US actor Lex Barker - The blood brother

Der Spiegel

By Stefan Wagner

May 8, 2019

                   

Lex Barker, was born 100 years ago today, he rode as a mighty beau through the Karl May films of the 1960s. He also played Tarzan and Robin Hood, but Old Shatterhand was the role of his life.

Around noon on May 11, 1973, the giant just wants to cross Lexington Avenue in Manhattan when he collapses. Eyewitnesses report that he has pressed his hand to his left breast, his face distorted by the pain. He is dead on the spot. Heart attack! Since he carried no identity card or wallet, the police bring the anonymous dead person to the morgue. Only an engraving on the back of his watch helps with the identification: "Alexander C. Barker", to an address in Beverly Hills.

The dead man was Lex Barker. He died three days after his 54th birthday. The American actor featured as Tarzan in his films and Robin Hood, officers, detectives and killers, pirates and Vikings. But for the German audience he was and is forever just "Old Shatterhand", the noble blood brother of Apache chief Winnetou in the Karl May films of the sixties. 100 years ago, on May 8, 1919, Barker was born the son of an affluent contractor in Rye, New York.

The Frenchman Pierre Brice as Winnetou and Lex Barker as "Old Shatterhand" were among the famous film duo the dream couple of the German cinema of the sixties. But the audience success of director Harald Reinl between 1962 and 1968 cemented the actors in their stereotypical roles. After that, neither of them succeeded in being used in artistically more interesting film productions.

After a few early acting experiences and volunteering in the Second World War, Barker's film career began quite promising. Tough years with Tingeltheater- and film side roles followed the accolade and jackpot: The well-trained, dazzling-looking 1.93-meter man in 1949 was the successor to the Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmüller. At the age of 43, he had become somewhat full around the hips and had to hang up the legendary loincloth.

"Aaaaihaihaihaaa!" Never again Tarzans call

Especially adored by the female audience Barker - in his youth was a good athlete and football player. The critics also praised the muscle man as a worthy Jungle King. And so they followed from 1949 to 1953 on twelve Weissmüller-Tarzans five Barker Tarzans.

With that, Barker reached the height of his popularity in the US - and his fear of growing into the role grew. At parties and in public, strangers challenge him to utter the Tarzan shriek or show his imposing chest. Instead of extending the contract, Barker crashed into Western, adventure and action movies. "It's great to be able to wear clothes again, I like talking like a civilized person," he said in an interview.

Barker married three times between 1942 and 1957 alone - and divorced three times. The marriage with Hollywood superstar Lana Turner was marked by problems, Turner had a miscarriage, suffered from depression and alcohol problems, Barker had other women and did not manage to be in his marriage with the second most famous Hollywood star.

Turners daughter Cheryl Crane claimed 15 years after Barker's death in her book "Detour: A Hollywood Story," that her stepfather had sexually abused her for several years.

Because character roles did not materialize and B-movies were not enough for him, Barker made it to Europe in 1957. The "golden era" of Hollywood was over, the standard genres (comedy, western, adventure film) crumbled, from the stars one expected now multi-faceted game.

In Rome in 1960 Barker received a supporting role in Federico Fellini's classic "La Dolce Vita". He was convincing as an ex-Hollywood star, as a horned, drunken, fumbling fiancé of Sylita embodied by Anita Ekberg. She annoyed him with the mocking nickname "Sexy Lexy," which stuck to Barker until the end of his life.

At a party in Rome Lex Barker met in 1961 the German producer Artur "Atze" Brauner. The two of them liked each other, and soon came to Barker films such as "The Invisible Claws of Dr. Mabuse" or "Gynecologist Dr. Sibelius" in German cinemas.

On a roll an offer for a Karl May film adaptation Barker reacted by first refusing: "A German Western? That will not do anything", he remembered later in the "Bravo". "Wild West Adventures are in Hollywood for 60 years, they are the best specialists." But the Swiss Irene Labhart, his wife from 1959, convinced him. Shooting took place in the former Yugoslavia Pierre Brice as an Apache chief was put at his side.

Seven times, Lex Barker played Old Shatterhand, the strong western man in a leather jacket: With the bear slayer or Henrstutzen in his hand and with a smile in his sun-browned face he spoke meaningful sentences and killed crooks only when he absolutely had to. The first film, "The Treasure in the Silver Lake", attracted 17 million visitors to the cinemas: a colossal mega hit and the start of an unprecedented series of successes. Pierre Brice initially had reservations ("I hope you have a chance next to the giant guy"), but soon the two harmonized - and twisted in rotation breaks together for diving on the Croatian coast.

So blonde, so German

Producer Horst Wendlandt also chose Barker because the blonde giant looked "more German than all Germans" and thus came closest to the hero from the Karl May books. On almost all photos of the duo Shatterhand protectively towers Winnetou - the already larger Barker was also placed by the photographer higher.

The two actors were increasingly trapped in their roles as flawless heroes. The unimaginative, often bursting with pathos dialogues frustrated Brice and Barker - at the same time they swam in fame and money. Pierre Brice remembered the famous Blood Brotherhood scene in "Winnetou": "Every time we wanted to shoot again and say 'My Brother', we would start laughing again, director Harald Reinl was very angry and his head was red as a tomato - there Lex and I had to laugh even more - it took quite a long time until the scene was in the box."

Golden canvas, Bambi, "Bravo" posters, recordings, many front pages: Winnetou and Old Shatterhand were superstars. But the boom abated, in 1968 "Winnetou and Shatterhand in the Valley of Death" appeared as the last film in the series. Critics found little good: "clichés cheapest variety", "template", "The end of a large film series".

Tennis and whiskey to excess

In addition to the Winneto films Lex Barker turns in the sixties numerous adventure strips and thrillers, mostly for the Italian and German market. Their titles say it all: "The Eye of Ceylon," "In Beirut the Nights are Long," "In the Kingdom of the Silver Lion," "The Hell of Manitoba," "The Treasure of the Aztecs."

Strong role offers for Barker did not materialize. The Old Shatterhand blessing became a curse. In the US, secondary and guest roles on television where he tried to revive his career. Meanwhile, his fifth marriage to a former Spanish beauty queen ended in a grueling divorce war. "He had a very sad side," recalled Pierre Brice, "he was not very happy in his relationships with women."

Lex Barker considered working together with Johnny Weissmüller to develop a kind of "Tarzan country" based on the Disney model, moved back to the USA and tried to get fit for more Hollywood roles with a hard training program.

During the day he played tennis to excess, in the evening the chain smoker went to parties, drank a lot, had affairs. He lost 15 kilos, complaining of an old leg injury and increasing stabbing pains in his chest. Then on May 11, 1973, he collapsed on the way to a restaurant on the sidewalk.