Today Article - Johnny Weissmuller

This article is for quizzes on Wednesday August 17th...

Johnny Weissmuller (born Johann Peter Weißmüller; June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was an Austro-Hungarian born American competition swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s and for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century. Weissmuller was one of the world's fastest swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals for swimming and one bronze medal for water polo. He won fifty-two U.S. National Championships, set more than fifty world records (spread over both freestyle and backstroke), and was purportedly undefeated in official competition for the entirety of his competitive career. After retiring from competitions, he became the sixth actor to portray Edgar Rice Burroughs's ape man, Tarzan, a role he played in twelve motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best known. His character's distinctive Tarzan yell is still often used in films.

In all, Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal, fifty-two United States national championships, and set sixty-seven world records. He was the first man to swim the 100-meter freestyle under one minute and the 440-yard freestyle under five minutes. He never lost a race and retired with an unbeaten amateur record. In 1950, he was selected by the Associated Press as the greatest swimmer of the first half of the 20th Century.

Weissmuller would later, upon moving to the prosperous Bel Air section of Los Angeles, (specifically to an area known today as East Gate Bel Air), famously commission architect Paul Williams to design a large home with a 300-foot serpentine swimming pool that curled around the house (and which still exists to this day).