Frank Merrill

Who was Frank Merrill?

Frank Merrill was a Southern California and national title-winning gymnast, police officer, stuntman and actor, most famous for being the fifth actor to portray Tarzan on film.

Merrill had doubled for the screen's first Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln, in the 1921 movie serial The Adventures of Tarzan, and was cast in the role himself in the 1928 movie serial Tarzan the Mighty. A year later, he starred in the movie serial Tarzan the Tiger, which, though shot as a silent feature, was partially dubbed into sound. Merrill was thus the first actor to voice Tarzan's "victory cry" on film.

With the coming of sound films, it was decided that Merrill's voice was unsuitable for the "talkies," and he was not asked back in the role.

This suited Merrill fine, as he had so enjoyed meeting youngsters via his tenure as Tarzan that he devoted the rest of his life to working with children in the Los Angeles city administration, the Los Angeles Parks Commission, as a recreation director and as a volunteer gymnastics instructor with the YMCA.

His mausoleum is in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.