Buster crabbe

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Buster Crabbe at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam

Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe (born February 7, 1908 in Oakland , † April 23, 1983 in Scottsdale ) was an American swimmer and actor .

Buster Crabbe was an Olympic champion, holding 35 national records and 16 world records in swimming. As an actor, he has appeared in over a hundred films and several serials and was the only actor to impersonate all three popular comic book heroes of the 1930s: Buck Rogers , Flash Gordon and Tarzan .

Life

Youth, swimmers and early film careers

Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe was born on February 7, 1908 in Oakland, California. When he was eighteen months old, his family moved to Hawaii , where his father took over the position of overseer on a pineapple plantation. There the young buster learned to swim under ideal conditions and with a great role model: Duke Kahanamoku was not only the founder of modern surfing, but also a multiple Olympic champion in swimming. In 1927 Crabbe returned to the mainland to study law at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles . Because of his success for the university team, he was nominated for the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam . While his teammate Johnny Weissmüller swam gold twice, Crabbe achieved bronze in the 1,500 meter freestyle.

Similar to his colleague Weissmüller, Crabbe also entered the film business, and when MGM was looking for a swimming sports star for its first Tarzan film in 1931, Crabbe, who was an extra in the John Wayne film "That's My Boy", was viewed and immediately rejected . The role was given to the much better-known Johnny Weissmüller, who from then on played the title role in twelve Tarzan films for sixteen years. Crabbe graduated from university in 1931, but remained active in sports. In the summer of 1932 he took part in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles . In the 400 meter freestyle , Crabbe fought a thrilling duel with the French world record holder Jean Taris . This led from the start, but Crabbe caught up with him about 25 meters from the finish and beat the French by a tenth of a second. His victory was to remain the only US gold medal for the male swimmers of this Olympiad, all other gold medals went to Japan .

The Olympic victory brought Hollywood back to Crabbe. Paramount Pictures hired him for Kaspa, the Lion Man ( Eng . "Adventure in two continents"), which was thematically based on the popular Tarzan films. In 1933, Crabbe married his college sweetheart, Adah Virginia Held. In the same year he got his first and only role as Tarzan with "Tarzan the Fearless" and enrolled himself as the seventh person in the list of Tarzan actors. Compared to the popular films with Weissmüller as Tarzan, the low-budget production could not keep up with audiences and critics. The film was recorded both as a serial and as a feature film. When the serial came out, most movie theaters only showed the first episode and then did without the others. Since no copies were archived, only the long version of the film still exists today. In the following years he played leading roles in numerous B-films.

Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers

In 1936 an actor was wanted for the title role of Flash Gordon , the first true science fiction series. Crabbe believed the idea was too far-fetched for cinema audiences and would flop . However, he liked the comic strip and went to the casting at Universal Pictures to see who would play the role. When producer Henry MacRae saw him there, he walked up to him and offered him the role on the spot. It turned out that MacRae had seen some of Crabbe's films and made him a preferred candidate, but thought that Paramount, with which Crabbe was under contract, would not approve him.

The deal came off, however, and Buster Crabbe not only shot the very successful initial serial Flash Gordon , but also fought “Ming the Cruel” in the follow-up films Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938) and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940). To look as similar as possible to the comic book hero Flash Gordon, Crabbe had to dye his hair. That made him very embarrassed and he always wore a hat in public. He was afraid that men would whistle after him. When Buck Rogers , the second successful science fiction comic of the 1930s, was to be filmed in 1939, the production company immediately selected Buster Crabbe. Despite the success, the budget of his inexpensive films remained equally low. For example, background shots from the futuristic musical Just Imagine (1930), decorations from Flash Gordon and even items of clothing that could be seen on Flash Gordon's Mars trip the year before were used.

Westerns, swimming pools and television

From 1941 to 1946 Crabbe shot around 40 westerns for the B-movie production company Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), sometimes under the name "Larry Crabbe", often in the role of Billy the Kid or Billy Carson. In these low-budget productions (his fee for Prairie Rustler (1945), for example, was $ 3,000), his sidekick was Al "Fuzzy" St. John , who had a long career as a silent film comedian. After 1946, Crabbe made fewer films and began building his own swimming pool company. He also toured America and Europe for five years with a show called "Buster Crabbe's Aquaparade". In 1950 he played for the first time together with Johnny Weissmüller in The Jungle Goddess . Weissmüller was the hero, Crabbe played the villain.

By the early 1950s, the heyday of B-movies came to an end, and Buster Crabbe received its own television show geared towards children, later renamed Buster's Buddies . However, he was more successful with the title role in the television series Captain Galliant of the Foreign Legion (1955-1957), in which his son Cullen also starred . In 1957, Crabbe's daughter Sande died of anorexia . He was now increasingly involved in the swimming pool business, whose products were sold in over 28 countries. At the same time, he ran a summer camp for teenagers where swimming was the focus and at least one swimming instructor from Hawaii was always present.

In 1965, Buster Crabbe was inducted into the international swimming pool's hall of fame. In 1970 he was a guest of honor at the science fiction conference "Multicon 70" in Oklahoma City . He swam his last world record in 1971 in the age group 60+ over 400 meters freestyle. In 1979 he played an elderly pilot named "Gordon" in the remake of the Buck Rogers television series , a reference to his star role "Flash Gordon".

On April 23, 1983, ten days after his golden wedding anniversary, Buster Crabbe died of a heart attack at the age of 75 .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1930: Good News
  • 1932: Graf Zaroff - Genie des Evil (The Most Dangerous Man)
  • 1933: Tarzan the Fearless
  • 1933: Kaspa, the Lion Man (King of the Jungle)
  • 1934: You're Telling Me!
  • 1934: Search for Beauty
  • 1935: Nevada
  • 1936: Flash Gordon (Flash Gordon) (Serial)
  • 1938: Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (Serial)
  • 1939: Buck Rogers (Serial)
  • 1940: Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Serial)
  • 1941: Fuzzy the Master Cowboy (Billy the Kid Wanted)
  • 1942: Fuzzy Chases Herself ( Billy the Kid Trapped)
  • 1942: Against arbitrariness and violence ( Billy the Kid's Smoking Guns )
  • 1943: For Law and Law (Sheriff of Sage Valley)
  • 1943: Fuzzy the Bandit Scare (Western Cyclone)
  • 1944: Fuzzy the Daredevil (Ghost of Hidden Valley)
  • 1944: Fuzzy the Gunslinger (Rustler's Hideout)
  • 1944: Fuzzy the Sheriff (Blazinhg Frontier)
  • 1944: Fuzzy and the great grandma (Frontier Outlaws)
  • 1944: The revenge of the gorilla (Nabonga)
  • 1944: Fuzzy, the Hero of the West (Oath of Vengeance)
  • 1945: Fuzzy lives dangerously (Prairoe rustlers)
  • 1946: Fuzzy won't stop at anything (Valley of Vengeance)
  • 1946: Against arbitrariness and violence (Outlaws of the Plains)
  • 1947: Uncas, the last of his tribe (Last of the Redman)
  • 1950: The Jungle Goddess (Captive Girl)
  • 1955–1957: Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (TV series, 46 episodes)
  • 1956: Gun Brothers
  • 1957: The Lawless Eighties
  • 1958: The Devil Will Take Them All (Badman's Country)
  • 1960: Settlement in Abilene (Gunfighters of Abilene)
  • 1964: Gold transport through Arizona (Arizona Raiders)
  • 1965: Colorado Saloon 12:10 p.m. (The Bounty Killer)
  • 1979: Buck Rogers (TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1979: Cool wetness on hot skin (Swim Team)
  • 1982: The Comeback Trail

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Crabbe, buster
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crabbe, Clarence Linden (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American swimmer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Oakland
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1983
Place of death Scottsdale