Denny Miller, actor who played Tarzan the Ape Man, dies at 80
Denny Miller, a noted UCLA basketball player in the 1950s who dropped the sport to play the title role in the 1959 movie Tarzan the Ape Man and went on to appear in Wagon Train, died last Tuesday at home in Las Vegas.
Denny Miller
1934-2014
The cause was Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), said his widow, Nancy.
Miller, whose self-effacing humour made him a hit at Tarzan and Western film festivals, knew his Tarzan movie was not a cinematic milestone. "In a book called Tarzan of the Movies," he noted in a 1997 Newsday interview, "it was under the heading, Tarzan the Worst."
And he was well aware that he got the part because of brawn instead of acting experience, of which he had none at the time. Miller was spotted by a talent agent while moving furniture for a job he had with Bekins Storage. The agent arranged for a screen test at MGM and Miller got a seven-year MGM contract.
Though he loved basketball and greatly admired his coach, the legendary John Wooden, a film career had more potential to pay off handsomely. Besides, his first major role, even in a turkey of a movie, was great fun.