Lex Barker
| Lex Barker | |
|---|---|
Lex Barker with Karen Kondazian on May 1, 1973, 10 days before his death
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| Born |
Alexander Crichlow Barker, Jr. May 8, 1919 Rye, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 11, 1973 (aged 54) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1945–1970 |
| Spouse(s) |
Constance Rhodes Thurlow (m. 1942–50) Arlene Dahl (m. 1951–52) Lana Turner (m. 1953–57) Irene Labhart (m. 1959–62) Tita Cervera (m. 1965–72) |
Alexander Crichlow "Lex" 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.
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 . Barker had an elder sister, Frederica Amelia "Freddie" Barlow (1917–1980). She was married three times, to Frederic Clifton Soldwedel, Richard Neuhaufer, and Robert Henry Schlesinger. Raised in New York City and Port Chester, New York, Lex Barker attended the Fessenden School and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. He played 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.
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.
In February 1941, ten months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Barker left his fledgling acting career and enlisted in the US Army. He rose to the rank of major during the war. He was wounded in action (in the head and leg) fighting in Sicily.
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