Bruce Bennett


Bruce Bennett was an American film and television actor who was a college athlete in football and in intercollegiate and international track-and-field competitions. In 1928, he won the silver medal for the shot put at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. His acting career in film and television spanned more than 40 years.

Early life and Olympics

Harold Herman Brix was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, where he attended Stadium High School from which he graduated in 1924. He was the fourth of five children born to an immigrant couple from Germany.
Brix played college football at the University of Washington, where he majored in economics. He played in the 1926 Rose Bowl and was a track-and-field star. He won the Silver medal for the shot put in the 1928 Olympic Games. He won four consecutive AAU shot put titles, the NCAA title in 1927, and the AAU indoor titles in 1930 and 1932. In 1930, Herman Brix set a world indoor record at. In 1932, he set his personal best at, but failed at the Olympic trials to qualify for the Los Angeles Games.

Early film career as Tarzan

Herman Brix moved to Los Angeles in 1929 after being invited to compete for the Los Angeles Athletic Club and befriended actor Douglas Fairbanks, who arranged a screen test for him at Paramount.
In 1931, MGM, in adapting author Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan adventures for the screen, selected Brix to play the title character. Brix broke his shoulder filming the 1931 football film Touchdown, so swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller replaced Brix.
Author Burroughs financed his own Tarzan film, The New Adventures of Tarzan, as a Burroughs-Tarzan production. Co-producer Ashton Dearholt, embarking on an expedition to Guatemala, cast Brix as Tarzan. The film began production on location in Guatemala, where the camera captured native scenery and wild animals, with Brix doing his own athletic stunts. The film was completed in Hollywood, where local studios afforded better sound recording.
The finished film was released in 1935 by Burroughs-Tarzan, and offered to theaters 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, with a few new scenes added.
In 1936 Herman Brix signed with independent producer Sam Katzman, whose Victory Pictures specialized in action pictures, Westerns and serials. Brix appeared in eight quickie features and two serials.
Brix's Victory serials attracted the attention of Republic Pictures, a leading producer of chapter plays. There Brix starred in four cliffhanger adventures: The Lone Ranger, The Fighting Devil Dogs, Hawk of the Wilderness, and Daredevils of the Red Circle.

Name change and film career

In 1939 Herman Brix, finding himself typecast as Tarzan, joined Columbia Pictures' stock company, under the new screen name of Bruce Bennett. Columbia stock players were usually called upon to appear in anything the studio produced, so Brix was assigned to small parts in action pictures, and incidental roles in the studio's two-reel comedies with The Three Stooges and Buster Keaton. By 1942 he was playing earnest leads in "B" features.
His screen career was interrupted by World War II, when he served in the United States Navy.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Bennett appeared in Sahara, Mildred Pierce, Nora Prentiss, Dark Passage, The Man I Love, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Undertow, Mystery Street, Angels in the Outfield, Sudden Fear, and Strategic Air Command, The Alligator People. File:Bruce Bennett in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre trailer.jpg|left|thumb|Bennett and Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
In 1954, Bennett played William Quantrill, the Confederate guerrilla figure, in an episode of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century. Bennett made five guest appearances on Perry Mason and five episodes of Science Fiction Theatre.
Bennett co-wrote and starred in Fiend of Dope Island.

Personal life and death

Bennett had two children, Christopher and Christina, by wife Jeannette, who died in 2000. They named their children after his parents.
Bennett became a businessman during the 1960s. He pursued parasailing and skydiving. He last skydived at the age of 96, descending from an altitude of 10,000 feet near Lake Tahoe.
Bennett died at age 100 on February 24, 2007 from complications of a broken hip, three months before his 101st birthday.

Selected filmography

  • Touchdown as Football Player
  • Million Dollar Legs as Klopstokian Athlete
  • Movie Crazy as Dinner Guest
  • Madison Square Garden as Wrestler
  • College Humor as Student
  • Meet the Baron as Train Passenger
  • You Can't Buy Everything as Bank Clerk
  • Lazy River as Sailor
  • Riptide as Man at Cannes Bar
  • Treasure Island as Man at Tavern
  • Death on the Diamond as Man on Ticket Line
  • Student Tour as Hercules – Crewman
  • The New Adventures of Tarzan as Tarzan
  • Shadow of Chinatown as Martin Andrews
  • Two Minutes to Play as Martin Granville
  • Silk and Saddles as Jimmy Shay
  • Blake of Scotland Yard as Adolph – Henchman
  • A Million to One as Johnny Kent
  • Fighting Fists as Hal "Chopper' Donovan, aka Hal Smith
  • Sky Racket as Eric Lane – Agent 17
  • Million Dollar Racket as Lawrence 'Larry' Duane
  • Danger Patrol as Joe
  • Amateur Crook as Jimmy Baxter
  • The Lone Ranger as Bert Rogers
  • Land of Fighting Men as Fred Mitchell
  • Fighting Devil Dogs as Lieutenant Frank Corby
  • Hawk of the Wilderness as Lincoln Rand Jr / Kioga
  • Tarzan and the Green Goddess as Tarzan
  • Daredevils of the Red Circle as Tiny Dawson
  • Five Little Peppers and How They Grew as Tom – King's Chauffeur
  • Blondie Brings Up Baby as Mason's Chauffeur
  • My Son Is Guilty as Lefty
  • Invisible Stripes as Rich Man
  • Cafe Hostess as Budge
  • Convicted Woman as Reporter
  • Five Little Peppers at Home as Jim – King's Chauffeur
  • Blazing Six Shooters as Geologist Winthrop
  • The Man with Nine Lives as State Trooper
  • The Man from Tumbleweeds as Prison Warden
  • Escape to Glory as Ship's gunnery officer
  • Island of Doomed Men as Hazen – Guard
  • The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady as McManus – Motorcycle Cop
  • Babies for Sale as Policeman
  • Girls of the Road as Officer Sullavan
  • The Secret Seven as Pat Norris
  • Before I Hang as Dr. Paul Ames
  • Hi-Yo Silver as Bert Rogers
  • Glamour for Sale as Minor Role
  • How High Is Up? as Construction worker
  • No Census, No Feeling as football player
  • The Spook Speaks as Rival Magician
  • So You Won't Talk as Reporter
  • West of Abilene as Frank Garfield
  • The Lone Wolf Keeps a Date as Scotty
  • The Phantom Submarine as Paul Sinclair
  • Two Latins from Manhattan as Federal Agent
  • The Officer and the Lady as Bob Conlon
  • Three Girls About Town as Reporter
  • Dutiful But Dumb as Soldier in general’s office
  • So Long Mr. Chumps as Prison Guard
  • Honolulu Lu as Skelly
  • Tramp, Tramp, Tramp as Tommy Lydell
  • Submarine Raider as 1st Officer Russell
  • Atlantic Convoy as Capt. Morgan
  • Sabotage Squad as Lieutenant John Cronin
  • Underground Agent as Lee Graham
  • Murder in Times Square as Supai George
  • The More the Merrier as FBI Agent Evans
  • Frontier Fury as Clem Hawkins
  • Sahara as Waco Hoyt
  • There's Something About a Soldier as Frank Molloy
  • U-Boat Prisoner as Archie Gibbs
  • I'm from Arkansas as Bob Hamlin
  • Mildred Pierce as Bert Pierce
  • Danger Signal as Dr. Andrew Lang
  • A Stolen Life as Jack R. Talbot
  • The Man I Love as San Thomas
  • Nora Prentiss as Dr. Joel Merriam
  • Cheyenne as Ed Landers
  • Dark Passage as Bob
  • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre as James Cody
  • To the Victor as Henderson
  • Silver River as Stanley Moore
  • Smart Girls Don't Talk as Marty Fain
  • The Younger Brothers as Jim Younger
  • Task Force as McCluskey
  • The House Across the Street as Matthew J. Keever
  • The Doctor and the Girl as Dr. Alfred Norton
  • Without Honor as Fred Bandle
  • Undertow as Det. Charles Reckling
  • Mystery Street as Dr. McAdoo
  • Shakedown as David Glover
  • The Second Face as Paul Curtis
  • The Great Missouri Raid as Cole Younger / Steve Brill
  • The Last Outpost as Col. Jeb Britton
  • Angels in the Outfield as Saul Hellman
  • Sudden Fear as Steve Kearney
  • Dream Wife as Charlie Elkwood
  • Dragonfly Squadron as Dr. Stephen Cottrell
  • The Big Tip Off as Bob Gilmore
  • Strategic Air Command as Col. Espy
  • Robbers' Roost as 'Bull' Herrick
  • Survival in Box Canyon as Dr. Sheldon Thorpe / General Frank Terrance / Major Sorenson / Dr. Hugh Bentley / Gen. Troy
  • Hidden Guns as Stragg
  • The Bottom of the Bottle as Brand
  • The Three Outlaws as Charlie Trenton
  • Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer as Daniel Boone
  • Love Me Tender as Maj. Kincaid
  • Three Violent People as Commissioner Harrison
  • Flaming Frontier as Capt. Jim Hewson
  • Perry Mason as Lawrence Balfour
  • The Cosmic Man as Dr. Karl Sorenson
  • The Alligator People as Dr. Eric Lorimer
  • The Outsider as Gen. Bridges
  • Fiend of Dope Island as Charlie Davis
  • Lost Island of Kioga as Lincoln Rand Jr., aka Kioga
  • as Clone Lab Assistant
  • Deadhead Miles as Johnny Mesquitero
  • Let the Doctor Shove as John Vandenberk