Tarzán

Tarzan
Dust-jacket illustration of Tarzan of the Apes
First appearance	Tarzan of the Apes
Last appearance	Tarzan: the Lost Adventure
Created by	Edgar Rice Burroughs
Portrayed by	Elmo Lincoln Johnny Weissmuller Lex Barker Buster Crabbe Jock Mahoney Herman Brix Frank Merrill Ron Ely Mike Henry Miles O'Keeffe Christopher Lambert Gordon Scott Joe Lara Wolf Larson Casper Van Dien Alex D. Linz Tony Goldwyn Travis Fimmel Kellan Lutz Alexander Skarsgård
Information
Aliases	John Clayton
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Adventurer Hunter Trapper Fisherman
Title	Viscount Greystoke The American Ashwin Earl GreystokeChieftain of the Waziri
Spouse(s)	Jane Porter (wife)
Children	Korak (son)
Relatives	William Cecil Clayton (cousin) Meriem (daughter-in-law) Jackie Clayton (grandson) Dick & Doc (distant cousins) Bunduki (adopted son) Dawn (great-granddaughter)
Nationality	English
Abilities	Enhanced strength, speed, endurance, agility, durability, reflexes, and senses Able to communicate with animals Skilled hunter and fighter

Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan first appeared in the novel Tarzan of the Apes (magazine publication 1912, book publication 1914), and subsequently in twenty-five sequels, several authorized books by other authors, and innumerable works in other media, both authorized and unauthorized.

Tarzan is the son of a British lord and lady who were marooned on the Atlantic coast of Africa by mutineers. When Tarzan was an infant, his mother died, and his father was killed by Kerchak, leader of the ape tribe by whom Tarzan was adopted. Soon after his parents' death, Tarzan became a feral child, and his tribe of apes are known as the Mangani, Great Apes of a species unknown to science. Kala is his ape mother. Burroughs added stories occurring during Tarzan's adolescence in his sixth Tarzan book, Jungle Tales of Tarzan. Tarzan is his ape name; his real English name is John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke (according to Burroughs in Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle; Earl of Greystoke in later, less canonical sources, notably the 1984 movie Greystoke). In fact, Burroughs's narrator in Tarzan of the Apes describes both Clayton and Greystoke as fictitious names – implying that, within the fictional world that Tarzan inhabits, he may have a different real name.