Actor
Johnny Weissmuller Jr., son of the Olympic athlete famous for playing Tarzan in 1930s and ’40s movies, died of cancer July 27 in San Francisco. He was 65.
He was the first of three children of the film star and his third wife, socialite Beryl Scott. He made his film debut at age 18 opposite Mickey Rooney in “Andy Hardy Comes Home” (1958).
After a stint in the Navy, where he was on an underwater demolition team, the 6’6″ actor returned to Hollywood and appeared on TV Westerns, including “Sugarfoot,” “The Lawman,” “Death Valley Days,” “Wagon Train” and “Gunsmoke.”
In the 1970s, he appeared on several episodes of “The Streets of San Francisco.” He also appeared on onstage in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and several other productions.
He was in the George Lucas features “THX 1138,” “American Graffiti” and “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.” Other film appearances included “Magnum Force” and “Wildfire.”
He appeared in several docus about his father, including London Weekend Television’s “The Search for Tarzan,” Cinema Libre’s “Investigating Tarzan,” Westend Television’s “The One, the Only, the Real Tarzan” and Warner Home Video’s “Tarzan: Silver Screen King of the Jungle.” With Bill Reed, he co-authored a biography, “Tarzan: My Father.”
He is survived by his wife, Diane, two children and four grandchildren.
Donations may be made to California Pacific Medical Center Dept. of Transplantation, 2340 Clay St., 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94115.
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