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R.I.P. Mike Henry

 
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 04, 2021 9:23 pm    Post subject: R.I.P. Mike Henry Reply with quote

Former football player and actor Mike Henry (August 15, 1936~ January 8, 2021) has passed away 84.

I first became a fan of Mike when I saw him in the film "Tarzan and the Valley of Gold" (1966).

One reviewer wrote that Mike looked the part of Tarzan more than any other actor who had played the role.
I totally agree.

Mike would play the famed Ape Man again in "Tarzan and the Great River" in 1967, and "Tarzan and the Jungle Boy" in 1968.

Mike was offered the role of Tarzan for the TV series but turned it down.

He appeared in the John Wayne films "The Green Berets" in 1968, and the western "Rio Lobo" where Mike played a corrupt and nasty sheriff in a post-Civil War Texas town.

Mike also had comedy chops. He played Junior Justice in three "Smokey & the Bandit films" with Burt Reynolds.
Mike was the dimwitted son of sheriff Jackie Gleason.

On one episode of M*A*S*H he played Margret's husband.

Hero, villain, comedy, Mike could do it all.

But I'll always remember as an awesome Lord of the Jungle.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 04, 2021 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was impressed by him in TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD. For the first time Tarzan was played as ERB wrote him! Actually, at the start of the film he mas almost a "James Bond" character...intelligent and urbane...before changing into his loincloth and swinging his way into the Mexican jungle.

Great memories. Rest in peace Mike.

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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

You're right, Gord. Johnny Weissmuller's version of the character couldn't be further from the EFB original.

In honor of Mr. Henry (and to demonstrate just how right you were in your post above) here's the VERY Bond-like trailer.


____ Trailer - Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966)



__________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Pow
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 3:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord & Bud, your "Bond" comparisons for Mike Henry are spot on.

David Fury the author of "Kings of the Jungle" which covered the many Tarzan actors who portrayed the role of the Earl of Greystoke in both film and television wrote about Mike: "Henry was James Bond in a loincloth."

In Gabe Essoe's book "Tarzan of the Movies" he wrote of Mike's Tarzan portrayal: "And his rugged features surprisingly resembled cartoon artist Hal Foster's comic strip version of the Apeman."

Essoe further wrote about Mike: "In Mexico, Tarzan Henry donned a lightweight summer suit and became the James Bond of the jungle."

Mike's second Tarzan film was "Tarzan and the Great River" released in 1967. Some critics felt that this was the weakest of Mike's Tarzan movies.

During the shooting of that film in Brazil, Dinky the chimp lashed out at Mike and ripped his jaw open.
Mike required twenty stitches for his jaw.

Mike also had an infection from from the attack that resulted in a monkey-fever delirium for several days.
It took Mike three weeks in order to fully recuperate.

Mike was also, like the rest of the cast & crew, plagued with food poisoning and dysentery.

The cast and crew were also shooting pretty much seven days a week.

On Mike's final film of the legendary jungle hero "Tarzan and the Jungle Boy," (also filmed in Brazil) which many consider Mike's best Tarzan movie, Mike took a fall and ended up with a serious ear infection.

Mike continued to film, only to be stricken with a virus of his liver.

Filming the movie was a challenge to say the least.

It rained for two weeks, Rio de Janerio's drainage system was unable to handle the excessive rainfall.
The Amazon River swelled and overflowed; and a typhoon struck, bringing the worst floods Rio had experienced in nearly a century.

Many of the riverbank sets were destroyed and production ground to a halt.

Then a typhoid epidemic broke out!

It was no surprise that after enduring the terrible rigors of shooting these Tarzan pictures, Mike Henry turned down producer Sy Weintraub's offer to star as Tarzan on the NBC TV series.

Mike would then launch two separate lawsuits against Sy for "maltreatment, abuse, and working conditions detrimental to my health and welfare."
The second lawsuit was that the chimp attack "resulted in human error."

In spite of all these problems, Essoe wrote of Mike "He looked the part more than any of the Apeman, bar none."

Amen.
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