Bruce Bennett

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Bruce Bennett bigraphy, stories - Actor

Bruce Bennett : biography

May 19, 1906 – February 24, 2007

Bruce Bennett (May 19, 1906 – February 24, 2007)Harold H. Brix in the Social Security Death Index.Harold Brix, age 3, in U.S. Census, April 15, 1910, State of Washington, County of Pierce, enumeration district 275, p. 7-B, family 195. was an American actor and Olympic silver medalist shot putter. During the 1930s, he went by his real name, Herman Brix (having dropped the first name "Harold").

Early film career as Tarzan

Brix moved to Los Angeles in 1929 after being invited to compete for the Los Angeles Athletic Club and befriended actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who arranged a screen test for him at Paramount.

Herman Brix shown in the opening credits of the serial The New Adventures of Tarzan

In 1931, MGM, adapting author Edgar Rice Burroughs’s popular Tarzan adventures for the screen, selected Herman Brix to play the title character. Unfortunately, Brix broke his shoulder filming the 1931 football film Touchdown, which also prevented his entry into the 1932 Olympics, still holding the world record for shot put. Swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller replaced Brix and became a major star.

After Ashton Dearholt convinced Burroughs to allow him to form Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises, Inc., and make a Tarzan serial film, Dearholt cast Brix in the lead. Pressbook copy has it that Burroughs made the choice himself, but, in fact, in his biography, Brix confirmed that Burroughs never even saw him until after the contract was signed, and then only briefly. The film was begun on location in Guatemala, under rugged conditions (jungle diseases and cash shortages were frequent). Brix did his own stunts, including a fall to rocky cliffs below. The Washington Post quoted Gabe Essoe’s passage from his book Tarzan of the Movies: "Brix’s portrayal was the only time between the silents and the 1960s that Tarzan was accurately depicted in films. He was mannered, cultured, soft-spoken, a well educated English lord who spoke several languages, and didn’t grunt."

Due to financial mismanagement, Dearholt had to complete filming of much of the serial back in Hollywood, and Brix, although his travel and daily living expenses in Guatemala were covered throughout the shoot, never received his contracted salary, along with the rest of the cast. The finished film, The New Adventures of Tarzan, was released in 1935 by Burroughs-Tarzan, and offered to theatres as a 12-chapter serial or a seven-reel feature. A second feature, Tarzan and the Green Goddess, was culled from the footage in 1938. He also portrayed the titular hero in Republic’s serial Hawk of the Wilderness.

Partial filmography

  • Hawk of the Wilderness
  • Atlantic Convoy (1942)
  • Submarine Raider (1942)
  • Dark Passage (1942)
  • The Man I Love (1947)
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
  • Strategic Air Command (1955)

Name change and film career

Brix continued to work in serials and action features for low-budget studios until 1939. Finding himself still typecast as Tarzan in the minds of major producers, Brix changed his name to "Bruce Bennett" and became a member of Columbia Pictures’ stock company. During the next few years he would be seen playing minor roles in many Columbia films, from expensive dramas to B mysteries to Three Stooges short subjects (including How High Is Up?). His screen career was interrupted by World War II, when he entered the service.

Bennett appeared in many films in the 1940s and early 1950s, including Sahara (1943) with Humphrey Bogart, Mildred Pierce (1945) with Joan Crawford, Nora Prentiss (1947) with Ann Sheridan, Dark Passage (1947) with Bogart and Lauren Bacall, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) with Bogart and Walter Huston, Mystery Street (1950), Sudden Fear (1952) with Joan Crawford and Gloria Grahame and Strategic Air Command (1955) with James Stewart.