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LEX BARKER
Barker was a direct
descendant of the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, and of Sir
'William Henry Crichlow', historical governor-general of Barbados. He
excelled in football and track at Fessenden School and Phillips-Exeter
Academy. He went to Princeton but left to become an actor. A year later he
was spotted in summer stock and received a contract offer from 20th
Century-Fox. World War II intervened; he enlisted an Infantry Private and
rose to Major. Though later signed by Fox and then Warner, he was too tall
for supporting parts and too unknown for leads. Tarzan's Magic Fountain
(1949) (RKO) provided his first starring role. After five Tarzans he went
into other adventure films. After 16 non-Tarzan films, mostly westerns, he
went to Europe in 1957 (he spoke French, Spanish, Italian and German). He
went on to make more than 50 more films all over the world: Brazil,
Germany, Spain, Yugoslavia, Italy, Lebanon, France. He became very popular
in Germany because of his role as "Old Shatterhand", "Kara
Ben Nemsi" and "Dr. Karl Sternau" in the movies based on
books written by Karl May, who is a very popular author for adventure
literature in Germany. Nearly every child in Germany knows some of his
books. He won Germany's Bambi Award as Best Foreign Actor of 1966. |
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