Actor Lex Barker

Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr. (May 8, 1919 – May 11, 1973) was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May’s novels under the stage name Lex Barker.

Early life

Alexander Crichlow Barker, Jr. was born on May 8, 1919, in Rye, New York. He was the second child of Alexander Crichlow Barker, Sr., a wealthy Canadian-born building contractor, and his American wife, the former Marion Thornton Beals.

His father later worked as a stockbroker. Barker had an elder sister, Frederica Amelia “Freddie” Barlow (1917–1980). Raised in New York City and Port Chester, New York, Lex Barker attended the Fessenden School and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. He played American football as well as the oboe. He attended Princeton University, but dropped out to join a theatrical stock company, much to the chagrin of his family.

Career

Theatre

Barker made it to Broadway once, in a small role in a short run of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1938. He also 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.

World War Two

In February 1941, ten months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Barker left his fledgling acting career and enlisted in the United States Army. He rose to the rank of major during the war. He was wounded in action (in the head and leg) fighting in Sicily. He was awarded the Purple Heart twice.

Early film roles

Back in the US, he recuperated at a military hospital in Arkansas, then upon his discharge from service, traveled to Los Angeles. Within a short time, he landed a small role in Doll Face (1945), his first film.

A string of small roles followed, in films such as Two Guys from Milwaukee (1945) and Cloak and Dagger (1946).

RKO

Barker signed a contract at RKO. He had small roles in The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), Crossfire (1947), and Under the Tonto Rim (1947).

Barker went to Paramount for Unconquered (1947). Back at RKO he was in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947), Berlin Express (1948), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), The Velvet Touch (1948), and Return of the Bad Men (1948), playing Emmett Dalton.

Tarzan

In Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949), Barker became the tenth official Tarzan of the movies. His blond, handsome, and intelligent appearance, as well as his athletic, now 6’4″ frame, helped make him popular in the role Johnny Weissmuller had made his own for 16 years. His Jane was Brenda Joyce who had been in Weissmuller’s last three films.

Barker’s second Tarzan was Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950), where Jane was played by Vanessa Brown. In Tarzan’s Peril (1951), Barker’s Jane was Virginia Huston, with African location footage. Dorothy Hart was Jane in Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952), directed by Cy Endfield.

Barker got the chance to play a non-Tarzan role in Battles of Chief Pontiac (1952), a Western. He returned to the role one last time in Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953).

Westerns

Barker supported Randolph Scott in Thunder Over the Plains (1953).

At Universal he starred in the Western The Yellow Mountain (1954) and The Man from Bitter Ridge (1955). He went to Columbia to make Duel on the Mississippi (1955).

Barker had a rare non-Western role in The Price of Fear (1956), a film noir with Merle Oberon. He was in the war movie Away All Boats (1956) and the thriller The Girl in the Kremlin (1957).

Barker made two films for Howard W. Koch: War Drums (1957) and Jungle Heat (1957),. He went to 20th Century Fox for The Deerslayer (1957), then did The Girl in Black Stockings (1957).

Italy

In 1957, as he found it harder to find work in American films, Barker moved to Europe (he spoke French, Italian, Spanish, and some German), where he found popularity and starred in over 40 European films, including two movies based on the novels by Italian author Emilio Salgari (1862–1911).

He started his European career with a British thriller The Strange Awakening (1958). He went to Italy to star in Captain Falcon (1959), Son of the Red Corsair (1959), The Pirate and the Slave Girl (1959), and Terror of the Red Mask (1960).

Barker had a short but compelling role as Anita Ekberg’s fiancé in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960).

He went back to swashbucklers: Knight of 100 Faces (1960), Pirates of the Coast (1960), Robin Hood and the Pirates (1960), and The Secret of the Black Falcon (1961).

Germany

In Germany, he had his greatest success. There he starred in movies based on the “Doctor Mabuse” stories (formerly filmed by Fritz Lang), in the movies The Return of Doctor Mabuse (1961). He was in Doctor Sibelius (1962).

Barker then played Old Shatterhand in an adaptation of the novel by German author Karl May (1842–1912), Treasure of the Silver Lake (1962). It was a huge hit, and 11 movies adapting stories by Karl May followed until 1968. Barker did the comedy Breakfast in Bed (1962), then the adventure movie Storm Over Ceylon (1963). He returned to Italy for The Executioner of Venice (1963) and Kali Yug: Goddess of Vengeance (1963).

Barker reprised his role as Old Shatterhand in Apache Gold (1964), Old Shatterhand (1964) and Last of the Renegades (1965). He went to South Africa for Harry Alan Towers’ German-British international co-production Victim Five (1964), then returned to Germany for other adaptations of May books: The Treasure of the Aztecs (1965), The Pyramid of the Sun God (1965) . 24 Hours to Kill (1965) was a British movie. The Hell of Manitoba (1965) and The Desperado Trail (1966) were Westerns.

In 1966, Barker was awarded the “Bambi Award” as Best Foreign Actor in Germany, where he was a very popular star. He even recorded two songs in German: “Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir” (“I’ll be on the way to you tomorrow”, composed by Martin Böttcher, the composer of some of the soundtracks of the Karl May movies) and “Mädchen in Samt und Seide” (“Girl in Silk and Velvet”, composed by Werner Scharfenberger).

Later films included Killer’s Carnival (1966), and Winnetou and the Crossbreed (1967). In the same year, he starred in a Eurospy film Spy Today, Die Tomorrow, a horror film The Blood Demon, and appeared in the anthology film Woman Times Seven (1967).

He 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.

Personal life

Barker was married five times:

Constance Rhodes Thurlow (1918–1975) (married June 27, 1942–divorced 1950), a daughter of Leon Rhodes Thurlow, a vice president of the Decorated Metal Manufacturing Company. They had one daughter, Lynn Thurlow Barker (April 11, 1943 – 2010) and a son, Alexander “Zan” Crichlow Barker III (March 25, 1947 – October 2, 2012). In 1952 Constance Barker married her second husband, John Lawrence Adams, a descendant of John Quincy Adams.

Actress Arlene Dahl (married 1951–divorced 1952)

Actress Lana Turner (married September 8, 1953–divorced July 22, 1957). In Detour: A Hollywood Tragedy – My Life with Lana Turner, My Mother (1988), written by Turner’s daughter Cheryl Crane, Crane claimed Barker repeatedly molested and raped her from the ages of 10 to 13, and that it was after she informed her mother of this that they divorced. According to Crane, Turner ordered him out of the house at gunpoint the morning after she learned of this. He denied the accusation.[citation needed]

Irene Labhardt (married 1957–1962; her death from leukemia), a Swiss actress. They had one son, Christopher (born 1960), who became an actor and singer.

Tita Cervera (married 1965–divorced 1972, although divorce not deemed legally valid), a Spanish beauty pageant winner. Voted Miss Spain in 1962, she later became the wife of movie producer Espartaco Santoni in 1975 (the marriage turned out to be bigamous) and later still, in 1985, the fifth and final wife of billionaire art collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Death

Barker died on May 11, 1973, of a heart attack while walking down a street in New York City on his way to meet his fiancée, actress Karen Kondazian. The funeral was held in New York. He was cremated and the ashes were taken by his estranged wife Tita to Spain.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1945	Doll Face	Jack, Coast Guardsman	Uncredited
1946	Do You Love Me	Party Guest	Uncredited
1946	Two Guys from Milwaukee	Fred, the Usher	Uncredited
1946	Cloak and Dagger	Man Rescued at End	Uncredited
1947	The Farmer’s Daughter	Olaf Holstrom
1947	Crossfire	Harry
1947	Under the Tonto Rim	Joe, Deputy in Tonto
1947	Unconquered	Royal American Officer	Uncredited
1947	Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome	Ambulance Driver	Uncredited
1948	Berlin Express	Soldier	Uncredited
1948	Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House	Carpenter Foreman
1948	The Velvet Touch	Paul Banton
1948	Return of the Badmen	Emmett Dalton
1949	Tarzan’s Magic Fountain	Tarzan
1950	Tarzan and the Slave Girl	Tarzan
1951	Tarzan’s Peril	Tarzan
1952	Tarzan’s Savage Fury	Tarzan
1952	Battles of Chief Pontiac	Lt. Kent McIntire
1953	Tarzan and the She-Devil	Tarzan
1953	Thunder Over the Plains	Captain Bill Hodges
1954	The Mystery of The Black Jungle	Tremal Naik	Original (Italian) title: I misteri della giungla nera [it]
1954	Black Devils of Kali [it]	Tramal Naik	Original (Italian) title: La vendetta dei Tughs
1954	The Yellow Mountain	Andy Martin
1955	The Man from Bitter Ridge	Jeff Carr
1955	Duel on the Mississippi	André Tulane
1956	The Price of Fear	Dave Barrett
1956	Away All Boats	Commander Quigley
1957	War Drums	Mangas Coloradas
1957	The Girl in the Kremlin	Steve Anderson
1957	Jungle Heat	Dr. Jim Ransom
1957	The Deerslayer	Deerslayer
1957	The Girl in Black Stockings	David Hewson
1958	The Strange Awakening	Peter Chance
1958	Captain Falcon	Pietro	Original (Italian) title: Capitan Fuoco
1959	Son of the Red Corsair	Enrico di Ventimiglia	Original (Italian) title: Il figlio del corsaro rosso
1959	The Pirate and the Slave Girl	Dragon Drakut	Original (Italian) title: La scimitarra del Saraceno
1959	Mission in Morocco	Bruce Reynolds
1960	Terror of the Red Mask	Marco	Original (Italian) title: Terrore della maschera rossa
1960	La Dolce Vita	Robert	Italian film
1960	Knight of 100 Faces	Riccardo D’Arce	Original (Italian) title: Il cavaliere dai cento volti
1960	Pirates of the Coast	Captain Luis Monterey	Original (Italian) title: I pirati della costa
1960	Robin Hood and the Pirates	Robin Hood	Original (Italian) title: Robin Hood e i pirati
1961	The Secret of the Black Falcon	Captain Don Carlos de Herrera	Original (Italian) title: Il segreto dello sparviero nero
1961	Le Trésor des hommes bleus [fr]	Fred	Spanish/French film
1961	The Return of Dr. Mabuse	FBI-Agent Joe Como	Original (German) title: Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse
1962	The Invisible Dr. Mabuse [de]	FBI-Agent Joe Como	Original (German) title: Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse
1962	Doctor Sibelius	Dr. Georg Sibelius	Original (German) title: Frauenarzt Dr. Sibelius
1962	Treasure of the Silver Lake	Old Shatterhand	Original (German) title: Der Schatz im Silbersee
1963	Breakfast in Bed	Victor H. Armstrong	Original (German) title: Frühstück im Doppelbett
1963	Storm Over Ceylon	Larry Stone	Original (German) title: Das Todesauge von Ceylon
1963	The Executioner of Venice	Sandrigo Bembo	Original (Italian) title: Il boia di Venezia
1963	Kali Yug: Goddess of Vengeance	Major Ford	Original (Italian) title: Kali Yug, la dea della vendetta
1963	Il mistero del tempio indiano [fr]	Major Ford	Italian film
1963	Apache Gold	Old Shatterhand	Original (German) title: Winnetou I
1964	Apaches’ Last Battle	Old Shatterhand	Original (German) title: Old Shatterhand
1964	Victim Five	Steve Martin	UK film, US title: Code 7, Victim 5
1964	The Shoot	Kara Ben Nemsi	Original (German) title: Der Schut
1964	Last of the Renegades	Old Shatterhand	Original (German) title: Winnetou II
1965	The Treasure of the Aztecs	Dr. Karl Sternau	Original (German) title: Der Schatz der Azteken
1965	The Pyramid of the Sun God	Dr. Karl Sternau	Original (German) title: Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes
1965	Twenty-Four Hours to Kill	Captain Jamie Faulkner	UK/German co-production film
1965	The Hell of Manitoba a.k.a. A Place Called Glory	Clint Brenner	Original (German) title: Die Hölle von Manitoba
1965	The Wild Men of Kurdistan [de]	Kara Ben Nemsi	Original (German) title: Durchs wilde Kurdistan
1965	The Desperado Trail	Old Shatterhand	Original (German) title: Winnetou III
1965	Fury of the Sabers [de]	Kara Ben Nemsi	Original (German) title: Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen
1966	Who Killed Johnny R.? [de]	Sam Dobie	Original (German) title: Wer kennt Johnny R.?
1966	Killer’s Carnival	Glenn Cassidy	Original (French) title: Le carnaval des barbouzes, (Rio segment)
1966	Winnetou and the Crossbreed	Old Shatterhand	Original (German) title: Winnetou und das Halbblut Apanatschi
1967	Woman Times Seven	Rik	(segment “Super Simone”)
1967	Spy Today, Die Tomorrow	Bob Urban	Original (German) title: Mister Dynamit – Morgen küßt Euch der Tod
1967	The Blood Demon	Roger Mont Elise	Original (German) title: Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel Also released as: The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism
1968	The Valley of Death	Old Shatterhand	Original (German) title: Winnetou und Shatterhand im Tal der Toten
1970	Aoom	Ristol	Spanish film
1970	When You’re With Me	Kapitän Hannes Schneider	Original (German) title: Wenn du bei mir bist

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	Tales of Tomorrow	Kurt	Episode: “Red Dust”
1956	Lux Video Theatre	Stephen Dexter	Episode: “Hired Wife”
1956–1957	Studio 57	Brad / Robin Ridour	2 episodes
1960	Tales of the Vikings	König Gordar	Episode: “The Shield”
1963	Berlin-Melodie		Television film
1969	It Takes a Thief	Kurt ‘Matt’ Matson	Episode: “The King of Thieves”
1971	The Name of the Game	Will Cheyenne	Episode: “The Man Who Killed a Ghost”
1971	The F.B.I.	Owen Stuart	Episode: “Three-Way Split”
1972	Night Gallery	Charlie McKinley	Segment: “The Waiting Room”

Discography

“Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir” / “Mädchen in Samt und Seide” 1965, Single, Decca D 19 725

Winnetou du warst mein Freund 1996, CD, Bear Family Records

External Links

Actor Lex Barker – Wikipedia