Tarzan

From Freepedia

Tarzan is also the name of a Russian 4-wheel drive vehicle manufactured by AutoVAZ.

Tarzan, a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1914 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in twenty-three sequels.

Contents 1 Tarzan as literary character 2 Books 2.1 by Edgar Rice Burroughs 2.2 by other authors 3 Actors portraying Tarzan 3.1 Movies 3.2 Radio 3.3 TV 4 Critical Reception 5 See also 6 External links

Tarzan as literary character

Tarzan has been called one of the best-known literary characters in the world. He has appeared in films, comic books, and television programs. The Internet Movie Database lists 88 movies with Tarzan in the title between 1918 and 1999. Many of the Hollywood Tarzan films from the 1930s on featured Tarzan's chimpanzee companion Cheeta.

Science fiction author Philip José Farmer wrote Tarzan Alive!, a biography of Tarzan utilizing the frame device that he was a real person. See also Wold Newton family.

Tarzan appears briefly as a character in the book Lust, by Geoff Ryman.

Even though the copyright on Tarzan of the Apes has expired in the United States of America, all of Burroughs's works will remain under copyright in the European Union until 2021, and the name TARZAN is a trademark.

Tarzana, California, where Burroughs made his home, was renamed in honor of Tarzan in 1927.

Books

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

1. Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
2. The Return of Tarzan (1913)
3. The Beasts of Tarzan (1914)
4. The Son of Tarzan (1915)
5. Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)
6. Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1916,1917)
7. Tarzan the Untamed (1919,1921)
8. Tarzan the Terrible (1921)
9. Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922,1923)
10. Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924)
11. Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927,1928)
12. Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1929)
13. Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1930)
14. Tarzan the Invincible (1930,1931)
15. Tarzan Triumphant (1932)
16. Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932)
17. Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933,1934)
18. Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935)
19. Tarzan's Quest (1935,1936)
20. Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)
21. Tarzan the Magnificent (1936,1937)
22. Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947)
23. Tarzan and the Madman (1964)
24. Tarzan and the Castaways (1941,1940,1940)

• for younger readers
  • Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1936,1963)

by other authors

• Barton Werper
  1. Tarzan and the Silver Globe (1964)
  2. Tarzan and the Cave City (1964)
  3. Tarzan and the Snake People (1964)
  4. Tarzan and the Abominable Snowmen (1965)
  5. Tarzan and the Winged Invaders (1965)
  • note: the Werper novels were never authorized by ERB, Inc.; they were taken off the market and remaining copies destroyed.
• Fritz Leiber
  • Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966)
• Philip José Farmer
  • A Feast Unknown (circa 1966)
  • Lord of the Trees (circa 1966)
  • Tarzan Alive (1972)
  • The Adventure of the Peerless Peer (1974)
  • Time's Last Gift (1985)
  • The Dark Heart of Time: a Tarzan Novel (1999)

• • Note: Feast, Trees, Peerless Peer, and Time's Last Gift do not call the character "Tarzan," but it's pretty obvious that that is who he is. This "not-Tarzan, wink-nudge" character also puts in appearances in:
  • Hadon of Ancient Opar
  • Flight to Opar
• ERB and Joe R. Lansdale
  • Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (1995)
• R. A. Salvatore
  • Tarzan: the Epic Adventures (1996)

Actors portraying Tarzan

A number of actors have played Tarzan over the years, with the most famous and longest-lasting being Johnny Weissmuller. Due to complex licensing issues relating to Tarzan, several Tarzan movie series actually overlapped. For example, Buster Crabbe, Herman Brix and Glenn Morris all made Tarzan films concurrently with the 1932-1948 Weismuller series. Mike Henry, meanwhile, played Tarzan in several theatrical releases that came out concurrently with Ron Ely's TV series (Henry had been approached to star in the TV series too, but had declined).

Movies

• Gordon Griffith 1918 (young Tarzan)
• Elmo Lincoln 1918, 1918, 1921 (called the "first" Tarzan, but Gordon Griffith appears first in the film as his younger self)
• Gene Pollar 1920
• P. Dempsey Tabler 1920
• James Pierce 1927
• Frank Merrill 1928, 1929
• Johnny Weissmuller 1932, 1934, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948
• Buster Crabbe 1933
• Herman Brix later billed as Bruce Bennett 1935, 1938
• Glenn Morris 1938
• Lex Barker 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953
• Clint Walker 1954 (uncredited, in "Jungle Gents," a Bowery Boys movie)
• Gordon Scott 1955, 1957, 1958, 1958, 1959, 1960
• Denny Miller 1959
• Jock Mahoney 1962, 1963
• Ron Ely 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970
• Mike Henry 1966, 1967, 1968
• Miles O'Keeffe 1981
• Christophe Lambert 1984
• Casper Van Dien 1998
• Tony Goldwyn 1999 (voice of animated Tarzan)
• Alex D. Linz 1999 (voice of young animated Tarzan)

Radio

• James Pierce 1932-1934
• Carlton KaDell 1934-1936
• Lamont Johnson 1950-1951

TV

• Gordon Scott 1958
• Ron Ely 1966
• Robert Ridgely 1976 (voice, Filmation animated series)
• Joe Lara 1989
• Wolf Larson 1991
• Travis Fimmel 2003

Critical Reception

Since the beginning of the 1970s, Tarzan books and movies have often been critized as being blatantly racist.

• Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike, Black African Cinema, University of California Press 1994, p. 40

See also

• Feral children in mythology and fiction
• Tarzan Boy

External links

• Official Tarzan and Edgar Rice Burroughs Web Site
• Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site
• Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Tarzan comic strip
• Tarzan at Brian's Drive-In Theater
• Free Tarzan eBooks by Project Gutenberg