Buster Crabbe graduated from the University of Southern California. In 1931, while working on That's My Boy for Columbia, he was tested by MGM for Tarzan and rejected. Paramount put him in King of the Jungle as Kaspa, the Lion Man (after a book of that title but clearly a copy of the Tarzan stories). Publicity for this film emphasized his having won the 1932 Olympic 400-meter freestyle swimming championship and suggested a rivalry with Johnny Weissmuller. Producer Sol Lesser wanted Crabbe for an independent Tarzan the Fearless, though he first had to get James Pierce to waive rights to the part already promised to him by his father-in-law, Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film was released as both a feature and a serial; most houses showed only the first serial episode, which critics panned as a badly organized feature. Just prior to the film's release Crabbe married his college sweetheart and gave himself one year to either make it as an actor or start law school at USC. Paramount put him in a number of Zane Grey westerns, then Universal gave him the lead him in very successful sci-fi serials (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers) from 1936-40. In 1940 he began a string of Billy the Kid westerns for low-budget (VERY low-budget) studio PRC. After World War II he acted only occasionally, devoting much of his time to his swimming pool corporation and operation of a boys' camp in New York.


Alien Dead (1980): $2,000
Prairie Rustlers (1945): $3,000

Was on the 1928 and 1932 US Olympic swimming teams. Won gold medal in the 400 Meter Swimming Freestyle at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Also won a bronze medal in the 1500 Meter Freestyle at Amsterdam. Is the only actor who has played Tarzan, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon - the top 3 pulp fiction heroes of the 1930s. Father of Cullen Crabbe. Crabbe didn't test for the title role of his most famous film, Flash Gordon (1936/I); in fact, he thought the idea was too far out for movie audiences to accept and would be a box-office flop. He was a fan of the comic strip, however, and was curious to see who would be cast, so he went to the tryouts and stood in the back of the room watching the testing. The series' producer, Henry MacRae, saw him, came over and offered him the part right away. It turned out that MacRae had seen several of Crabbe's previous films and thought he would be perfect for it, but the series was being made by Universal and Crabbe was under contract to Paramount, and MacRae didn't think Paramount would loan him out. MacRae asked him if a deal could be worked out with Paramount would Crabbe do the part, Crabbe said OK, a deal was arranged and Crabbe became Flash Gordon. Grandson Nick Holt head defensive football coach 2006 at University of Southern California where Buster Crabbe graduated in 1931. Son of Edward Clinton Crabbe and wife Agnes Lucy McNamara.