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Johnny Weissmuller

American swimmer, water polo player, and actor (1904–1984)

  • Fame61.8
  • Momentum12.5
  • Wikipedia35.6K
Source-basedRising
Lived 1904–1984, aged 80United States
United States flagUnited StatesHU flagActorsActor
  • Wikipedia
    67 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1904–1984
    Aged 80
  • Known for
    Tarzan the Ape Man
    1932
Summary
Updated 2026-06-09

He owned the pool in the 1920s—five Olympic golds, world records—then became the only Tarzan anyone remembers, chest-beating through twelve features and defining the role for a generation raised on Saturday matinees.

Biography

About

Born Johann Peter Weißmüller in 1904, the Hungarian-born swimmer arrived in America and rewrote the record books: 100m freestyle and relay golds in Paris in 1924, repeated in Amsterdam in 1928, plus a 400m title and a bronze in water polo. He retired from competition with one of the century's most dominant swimming résumés. In 1932 he stepped into a loincloth for MGM's Tarzan and held the role through twelve films across sixteen years, six for MGM and six for RKO, his yell and physique sealing Edgar Rice Burroughs' ape-man in popular imagination. He followed with sixteen Jungle Jim movies and…

Deep cuts

Filmography

Low confidence
Deep cuts

TV credits

Low confidence
Deep cuts

Awards

Low confidence
  • honorary citizen of Timișoara
  • International Swimming Hall of Fame
  • star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Rising
61.8
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum12.5
Historical25.3
Now attention67.0
Source confidence70.0
Completeness80.0
Global rank
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Country rank
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Category rank
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Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence