Buster Crabbe

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Notable

American athlete, an Olympic swimming champ with a Gold Medal in 1932 in the 400m freestyle. Growing up in Hawaii, Crabbe developed into an outstanding swimmer and all-around high school athlete. After placing in the Olympics, he headed for Hollywood and became a film star of the '30s and '40s in physical adventure films. He played the role of Tarzan in the 1933 serial along with dozens of Westerns including a series of Zane Grey sagas in the '30s, and 42 more Western flicks with his sidekick Fuzzy St. John in the '40s. He was well known for his role as the space hero Flash Gordon in three Universal serials, 1936-1940, and in the '50s, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion. When screen roles became scarce he toured with an aquacade and then later became an athletic director for a resort hotel in the Catskills and a swimming-pool business. He authored a physical fitness book, "Energetics" in 1970 and was an active member of the planning committee for the 1984 L.A. Olympics at the time of his sudden death. Crabbe died of a heart attack on 23 April 1983, Scottsdale, AZ, aged 75 Link to Wikipedia biography