said, `I'm not feeling too well.' Five days later he was dead. Just like that. Never drank or smoked or any of the stuff that usually kills at that age. That was a kick in the head. Goddamn it. Good guy." Reeves was 74.

Meanwhile, it seemed like Thomas kept missing Scott wherever he went -- he would be in a collector's store in Hollywood looking through pictures of Scott, and the shop owner would say the actor had just been in. 

"Over the years of looking for him, it was just a little challenge," Thomas says. "I just wanted to walk up to him and say, `Hey, I'm probably your biggest fan that ever was, I just want to shake your hand one time.'"

It took about seven years of trips to California, and a tip from Edgar Rice Burroughs' grandson Danton -- whom Thomas had met through collecting circles, and who knew that Scott was staying with a family in Arizona -- to get a phone number, but Thomas was nervous. "I really didn't know what I was going to say. I had no idea. I didn't want to sound too . . . you know, you're babbling, you feel like a child, sometimes."

When he dialed the number, he settled on, "Hello, Mr. Scott, I'm Roger Thomas from Baltimore, Maryland. And I'm probably the biggest fan you've ever had in your life."

"Really?" Scott responded. "You know, you don't hear that much anymore."

The two men began a correspondence. Thomas sent gifts for birthdays and Christmas, tracking down Scott's rarer films for him. Scott wanted to do something for Thomas in return, but Thomas told him, "No. All my life from when I was young, you gave me everything I needed, for real." He says Scott told him, "You know, I believe you are what you say you are."

About a year after Reeves died, things weren't working out for Scott in Arizona. He had been living for years on money from his autograph shows and other appearances, along with residual payments from his films. He decided to take Roger up on his offer of a visit to Baltimore.

Thomas still remembers that Scott flew into BWI for their first face to face meeting on March 16, 2001, at 6:20 in the evening. And there it was, after all those years, that Roger Thomas from Baltimore was finally going to meet his idol, and the idol would meet his No. 1 fan. Scott had flown halfway across the country to meet Thomas, who had a friend drive him to the airport.

And they missed each other.

Thomas: "Being stupid, I didn't have a sign that said `Gordon Scott,' and I'm standing there like a boob, and they brought him out in a wheelchair. I must've had my back turned."

Scott: "He's running up and down saying `Have you seen Gordon Scott?' `Have you seen Gordon Scott?'"

Thomas: "`What's he look like?' Well, if you see him, you'll know the man. For God's sake, he's Tarzan!"

When he finally found him, the actor was at a bank of pay phones, trying to get ahold of someone to pick him up. After all of Thomas' planning, the first words his hero spoke to him in person were "It's about damn time." Thomas was so excited he forgot his ride at the airport. They took a cab home.

"I came out here to visit Roger and Betty," Scott says. "And while I was out here it turned into an extended stay, because I had a good time. I hadn't lived on the East Coast and I wanted to see what it was like. I came out for a couple of weeks and I stayed for years." 

In fact, Scott stayed with them for almost six years, sharing the Thomases' South Baltimore house with their dog Babe and two large tropical birds. Scott spent most of his time in his room, reading books Roger got from the nearby library. The trio took their meals together, watched movies together, and Scott gave Betty pointers on her acting. "Most of the time, he was a recluse," Roger says. "He liked his privacy and that was it."

They talked about Scott's films -- Roger's enthusiasm for the minute details was boundless. During a visit to Scott in the nursing home, Roger came through the door bursting with news.

Thomas: "Guess what I have for you? Your rarest, unattainable movie, The Son of the Sheik."

Scott: "We shot that at King Farouk's, before he went out of business."

Thomas: "You had that horse [in The Tramplers], an Arabian, wasn't it?"

Scott: "I wanted kind of a rangy horse, that Frederick Remington used to draw--all bone and sinew--and I got him. And he could run like hell."

Over the course of his residence in the Thomas household, Scott gave Roger many of the things he kept from his movies -- the coat he wore in The Tramplers, for example, and the golden sheath knife the studio gave him when he retired from the Tarzan franchise. The knife is one of Roger's most prized possessions, and he becomes visibly emotional while speaking of it.

Roger says Scott was depressed a lot, believing people had forgotten him. At the same time, however, he refused offers from movie producers, fans, and journalists who tried to reach him through the Thomases. After Scott went into the nursing home, Roger was worried for his friend and began reaching out to the people who had been asking for Gordon Scott.

 Scott entered the nursing home for rehabilitation of what he said in February was "trouble with the upper respiratory. Physically, I'm fine. I don't have any aches or pains -- it's just my breathing." He expected to be out in a few weeks. 

Roger and Betty were Scott's only regular visitors at the nursing home. He has children but declined to discuss them for this article, saying only that they were grown and have their own lives to live.

Scott hadn't done anything to publicize his address at the nursing home, and did not admit many visitors, but during a visit in February he had received a few fan letters anyway. He pulled them out of his wardrobe.

"This is 50 years after -- these people are in their 50s and 60s," he said. "I used to get 12 and 15 a week, maybe 5,000 after an opening. And really, very embarrassing to read -- nobody's really that good.

"It can turn your head if you're not laughing too much, but they're sincere, and I appreciate that," he continued. "They're good people, and they hit every phase of life as we know it--from the very wealthiest to the dead poor -- but that Saturday morning, or the other days, they went to see it and it got them out of the house. And they enjoyed it. So you know, you contribute something to the general population. It's not like building any great discovery or anything, but it's just . . . doing a job well, and people enjoy it, and that means a lot."

While Scott was at the nursing home, he received a visit from Sky Brower, a fan from Arkansas who runs one of the many Tarzan fan sites on the internet. Brower had been trying for years to track down the actor and had written a letter to the Thomases' address. The letter went unanswered. Brower tracked down a phone number and spoke to Betty, but didn't get through to Scott. When Brower heard that Scott had gone into a nursing home, he tried again, and coordinated a visit to Baltimore.

With money raised from Tarzan fan sites, he bought Scott copies of several of his movies, an LCD television, and a DVD player. When Brower posted the story of his visit on his web site, inquiries about Scott's health began coming in. Two of Scott's leading ladies from his Tarzan films have since written to Brower. For his part, Brower wrote in an e-mail that "the time spent with this great man will remain one of my most special memories."

The day after Brower visited in February, Scott went into the hospital -- first Good Samaritan, for some swelling in his legs, then to Johns Hopkins for a series of heart surgeries.

At Hopkins, the Thomases had trouble getting information on about Scott's condition, but Betty talked her way in. As of April 27, she reported, he was unconscious about 90 percent of the time and was being fed through a tube. A few days before, the hospital had asked the Thomases whether or not to put Scott on life support. They told the hospital yes, but the responsibility wore heavy on them. They were afraid of doing the wrong thing and had been unable to locate any members of Scott's family. Roger had tried to ask Scott what they should do in the event of his death; Scott never wanted to talk about it.

On the morning of April 30, as this story was being prepared for press, Betty Thomas called to say that Gordon Scott had died. He was 79 years old. Roger Thomas was too upset to come to the phone.

Back in February, while Scott was still in the nursing home, he kept the television on, always tuned to black and white movies.

"I like the old ones," Scott said. "They have that Turner Classics -- some of the foreign language things I really like. You see some of the really great ones, too. They're great entertainment, and they're a companion--in a place like this particularly.

"Everyone has to have that -- to get away from what they're doing and to be transported to a place, whether it's intellectual or just going to the funny farm. It's something that's comparatively cheap to do, and you get great enjoyment out of it. When a film comes on, I don't try to analyze it, although subconsciously that happens anyway. I don't say, `Well, how did they do that background or get that shot?' Bullshit. I get into the story, and sometimes the photography is so beautiful. I'm a fan."

© 2007 Baltimore City Paper 
Gordon Scott
He was the first Tarzan to be given a full speaking role
Guardian ~ June 8, 2007

If filmgoers were asked to name a screen Tarzan, most of them would inevitably answer Johnny Weissmuller, who portrayed Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle hero in 12 movies. Gordon Scott, who has died aged 80, was the second most successful Tarzan, appearing in six films in the series between 1955 and 1960. Scott, arguably the most handsome of the Hollywood Tarzans, probably had a better build than the 17 others, weighing 218lbs with 19in biceps and standing 6ft 3in, all of which helped him continue his career in Italian "sword and sandals" epics.

Born Gordon Werschkul in Portland, Oregon, he majored in physical education at the University of Oregon, but dropped out after one semester. He then joined the army becoming an infantry drill instructor, then a military policeman. After leaving the army in 1947, he took various jobs as a fireman, cowboy, and farm machinery salesman. In 1953, while working as a lifeguard at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, the 26-year-old was spotted by a pair of Hollywood agents, who introduced him to the RKO producer Sol Lesser, who was looking for a new Tarzan to replace the 35-year-old Lex Barker.
Advertisement

After Scott auditioned for the part by climbing trees, jumping into pools and swinging from artificial vines for six hours, Lesser gave him a seven-year contract and a new surname (Werschkul was rather similar to Weissmuller), and cast him in Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1955). Shot cheaply in California, with stock footage of African wildlife, the routine film was not the best launch for a new Tarzan. Though Scott, who had never acted before ("Tarzan was ideal for me because I didn't have too much dialogue"), looked the part, he gave a wooden performance and drew unfavourable comparisons with previous actors in the role. However, during the shooting, he married his co-star Vera Miles, who played the nurse Tarzan rescues from restless natives.

Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957) for MGM was the first of the series in colour, the first in widescreen and the first to be shot almost entirely in Africa featuring "14 Different Tribes!" according to the studio publicity. For Tarzan's Fight for Life (1958), he was given a Jane for the first time in the shape of Eve Brent. Scott, who was always keen to do as many stunts himself as was allowed, got to wrestle an 18-and-a-half foot python which, in reality, nearly strangled him and required six men to pull off. It was the last of the Tarzan movies produced by Lesser who, according to Scott, was "a cheap prick ... I never liked him", and was the last in which the loin-clothed hero was merely a monosyllabic hunk.
Sign up for Guardian Today US edition: the day's must-reads sent directly to you
Read more

Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) lived up to its title, which prompted Burroughs' grandson, Danton, to proclaim: "Scott was a wonderful Tarzan who played the character as an intelligent and nice man, who carried himself well, much as my grandfather had originally written him. He also gave a wonderful rendition of Tarzan's call, which didn't have so much yodel in it." Indeed, Scott proved himself an extremely capable performer when given the chance to speak whole English sentences.

Shot in Africa, the film and the character were much tougher and more realistic than their predecessors. In one scene, Tarzan shoots a man at point blank range with an arrow, and the villains, led by Anthony Quayle, are pretty vicious. Scott's last film before exchanging his loincloth for a toga, Tarzan the Magnificent (1960), had a similar realistic tone. It also dropped the character's famous animal call, which the producers felt had been too often parodied.

In his first Italian muscleman spectacle, Duel of the Titans (1961), Scott's Remus fights Steve Reeves' Romulus over the daughter of the King of the Sabines (Virna Lisi). The producers originally wanted Reeves to play both the twin brothers, but the ex-Mr Universe recommended his former weight-training buddy Scott as co-star.

In the same year, Scott, having settled in Rome, found himself rescuing slave women from an evil zombie leader who needs their blood to feed his soldiers in Goliath and the Vampires. There followed more than a dozen of these - dubbed "peplum" (tunic) epics - in the next five years, mostly with Scott interchangeably named Goliath (Maciste in the Italian versions), Samson or Hercules, always performing great feats of strength such as causing an earthquake by moving a mountain in which he is buried alive in Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World (1961).

At the end of his screen career, Scott made a couple of spaghetti westerns: Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West (1965), playing the title role, and The Tramplers (1966), as well as a risible James-Bond-type thriller Death Ray (1967), in which he was Superspy Bart Fargo.

In later years, Scott, who was a big spender during his days of stardom, lived with various friends and went around the autograph show circuit. In 2001, he took up an offer to visit a couple of fans, Roger and Betty Thomas, in Baltimore. He remained in their back bedroom for the last six years of his life.

Scott, who is survived by his son by Vera Miles, and two other children from two other marriages, recalled that acting spoiled him for anything else in life. "The money's so easy, you meet beautiful people. My God, that's the ideal situation - kind of a fantasy world. It's the best way to travel too. First class, and you get to see a lot of interesting places."

· Gordon Scott (Gordon Merrill Werschkul), actor, born August 3 1926; died April 30 2007

.
MEMORIES OF GORDON SCOTT
by Dave Hoover
When I was a kid I was first introduced to Tarzan through the movies.  From where I lived in Pennsylvania we could sometimes pick up a channel from Baltimore (the days before cable) that ran Tarzan movies on Sunday morning.  I remember distinctly seeing the Weissmuller films, and this caused me to buy some Tarzan paperbacks I found in a local drug store.  I recognized that the Tarzan character of the books was somewhat different from the movies, but the movies helped make it all seem real, especially to a boy about 8 years old. 

Then one Sunday morning I turned on the TV and saw a different kind of Tarzan movie.  Tarzan spoke in whole sentences. had a bow and arrows, seemed much more grim, and the story seemed so much more realistic.  I sat spellbound.  This was the Tarzan of the books.  The movie was Tarzan's Greatest Adventure, and if I was hooked before seeing this film, I was really hooked now.  From that moment on Gordon became Tarzan, and the movie had a startling effect on a very impressionable young lad.  I now lived and breathed Tarzan.

Shortly thereafter the Tarzan series with Ron Ely was running on NBC.  It was a virtual brainwashing by television and the movies, and there was no going back, I was going to become Tarzan or else.  I started weightlifting, got involved in sports, read any Tarzan/Burroughs book I could find, and really set a course for the rest of my life.  I have heard similar stories from other Tarzan fans I know.  Gordon was somehow the defining moment for them.

I think it is interesting that in all the years since Gordon's movies Hollywood hasn't been able to make a Tarzan movie that has equaled them.  His two films, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure and Tarzan the Magnificent are still the best Tarzan movies (at least in my opinion).  I like to think that Burroughs would have been proud of them.

Well, I could go on and on.  I eventually got to meet Gordon while living in California (Tarzana, where else) and at one point he even borrowed some of my Tarzan stills.  One of the great things about Gordon was his sense of humor, and it sounds as if he had this until the end. 

I suppose this message is my memoriam to Gordon.  I wanted to do something a bit special, so I sat down and did a drawing of Gordon to mark his passing.  I've attached it to this message and I've uploaded it to the files section at the Tarzan Cinema site.

Dave



Editor's Note: David Hoover is a well-respected Tarzan illustrator and a major contributor to ERBzine. More of David's exciting ERB art appears at: ERBzine 0340
 

From the Rob Donkers Collection

Click


 


Click for full-size promo splash bar


MORE WEB REFS

Gordon Scott Memories Guest Book at LEGACY.COM
Robert Patterson Tribute on YouTube
Farewell My Friend: A Fan's Last Visit with Gordon Scott with photos by Bob Burrows
From artist David Burton's CafePress.com
The Gordon Scott Memorial Shop
Merchandise to honor late actor, Gordon Scott
All proceeds will go to the Scott estate
www.cafepress.com/gordonscott
Sky Brower Jungle Drums


For more information on all the ERB films visit:
ERBzine Silver Screen
THE GORDON SCOTT TRIBUTE


1926-2007
Memorial

Biography
Filmography

Gallery 1
Dell

Gallery 2
Tarzan Stills

Gallery 3
Foreign Stills

Gallery 4
View-Master

TARZAN FILMS STARRING GORDON SCOTT

Tarzan's 
Hidden Jungle
Tarzan 
and the Lost Safari
Tarzan's 
Fight For Life
Tarzan 
and the Trappers
Tarzan's 
Greatest Adventure
Tarzan
the Magnificent
.LAST OF THE STRONGMEN


Tarzan.com
Tarzine: Official Monthly Webzine of ERB, Inc.
John Coleman Burroughs Tribute Site
Tarzan.org
Burroughs Bibliophiles
ERBzine Weekly Webzine
The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs



BILL HILLMAN
Visit our thousands of other sites at:
BILL and SUE-ON HILLMAN ECLECTIC STUDIO
ERB Text, ERB Images and Tarzan® are ©Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.- All Rights Reserved.
All Original Work ©1996-2009/2019/2022 by Bill Hillman and/or Contributing Authors/Owners
No part of this web site may be reproduced without permission from the respective owners.