Buster Crabbe Interview (September 11, 1976)

Clarence Linden Crabbe II (/ˈkræb/; February 7, 1908 - April 23, 1983), known professionally as Buster Crabbe, was an American two-time Olympic swimmer and film and television actor.[2] He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal for 400-meter freestyle swimming event, which launched his career on the silver screen and later television. He starred in a variety of popular feature films and movie serials released between 1933 and the 1950s,[3] portraying the top three syndicated comic-strip heroes of the 1930s: Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers.
Early life[edit]
Crabbe was born in 1908 to Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe, a real estate broker, and Lucy Agnes (née McNamara) Crabbe, in Oakland, California. He had a brother, Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe Jr. (1909-1972). Crabbe grew up in Hawaii and graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu. He then attended the University of Southern California, where he was the school's first All-American swimmer (1931) and a 1931 NCAA freestyle titlist. He also became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity before graduating from USC in 1931.
Olympic Games[edit]
Crabbe at age 20 at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam
Olympic medal record
Representing the United States
Men's swimming
Gold medal - first place 1932 Los Angeles 400 m freestyle
Bronze medal - third place 1928 Amsterdam 1500 m freestyle
Crabbe competed in two Olympic Games as a swimmer. At the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, he won the bronze medal for the 1,500 meters freestyle, and at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, he won the gold medal for the 400 meters freestyle when he beat Jean Taris of France by a tenth of a second.[4][5]
Acting career[edit]
Hollywood[edit]
Crabbe watches "Jack", one of the lions in King of the Jungle, eating lunch in a Hollywood restaurant in 1933. Crabbe became a lion tamer while working on that adventure film.
He is credited in some films as "Larry Crabbe" or "Larry (Buster) Crabbe". His role in the Tarzan serial Tarzan the Fearless (1933) began a career in which Crabbe starred in more than a hundred films. In King of the Jungle (1933), Jungle Man (1941), and the serial King of the Congo (1952), he played typical "jungle man" roles. He starred in several popular films at this time, including The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi (1933), alongside Betty Grable, and Search for Beauty (1934), Daughter of Shanghai (1937) credited as Larry Crabbe.
In 1936, he was selected over several stars to play Flash Gordon in the first, very successful Universal Pictures Flash Gordon serial, which was followed by two sequels released in 1938 and 1940. The series was later edited and shown extensively on American television during the 1950s and 1960s, then fully restored for home video release.
Crabbe starred at the Billy Rose's Aquacade at the New York World's Fair during its second year (1940), replacing fellow Olympic swimmer and Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller.
During World War II, Crabbe was put under contract by Producers Releasing Corporation for lead roles from 1942 to 1946. He portrayed a Western folk-hero version of Billy the Kid in 13 films, and Billy Carson in 23, along with Al St. John as his sidekick. As a 34-year-old married man, Crabbe had a draft deferment, but made Army training films for the field artillery at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, along with St. John.[6] Crabbe also played some jungle roles for the studio.
In the 1950s, two published comic book series were named after him. Eastern Color published 12 issues of Buster Crabbe Comics from 1951 to 1953, followed by Lev Gleason's four issues of The Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe in 1954.
In 1965, he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. During his senior swimming career, Crabbe set 16 world and 35 national records.[12] He continued swimming through his sixties and in 1971 set a world record in his age group.[13]
In 1979 he made one of his final appearances in an episode of the NBC television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, playing the guest role of retired space fighter pilot "Brigadier Gordon," who is recalled to active duty, in a nod to his two famous science fiction hero roles.
Personal life[edit]
In 1933, he married Adah Virginia Held (1912-2004) and gave himself a year to make it as an actor. If he didn't find employment as an actor in that period, he planned to start law school at the University of Southern California.
Crabbe and his wife had two daughters, Caren Lynn ("Sande") and Susan, and a son, Cullen. In 1957, Sande died of anorexia nervosa aged 20.[14]
He is the maternal grandfather of the college football coach Nick Holt.[15]
Death[edit]
In 1983, at age 75, Crabbe died of a heart attack at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.[3] He is interred at Green Acres Memorial Park in Scottsdale.[citation needed]