Weissmuller, Johnny (1904-1984), was a United States swimmer who won five Olympic gold medals at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympic Games and set numerous world records. He went on to play the jungle hero Tarzan in a series of 12 motion pictures.
Weissmuller was born Janos Weiszmueller on June 2, 1904, in what is now Timisoara, Romania. Janos, whose name was later changed to Johnny Weissmuller, emigrated with his family to the United States in 1905. Johnny’s brother Petrus (Peter) was born in Windber, Pennsylvania, in 1905. Johnny used Peter’s birth records to claim American citizenship in order to participate in the final trials and travel to Paris for the 1924 Olympic Games. That decision created confusion for many years about Johnny’s true date and place of birth.
In 1922, Weissmuller became the first swimmer to swim 100 meters in less than one minute. At the Paris Olympics in 1924, he won gold medals in the 100-meter and 400-meter freestyle races, and swam on the winning American 800-meter freestyle relay team. Weissmuller swam higher in the water, and breathed more flexibly, than many rivals. At the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, he again won freestyle gold medals in the individual 100-meter race and in the 800-meter freestyle relay. Weissmuller appeared in a cameo role in a 1929 motion picture but made his motion-picture debut as a leading man in Tarzan the Ape Man in 1932. He made his final Tarzan film in 1948. Weissmuller also starred in a series of jungle films about a hero named Jungle Jim, starting with Jungle Jim (1948). Weissmuller died on Jan. 20, 1984.
