60 Fun Facts About Tarzan

Who created Tarzan?

Burroughs also created John Carter of Mars, and at his death was thought to have earned more from films than any other writer.

In the language of the great apes, what does the name 'Tarzan' mean?

Burroughs built a partial ape vocabulary for the books; 'Tarmangani' is the apes' word for white humans in general.

What is the name of the she-ape who adopts and raises the infant Tarzan?

In the novel she has just lost her own baby, dropped from a treetop while she fled the ape king.

Which Los Angeles neighborhood sits on Burroughs's former ranch and is named after Tarzan?

Burroughs bought the ranch in 1919 and is buried there.

What is the name of Tarzan's chimpanzee sidekick in the classic Hollywood films?

No chimpanzee appears in Burroughs's novels at all; the character was invented for the movies.

Who voices Tarzan in Disney's 1999 animated film?

Co-director Kevin Lima said he won the part for 'the animal sense' in his readings and some killer baboon imitations.

Which actress voices Jane in Disney's Tarzan?

She improvised the scene where Jane recounts meeting Tarzan, which took seven weeks to animate.

Who voices Tarzan's adoptive gorilla mother in Disney's Tarzan?

She also sings a duet version of the film's lullaby with Collins on the soundtrack.

Rosie O'Donnell voices which character in Disney's Tarzan?

The full name is Terkina; she is Kala's niece, making her Tarzan's adoptive cousin.

Who wrote and performed the songs for Disney's Tarzan?

He was hired as early as 1995, partly because the team felt a drummer could bring a jungle beat.

Which song from Disney's Tarzan won the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

It also became Collins's last US top-40 single, peaking at number 21.

Burroughs's Tarzan is raised by the fictional Mangani apes. What animals raise him in Disney's film?

The animators visited Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to watch the real thing.

Who plays Tarzan in the 2016 film The Legend of Tarzan?

All three of the other names were early contenders for the part.

Who plays Jane in The Legend of Tarzan (2016)?

Director David Yates had originally wanted Jessica Chastain for the role.

Which Rudyard Kipling character is often cited as an influence on Tarzan?

Burroughs himself denied it and said his only inspiration was the myth of Romulus and Remus.

In the novels, Jane Porter comes from which American city?

The 1932 films rewrote her as an Englishwoman named Jane Parker.

Tarzan first appeared in October 1912 in which pulp magazine?

The book edition did not follow until June 1914.

In Burroughs's first novel, which ape king kills Tarzan's father?

Tarzan later kills him and takes his place as king of the apes.

What is Tarzan's birth name in the novels?

The narrator admits both 'Clayton' and 'Greystoke' are fictitious names, hinting his real name is something else.

Tarzan and Jane's son takes which ape name?

It means 'the Killer'; his given name is Jack.

How many Tarzan books did Burroughs write?

He wrote almost 80 novels in total, including the John Carter and Pellucidar series.

Who was the first actor to play the adult Tarzan on film, in 1918?

Burroughs objected to the casting, but the actor played the role twice more.

How many Tarzan feature films did Johnny Weissmuller star in between 1932 and 1948?

Six were made by MGM and six by RKO before he moved on to Jungle Jim.

Which actress played Jane opposite Weissmuller from 1932 to 1942?

She was later the mother of Mia Farrow.

What is unusual about the Tarzan yell as heard in the six MGM Weissmuller films?

The first half plays normally and the second half is the same sound in reverse, a sign of studio editing.

Which actor played Tarzan in the NBC television series that ran from 1966 to 1968?

He did nearly all his own stunts and suffered two broken shoulders and several lion bites.

Who played Tarzan in the 1984 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes?

The name 'Tarzan' is never actually spoken in the film's dialogue.

In Disney's Tarzan, what is the name of the leopard that kills Tarzan's parents?

The same leopard killed Kala's own baby, which is why she takes in the human infant.

Who plays the Belgian villain Captain Léon Rom in The Legend of Tarzan (2016)?

Rom was a real official in King Leopold II's Congo Free State.

Which comic-book hero did Jerry Siegel say was partly inspired by Tarzan?

Siegel named Burroughs's John Carter of Mars as another early inspiration.

In Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan follows Jane to America and rescues her from a fire in which state?

He then learns she is engaged to another man and quietly renounces his inheritance.

Which French naval officer teaches Tarzan to speak in the first novel?

Tarzan could already read and write English from his parents' books, but had never heard it spoken.

What is the lost Atlantean colony that Tarzan repeatedly raids for treasure called?

Its high priestess, La, falls in love with Tarzan on first sight and never quite gets over him.

Burroughs claimed his only inspiration for Tarzan was which myth?

Kipling quipped that Burroughs had 'jazzed' the motif of the Jungle Books anyway.

Which MGM sound recordist is credited with creating the famous Tarzan yell from Weissmuller's own voice?

MGM also spread a tall tale that it blended a hyena, a camel, a violin and a soprano's high C.

When MGM wanted Weissmuller for Tarzan, he was under contract to model what?

MGM bought him out by putting stars like Greta Garbo in the brand's ads.

Which other Olympic gold-medal swimmer played Tarzan in the 1933 serial Tarzan the Fearless?

He went on to play Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers too, the top three comic-strip heroes of the 1930s.

Which comedian was originally cast as Tantor the elephant before leaving to make DreamWorks' Antz?

Jeffrey Katzenberg persuaded him to switch; Wayne Knight took the part.

Which comedian was offered O'Donnell's gorilla role when it was still written as male?

He turned it down, and the character was rewritten as female after O'Donnell's audition.

What was the budget of Disney's Tarzan, then the costliest hand-drawn animated film ever?

It held the record until Treasure Planet in 2002 and grossed $448.2 million worldwide.

In The Legend of Tarzan (2016), Samuel L. Jackson plays which real historical figure?

The real Williams wrote an 1890 open letter to King Leopold exposing abuses in the Congo.

Producer Jerry Weintraub wanted which Olympic swimmer to play Tarzan in the 2016 film?

He reportedly changed his mind after two minutes of watching him host Saturday Night Live.

The Broadway musical Tarzan opened in 2006 at which venue?

It was the only Disney Theatrical production to open without an out-of-town tryout and closed after 486 performances.

Who composed the instrumental score for Disney's Tarzan?

He had already worked on The Lion King and later produced the Broadway cast album.

A chameleon species named Calumma tarzan is endemic to which island?

Jane Goodall has said the Tarzan books were a major influence on her childhood dream of living among apes.

Which name did Burroughs consider for his ape-man before settling on 'Tarzan'?

'Tublat Zan' was another candidate; Tublat later became the name of Kala's mate in the books.

Which artist illustrated the first Tarzan newspaper comic strip in 1929?

He later created Prince Valiant; Hogarth and Manning drew the strip in later years.

Which actor left the 1918 Tarzan of the Apes for military service five weeks into filming?

Gordon Griffith played Tarzan as a child in the same movie.

Burroughs's daughter Joan voiced Jane on the 1932 radio serial opposite her husband as Tarzan. Who was he?

The radio yell in that series sounded like 'Taaar-maan-ganiii'.

Who wrote the book for the Broadway musical Tarzan?

Collins added nine new songs to the five from the film for the stage version.

In which country was the 1935 serial The New Adventures of Tarzan partly shot on location?

Its star Herman Brix played an educated Tarzan, in contrast to the grunting MGM version Burroughs disliked.

Weissmuller was born in 1904 in Szabadfalva, then part of which kingdom?

His Banat Swabian family sailed to Ellis Island when he was seven months old; the village is now part of Timișoara, Romania.

In the original novel, in which year are Tarzan's parents, Lord and Lady Greystoke, marooned in Africa?

Their son John Clayton II grows up ignorant of his heritage and teaches himself to read from the primers in their cabin.

In which year was Tarzan of the Apes first published as a book, after its magazine serialisation?

The All-Story had run the whole story in instalments from October 1912; Burroughs then kept the series going into the 1940s.

Which two directors made Disney's 1999 Tarzan?

Buck later co-directed Frozen; Lima went on to Enchanted.

What was the name of the pioneering software Disney used for Tarzan's 3D backgrounds?

It let painters work in three dimensions so the camera could swoop through the jungle as Tarzan surfs the branches.

Roughly how much did Disney's Tarzan gross worldwide, making it the fifth-biggest film of 1999?

Only Toy Story 2 out-grossed it among that year's animated films.

Which primate's movements did animator Glen Keane study for the adult Tarzan?

John Ripa used young chimpanzees for the boy Tarzan, and Keane also watched his son skateboarding and snowboarding for the tree-surfing scenes.

Which Hollywood star was the model for the design of the villain Clayton in Disney's Tarzan?

Supervising animator Randy Haycock drew on Gable and other film stars of the 1930s and 40s; Brian Blessed provided the voice.

Which actor played Tarzan in the 1935 serial The New Adventures of Tarzan?

He later acted under the name Bruce Bennett.