Sasha Siemel

Sasha Siemel
Siemel (right) with Frank Buck (left) in Jungle Menace (1937)
Born	January 25, 1890 Riga, Latvia (then part of the Russian Empire)
Died	February 14, 1970 Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Occupation	actor
Years active	1937
Spouse(s)	Edith Bray

Alexander “Sasha” Siemel (Latvian: Aleksandrs Ziemelis; 1890-1970) was an American/Argentinian adventurer, hunter, guide, actor, writer, photographer, and lecturer of Latvian origin. He spoke seven languages and boasted of having experienced more adventure in a single year than most men had witnessed in a lifetime. He is known among sportsmen, claiming to have successfully hunted more than 300 jaguars — or “onças”, as the big cats are colloquially known in parts of Latin America—in the Mato Grosso jungles of Brazil. Siemel's accomplishments in pursuing the large and often dangerous jaguar (the biggest cat in the western hemisphere and third largest in the world) are all the more impressive because on many of his hunts he was allegedly armed only with a spear.

Born in Riga, Latvia, Siemel moved to the United States in 1907 at the age of 17. Staying in the states for only two years, he subsequently headed for Argentina where he was employed in a Buenos Aires printing shop. In 1914 Siemel traveled to the jungles of Brazil where he worked as a gunsmith and mechanic in the diamond mining camps of the Mato Grosso. There he met a native who taught him to become a "Tigrero;" that is, a hunter who kills jaguars armed only with a spear. In the article “Interviewing the Tiger-Man”, Siemel states: “… I learned the art from a poor native who had nothing but a home-made spear where I had my high-powered rifle. But I do think I was a good pupil and will admit that it calls for experience and judgment." In the July 1937 issue of Ye Slyvan Archer, he wrote that: “It is only logical and natural that I should (prefer the bow to the rifle). The spear is a primitive weapon, so is the bow. While I would not want to say that hunting big cats with a rifle can not be plenty dangerous and exciting under all circumstances, particularly so in our Matto Grosso jungles, where vision is extremely limited, it seems to me that the bow complements the spear. If I now had any use for a shield besides, I should feel perfectly equipped.”

With his skill as a hunter Siemel worked on ranches of the Pantanal hunting jaguars, or "onças," hired by landowners to protect their livestock. In 1925, he killed his first jaguar using a zagya, a seven-foot spear, making him the first white man to accomplish such a feat. This did not long go unnoticed by the “civilized world." By 1931 a monograph, Green Hell, by Julian Duguid, appeared. The book recounts a 1929 trip across the Pantanal where the author and two fellow adventurers employ Siemel as their guide. Here Siemel is first given the moniker “Tiger Man,” which went on to become the title of Duguid’s 1932 biography of the hunter. Encouraged by Duguid, Siemel began to lecture at explorer clubs throughout the world. In 1937, while lecturing in Philadelphia, Siemel met Edith Bray, a young photographer, who later joined him in the Pantanal. Three years later, at the age of 47, he married Edith, and the two remained in the Pantanal and began raising a family. During this time, Siemel became an actor, appearing in the 1937 fifteen-episode Frank Buck serial Jungle Menace as Tiger Van Dorn. The serial was compiled into a feature film in 1946 and released under the title Jungle Terror.