Actress Arlene Dahl
Who was the spouse of Lex Barker from 1951 to 1952?
Lex Barker Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr . ( May 8 , 1919 – May 11 , 1973 ) was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl Mays novels under the stage name Lex Barker . Early life . Alexander Crichlow Barker , Jr . was born on May 8 , 1919 , in Rye , New York . He was the second child of Alexander Crichlow Barker , Sr. , a wealthy Canadian-born building contractor , and his American wife , the former Marion Thornton Beals . His father later worked as a stockbroker . Barker had an elder sister , Frederica Amelia Freddie Barlow ( 1917–1980 ) . Raised in New York City and Port Chester , New York , Lex Barker attended the Fessenden School and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy . He played American football as well as the oboe . He attended Princeton University , but dropped out to join a theatrical stock company , much to the chagrin of his family . Career . Theatre . Barker made it to Broadway once , in a small role in a short run of Shakespeares The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1938 . He also had a small role in Orson Welless disastrous Five Kings , which met with so many problems in Boston and Philadelphia that it never made it into New York City . World War Two . In February 1941 , ten months before the attack on Pearl Harbor , Barker left his fledgling acting career and enlisted in the United States Army . He rose to the rank of major during the war . He was wounded in action ( in the head and leg ) fighting in Sicily . He was awarded the Purple Heart twice . Early film roles . Back in the US , he recuperated at a military hospital in Arkansas , then upon his discharge from service , traveled to Los Angeles . Within a short time , he landed a small role in Doll Face ( 1945 ) , his first film . A string of small roles followed , in films such as Two Guys from Milwaukee ( 1945 ) and Cloak and Dagger ( 1946 ) . RKO . Barker signed a contract at RKO . He had small roles in The Farmers Daughter ( 1947 ) , Crossfire ( 1947 ) , and Under the Tonto Rim ( 1947 ) . Barker went to Paramount for Unconquered ( 1947 ) . Back at RKO he was in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome ( 1947 ) , Berlin Express ( 1948 ) , Mr . Blandings Builds His Dream House ( 1948 ) , The Velvet Touch ( 1948 ) , and Return of the Bad Men ( 1948 ) , playing Emmett Dalton . Tarzan . In Tarzans Magic Fountain ( 1949 ) , Barker became the tenth official Tarzan of the movies . His blond , handsome , and intelligent appearance , as well as his athletic , now 64 frame , helped make him popular in the role Johnny Weissmuller had made his own for 16 years . His Jane was Brenda Joyce who had been in Weissmullers last three films . Barkers second Tarzan was Tarzan and the Slave Girl ( 1950 ) , where Jane was played by Vanessa Brown . In Tarzans Peril ( 1951 ) , Barkers Jane was Virginia Huston , with African location footage . Dorothy Hart was Jane in Tarzans Savage Fury ( 1952 ) , directed by Cy Endfield . Barker got the chance to play a non-Tarzan role in Battles of Chief Pontiac ( 1952 ) , a Western . He returned to the role one last time in Tarzan and the She-Devil ( 1953 ) . Westerns . Barker supported Randolph Scott in Thunder Over the Plains ( 1953 ) . At Universal he starred in the Western The Yellow Mountain ( 1954 ) and The Man from Bitter Ridge ( 1955 ) . He went to Columbia to make Duel on the Mississippi ( 1955 ) . Barker had a rare non-Western role in The Price of Fear ( 1956 ) , a film noir with Merle Oberon . He was in the war movie Away All Boats ( 1956 ) and the thriller The Girl in the Kremlin ( 1957 ) . Barker made two films for Howard W . Koch : War Drums ( 1957 ) and Jungle Heat ( 1957 ) . He went to 20th Century Fox for The Deerslayer ( 1957 ) , then did The Girl in Black Stockings ( 1957 ) . Italy . In 1957 , as he found it harder to find work in American films , Barker moved to Europe ( he spoke French , Italian , Spanish , and some German ) , where he found popularity and starred in over 40 European films , including two movies based on the novels by Italian author Emilio Salgari ( 1862–1911 ) . He started his European career with a British thriller The Strange Awakening ( 1958 ) . He went to Italy to star in Captain Falcon ( 1959 ) , Son of the Red Corsair ( 1959 ) , The Pirate and the Slave Girl ( 1959 ) , and Terror of the Red Mask ( 1960 ) . Barker had a short but compelling role as Anita Ekbergs fiancé in Federico Fellinis La Dolce Vita ( 1960 ) . He went back to swashbucklers : Knight of 100 Faces ( 1960 ) , Pirates of the Coast ( 1960 ) , Robin Hood and the Pirates ( 1960 ) , and The Secret of the Black Falcon ( 1961 ) . Germany . In Germany , he had his greatest success . There he starred in movies based on the Doctor Mabuse stories ( formerly filmed by Fritz Lang ) , in the movies The Return of Doctor Mabuse ( 1961 ) . He was in Doctor Sibelius ( 1962 ) . Barker then played Old Shatterhand in an adaptation of the novel by German author Karl May ( 1842–1912 ) , Treasure of the Silver Lake ( 1962 ) . It was a huge hit , and 11 movies adapting stories by Karl May followed until 1968 . Barker did the comedy Breakfast in Bed ( 1962 ) , then the adventure movie Storm Over Ceylon ( 1963 ) . He returned to Italy for The Executioner of Venice ( 1963 ) and ( 1963 ) . Barker reprised his role as Old Shatterhand in Apache Gold ( 1964 ) , Old Shatterhand ( 1964 ) and Last of the Renegades ( 1965 ) . He went to South Africa for Harry Alan Towers German-British international co-production Victim Five ( 1964 ) , then returned to Germany for other adaptations of May books : The Treasure of the Aztecs ( 1965 ) , The Pyramid of the Sun God ( 1965 ) . 24 Hours to Kill ( 1965 ) was a British movie . The Hell of Manitoba ( 1965 ) and The Desperado Trail ( 1966 ) were Westerns . In 1966 , Barker was awarded the Bambi Award as Best Foreign Actor in Germany , where he was a very popular star . He even recorded two songs in German : Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir ( Ill be on the way to you tomorrow , composed by Martin Böttcher , the composer of some of the soundtracks of the Karl May movies ) and Mädchen in Samt und Seide ( Girl in Silk and Velvet , composed by Werner Scharfenberger ) . Later films included Killers Carnival ( 1966 ) , and Winnetou and the Crossbreed ( 1967 ) . In the same year , he starred in a Eurospy film Spy Today , Die Tomorrow , a horror film The Blood Demon , and appeared in the anthology film Woman Times Seven ( 1967 ) . He returned to the United States occasionally and made a handful of guest appearances on American television episodes , but Europe , and especially Germany , was his professional home for the remainder of his life . Personal life . Barker was married five times : - Constance Rhodes Thurlow ( 1918–1975 ) ( married June 27 , 1942–divorced 1950 ) , a daughter of Leon Rhodes Thurlow , a vice president of the Decorated Metal Manufacturing Company . They had one daughter , Lynn Thurlow Barker ( April 11 , 1943 – 2010 ) and a son , Alexander Zan Crichlow Barker III ( March 25 , 1947 – October 2 , 2012 ) . In 1952 Constance Barker married her second husband , John Lawrence Adams , a descendant of John Quincy Adams . - Actress Arlene Dahl ( married 1951–divorced 1952 ) - Actress Lana Turner ( married September 8 , 1953–divorced July 22 , 1957 ) . In Detour : A Hollywood Tragedy - My Life with Lana Turner , My Mother ( 1988 ) , written by Turners daughter Cheryl Crane , Crane claimed Barker repeatedly molested and raped her from the ages of 10 to 13 , and that it was after she informed her mother of this that they divorced . According to Crane , Turner ordered him out of the house at gunpoint the morning after she learned of this . He denied the accusation . - Irene Labhardt ( married 1957–1962 ; her death from leukemia ) , a Swiss actress . They had one son , Christopher ( born 1960 ) , who became an actor and singer . - Tita Cervera ( married 1965–divorced 1972 , although divorce not deemed legally valid ) , a Spanish beauty pageant winner . Voted Miss Spain in 1962 , she later became the wife of movie producer Espartaco Santoni in 1975 ( the marriage turned out to be bigamous ) and later still , in 1985 , the fifth and final wife of billionaire art collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza . Death . Barker died on May 11 , 1973 , of a heart attack while walking down a street in New York City on his way to meet his fiancée , actress Karen Kondazian . The funeral was held in New York . He was cremated and the ashes were taken by his estranged wife Tita to Spain . Discography . - Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir / Mädchen in Samt und Seide 1965 , Single , Decca D 19 725 - Winnetou du warst mein Freund 1996 , CD , Bear Family Records