Bruce Bennett

American actor (1906–2007)

Jeannette C. Braddock
​
​
(m. 1933; died 2000)​
Children2Signature

Bruce Bennett (born Harold Herman Brix, also credited Herman Brix; May 19, 1906 – February 24, 2007) was an American film and television actor who was a college athlete in football and in intercollegiate and international track-and-field competitions.[1] In 1928, he won the silver medal for the shot put at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam. Bennett's acting career in film and television spanned more than 40 years.

Early life and Olympics

Herman Brix at the 1928 Olympics

Harold Herman Brix was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, where he attended Stadium High School from which he graduated in 1924.[2] He was the fourth of five children born to an immigrant couple from Germany.[citation needed]

Bennett 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. Bennett won the Silver medal for the shot put in the 1928 Olympic Games.[3] He won four consecutive AAU shot put titles (1928–31), the NCAA title in 1927, and the AAU indoor titles in 1930 and 1932. In 1930, Bennett set a world indoor record at 15.61 m (51 ft 3 in). In 1932, he set his personal best at 16.07 m (52 ft 9 in), but failed at the Olympic trials to qualify for the Los Angeles Games.[4]

Early film career as Tarzan

Brix in the opening credits of the serial The New Adventures of Tarzan (1935)

Bennett 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.[citation needed]

In 1931, MGM, in adapting author Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan adventures for the screen, selected Bennett to play the title character. Bennett broke his shoulder filming the 1931 football film Touchdown, so swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller replaced Bennett. Ashton Dearholt cast Bennett in the lead of a Tarzan serial film. The film began production on location in Guatemala.[citation needed]

The film, The New Adventures of Tarzan, 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.

Bennett portrayed the titular hero in Republic's serial Hawk of the Wilderness.

Name change and film career

Bennett worked in serials and action features for low-budget studios until 1939. Finding himself typecast as Tarzan, Bennett changed his name and became a member of Columbia Pictures' stock company. He appeared in How High Is Up? with The Three Stooges and The Spook Speaks. His screen career was interrupted by World War II, when he served in the United States Navy.

Bennett and Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

In the 1940s and 1950s, Bennett appeared in Sahara (1943), Mildred Pierce (1945), Nora Prentiss (1947), Dark Passage (1947), The Man I Love (1947), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Undertow (1949), Mystery Street (1950), Angels in the Outfield (1951), Sudden Fear (1952), and Strategic Air Command (1955), The Alligator People (1959).[5][3]

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 (filmed 1959, released 1961).[5]

Personal life

Bennett and his wife Jeanette, 1936

Bennett had two children, Christopher and Christina, by wife Jeannette, who died in 2000. They named their children after his parents.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

Bennett died at 100 on February 24, 2007 from complications from a broken hip.[6][7]

Selected filmography

See also

  • List of centenarians (actors, filmmakers and entertainers)

References

Notes

  1. ^ McLellan, Dennis (February 28, 2007). "Herman Brix, 100; Olympian became actor known as Bruce Bennett". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  2. ^ Merryman, Kathleen (September 9, 2006). "From Stadium's halls to the silver screen". The News Tribune. Tacoma, Washington. Retrieved September 12, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Bernstein, Adam (February 27, 2007). "Film Star and Olympian Herman Brix". The Washington Post.
  4. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Herman Brix". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Bruce Bennett Filmography" Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Retrieved May 21, 2018.
  6. ^ "Olympian and actor Herman Brix dies". Yahoo! News. Associated Press. March 1, 2007. Archived from the original on March 7, 2007. Retrieved March 3, 2007.
  7. ^ WHITE, RUSTY (March 8, 2007). "OBITUARY – HERMAN BRIX aka BRUCE BENNETT - Entertainment Today". entertainmenttoday.net. Retrieved August 2, 2024.

Bibliography

  • Chapman, Mike. Please Don't Call Me Tarzan. Culture House Press ISBN 978-0-9676-0802-0
  • Katz, Ephraim The Macmillan International Encyclopedia of Film. Collins (ISBN 978-0-3339-0690-3)

Further reading

  • Henry, Bill (February 22, 1937). "Hollywood in Sport: Athletic Greats Star as Tarzans". The Los Angeles Times. p. 30.
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  • Bruce Bennett at IMDb
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  • Bruce Bennett at Olympedia Edit this at Wikidata
  • Interview with Herman Brix aka Bruce Bennett
  • Washington Post obituary
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