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The European career of Hollywood actor Lex Barker gained momentum when he met German producer Artur Brauner who quickly realized the American's box office potential. Soon Lex was hunting the infamous Dr. Mabuse in two films, and then he rocketed to European stardom as the trapper 'Old Shatterhand' in films based on western novels by Germany's famed Karl May.

May's novels had created a taste for westerns in Europe long before Italian producers started filming westerns, yet it took some daring for Horst Wendlandt, a young German producer, to risk producing western films with budgets of several million Deutschmarks. Nobody then could foresee that these German-made westerns would break all previous box office records. Years later, Sergio Leone himself admitted that without the pioneering success of these films, he would never have entered western film territory.

Almost overnight, Lex became a European box office sensation. As American audiences began to forget him, his popularity in Europe quickly soared above the popularity of super stars such as John Wayne or Clint Eastwood.

Lex made a total of twelve films based on Karl May novels. They took him to Wild West locations in Mexico, Yugoslavia, and Spain where many Euro westerns were shot. The fact that the films were made on European locations did no harm to their success. In particular, the first two pictures, TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE (1962) and APACHE GOLD (1963) served as a yardstick for the genre and even were appreciated in America. The Monthly Film Bulletin described TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE as a cheery continental western boasting attractive locations and differing from American westerns in that it was, for a change, not the U.S. cavalry, but the Indians who came to the rescue. TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE has remained the great German box-office success story, unsurpassed even by TITANIC.

The audience's fancy for the "Kraut westerns" lasted for years to come, and other American actors - Kelo Henderson, Guy Madison, Jeff Corey, and Walter Barnes - co-starred with Lex in his films. The first title theme of the series, the "Old-Shatterhand-Melodie" by composer Martin Böttcher, became one of the most successful-ever movie title themes in Europe. Cashing in on his popularity, Lex recorded two German love songs sung in the style of western ballads.

Lex Barker's other movies based on Karl May novels include: APACHES LAST BATTLE (1964), THE SHOOT (1964), LAST OF THE RENEGADES (1964), TREASURE OF THE AZTECS (1965), WILD MEN OF KURDISTAN (1965), THE DESPERADO TRAIL (1965), FURY OF SABERS (1965), THE HALF BREED (1966) and VALLEY OF THE DEATH (1968).

Before his huge success in Europe, Lex Barker had already left his mark in the American movies. Born Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr., he followed some surprising twists and turns on his road to stardom. And when he got there, he had to fill some very large footprints. After the screen's greatest Apeman, Johnny Weissmuller, cast off his loincloth, RKO was faced with the seemingly insoluble problem of finding another Tarzan. Little did they know, a new jungle fantasy hero was about to rise from obscurity to claim the loyalty and the admiration of millions of fans.

Before Tarzan, Lex Barker had only played bit parts, albeit in outstanding films, such as THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER (1947 Best Actress Academy Award for Loretta Young), and CROSSFIRE (Edward Dmytryk's 1947 milestone film noir), and in the comedy classic MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE. Then came that stroke of luck so often essential to success in Hollywood: Lex Barker, a six-foot, four-inch athlete with stunning good looks, was picked from a crowd of several hundred aspiring Tarzans by producer Sol Lesser. Barker's anointing was confirmed when Edgar Rice Burroughs himself said that Lex perfectly suited his original concept of a savage jungle character who was also an English blueblood.

Though not English, the tenth film Tarzan was decidedly Anglo Saxon. Born May 8, 1919, in Rye, New York, Lex was a lineal descendant of Roger Williams, founder of Providence, Rhode Island, and of Sir Henry Crichlow, former governor-general of Barbados. Lex was educated at the prestigious Phillips-Exeter Academy where his first theatrical experience in school plays led to his decision to become an actor. He played in summer stock, and even made his way to Broadway. Cast in minor parts, he was never able to distinguish himself, though he did appear in FIVE KINGS (1938) directed by the great Orson Welles.

When World War II started, Lex enlisted in the U.S. Army as a buck private. In 1945, after having risen to the rank of major, he was discharged a highly decorated officer who had served honorably in North Africa and Italy where he had been badly wounded.

With his youth behind him, yet more handsome than ever, Lex decided to resume his acting career. In 1945, he made his screen debut in Lewis Seiler's DOLL FACE, starring Vivian Blaine as a burlesque dancer in a story written by Gypsy Rose Lee (Louise Hovick). He appeared in a variety of small roles, then came his big break, and from 1949 on, Tarzan and Lex Barker were practically synonymous.

His first jungle adventure was TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN (director: Lee Sholem). Lex's jungle lord came closer than Weissmuller's to the original Edgar Rice Burroughs concept. The press reacted positively, and audiences seemed to love Lex. TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN was a hit worthy of the successful series.

TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL (1950, director: Lee Sholem), and TARZAN'S PERIL (1951, directors: Byron Haskin, Phil Brandon) followed and helped sustain the popularity of the series. Barker's films showcased a particularly appealing jungle fantasy world where white tribesmen lived in an Africa far removed from the post-colonial era dawning in the wake of World War II. Yet, interestingly, TARZAN'S PERIL was the first Tarzan film partly shot in Africa. (The authentic African footage in the Weissmullers came from non-Tarzan films such as Trader Horn.)

For technical reasons, plans to shoot Tarzan in color did not come off, and Lex's next two Tarzan pics were filmed in black and white. TARZAN'S PERIL boasted an exciting plot and impressive footage of the Dark Continent, which made it one of the best pictures of the entire Tarzan series. (Later Tarzans without Lex used some of this footage shot in Africa).

Exploiting Tarzan's continuing popularity, Sol Lesser immediately produced the next film, TARZAN'S SAVAGE FURY (1952, director: Cyril Endfield). The film paid off for RKO, but there was increasing strain on Lex's and Lesser's relationship. Lex had signed a five-year contract with Lesser which stipulated that he be allowed to star in, in addition to one Tarzan movie, at least one more film per year of a non-jungle variety. Despite this agreement, Lesser put him off. Lex began to fear that he would get typecast as Tarzan, just like Johnny Weissmuller, and that he would never be given a real chance to prove his acting skills.

In 1952, Lex broke out of the jungle for his first lead in a western, BATTLES OF CHIEF PONTIAC (director: Felix Feist). Though the film featured an intelligent view of American Indians, it didn't score at the box office. Ironically, a trapper character similar to the one Lex played in BATTLES OF CHIEF PONTIAC later would earn Lex his greatest success in European films.

Lex turned down an offer to play the caped hero in the Superman television series because, once again, he feared typecasting. Indeed, 40 years after his death, George Reeves, who took the role, is still thought of only as Superman.

TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL (1953, director: Kurt Neumann), too, did well at the box office, even though Sol Lesser, due to constant arguing with Lex about his acting ambitions, had cut down Lex's lines to nearly half of their original length. Director Kurt Neumann managed to make the film an impressive contribution to the series, offering everything the audience expected to see in a Tarzan picture. Raymond Burr (later Perry Mason) played a very convincing bad guy, and talented 17-year-old, Monique Van Vooren, was deliciously wicked. His fans didn't know it yet, but TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL would be Lex's last Tarzan picture.

At this point, Lex preferred to sign only for one-film deals, and refused long-term contracts. In the meantime, Sol Lesser went looking for another new Tarzan and eventually found one in the superb physique of Gordon Scott who debuted as the jungle lord in TARZAN'S HIDDEN JUNGLE (1955).

After co-starring with Randolph Scott in THUNDER OVER THE PLAINS (1953, director: Andre de Toth), Lex was contracted by Universal International. UI gave him leads in a number of westerns, in which Lex delivered uniformly fine performances. Among them were THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN (1954, director: Jesse Hibbs), where Lex played a gold miner, and THE MAN FROM BITTER RIDGE (1955, director: Jack Arnold), where he was a detective. The naval war drama AWAY ALL BOATS (1956, director: Joseph Pevney) showed Lex in a character part, and won considerable acclaim from his fans. He was able to prove his acting skills in the smart psycho thriller THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS (1957, director: Howard W. Koch) which seems to have influenced the TWIN PEAKS TV series. After starring in James Fenimore Cooper's THE DEERSLAYER (1957, director: Kurt Neumann), a film marred by cheap production values, Lex was not offered any more major parts in Hollywood films.

With his career in trouble, Lex did what so many other Hollywood actors of the 50s and 60s would do-he went to Europe. It was a bold and sound decision. After a short detour in England, he filmed in Italy and was very much at home in swashbuckler films made in Rome's Cinecittà. His athletic prowess, and his command of French, Italian, and Spanish, won him leads in films made all across Europe, and even on location in North Africa where Lex, the young soldier, had once served.

Lex surpassed his usual performance when genius Italian director Federico Fellini cast him in LA DOLCE VITA (1959). In an amusingly appropriate role, Lex was Anita Ekberg's jealous and drunken fiancé, Robert, an American film actor who played in Tarzan films (some stretch!). In the critically acclaimed LA DOLCE VITA, Lex gave handsome Marcello Mastroianni a thrashing in a scene that has found its place in film history.

What followed, as already mentioned earlier in this article, was the extraordinarily successful participation in the Karl May movies. In addition to leads in Karl May films, he starred in other European co-productions which took him to locations all over the world. Outstanding films, and well worth seeing, include CODE 7, VICTIM 5 (1964) where Lex played a private eye investigating a series of murders in South Africa; a James Bond-type spy spoof titled MR. DYNAMIT (1966); and BLOOD DEMON (1967), a horror picture based on Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, and filmed in authentic medieval settings with Christopher Lee as Lex's nemesis.

The simpatico American could also be admired in two western movies inspired by the tough Italo western style, A PLACE CALLED GLORY (1965), with an interesting gunmen show-down, and JOHNNY RINGO (1966) where, for a change, Barker played the villain. In 1967, the European box office star participated in an international production with wide American release: in the seven-episode comedy WOMAN TIMES SEVEN (1967, director: Vittorio de Sica), Lex joined a stellar international cast including Shirley MacLaine, Peter Sellers, Elsa Martinelli, and Michael Caine. Lex's episode was titled THE SUPER SIMONE, with Lex playing an aging novelist which was quite a departure for an ex-Tarzan. Despite his European box office clout, no more U.S. productions were offered to Lex.

By the 1970s, Lex's fans were beginning to wonder if they would ever see him on screen again. He had retired to his Costa Brava home on Spain's Mediterranean coast, and received few offers for work in the new breed of more violent and sexually explicit films dominating the screen during that often dismal film decade. Lex was, in truth, longing for a return to the old Hollywood he once knew. He was quoted as saying he would do anything for a chance to live and work in America again.

The comeback he was planning proved to be much more difficult than he had expected, yet he did return to Hollywood. At first, he guested on popular TV series such as THE FBI (starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and IT TAKES A THIEF (starring Robert Wagner). On German television, Lex Barker and Ron Ely, the American TV Tarzan, performed a Tarzan sketch. Lex returned to the Wild West once more: after he had portrayed a cavalry soldier in TV's HEINZ STUDIO 57, episode OUTPOST, in the 1950s, Lex Barker re-appeared on the US television screen in 1971 in NAME OF THE GAME, episode THE MAN WHO KILLED A GHOST, where he played an aging western star, and in NIGHT GALLERY, episode THE WAITING ROOM, in 1972. By 1973, Hollywood finally seemed to notice him, and a television series starring Lex was proposed. There were plans also for some films, despite the fact that Lex had been off the big screen for three years.

After so many ups and downs, Lex's future was starting to look bright again, until fate intervened with startling finality. On May 11, 1973, three days after his birthday, Lex died of a heart attack on Lexington Avenue in New York City. He was only 54 years old.

During his short life, Lex was married five times. Among his wives were Hollywood actresses Arlene Dahl and Lana Turner. He left behind three children, two sons and a daughter. His younger son, Christopher, born in 1960, when Lex was married to Swiss actress Irene Labhart, took drama and singing lessons in New York, performed in theater plays and operas, and followed a career of his own as a singer and actor in Germany. Cosmopolitan, tall and handsome like his father, Christopher played Lex's famous 'Old Shatterhand' part in open air theater plays based on novels by Karl May. He recorded two German and two English albums. He regularly appeared on German TV, but intends to focus more on working in France, Britain, and the States.

30 years after Lex Barker's death, his fans still cherish memories of him and his 73 movies.

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Über den Autor
Der Autor Reiner Boller und Christina Böhme beschäftigen sich schon seit langer Zeit mit der Karriere von Lex Barker und haben sich in den vergangenen Jahren über zahlreiche internationale Kontakte zu Filmschaffenden, verbunden mit Beiträgen in Publikationen in Deutschland, aber auch den USA, vor allem den »goldenen Kinojahren« und Interviews mit Stars der Karl-May-Filme gewidmet. Durch gründliche Recherchen sowie ein Gespür für den Umgang mit Menschen konnten sich die Autoren den Ruf seriöser Arbeit erwerben. Reiner Boller arbeitet nach seinem betriebswirtschaftlichen Studium in einer Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts. Christina Böhme ist als Diplomübersetzerin tätig. es.

Copyright © 2003 Reiner Boller und Christina Böhme. No unauthorized reproduction or transmission by any means whatsoever permitted under federal criminal law.