Gordon Scott
American actor (1926–2007)
title: "Gordon Scott" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1926-births", "2007-deaths", "20th-century-american-male-actors", "21st-century-american-male-actors", "american-expatriates-in-italy", "american-male-film-actors", "american-male-television-actors", "italian-male-film-actors", "burials-at-kensico-cemetery", "male-actors-from-portland,-oregon", "male-actors-from-baltimore", "people-associated-with-physical-culture", "deaths-from-complications-of-heart-surgery", "tarzan", "united-states-army-non-commissioned-officers", "university-of-oregon-alumni", "united-states-army-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "american-military-police-officers"] description: "American actor (1926–2007)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Scott" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American actor (1926–2007) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Gordon Scott |
| image | Gordon Scott Hercules 1965.JPG |
| alt | Gordon Scott Hercules 1965 |
| caption | As Hercules for a 1965 ABC Television special |
| birth_name | Gordon Merrill Werschkul |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
| resting_place | Kensico Cemetery |
| Valhalla, New York | |
| resting_place_coordinates | |
| occupation | Actor |
| years_active | 1955–1967 |
| height | 6 ft |
| spouse | {{plainlist |
| * {{marriage | Janice Mae Wynkoop |
| * {{marriage | Vera Miles |
| children | 2 |
| :: |
| name = Gordon Scott | image = Gordon Scott Hercules 1965.JPG | alt = Gordon Scott Hercules 1965 | caption = As Hercules for a 1965 ABC Television special | birth_name = Gordon Merrill Werschkul | birth_date = | birth_place = Portland, Oregon, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | resting_place = Kensico Cemetery Valhalla, New York | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | other_names = | citizenship = | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1955–1967 | height = 6 ft | spouse = {{plainlist|
| partner = | children = 2 | parents = | relatives =
Gordon Scott (born Gordon Merrill Werschkul; August 3, 1926 – April 30, 2007
Early life, education, and military service
Scott was born Gordon Merrill Werschkul in Portland, Oregon, one of nine children of advertising man Stanley Werschkul and his wife Alice. He was raised in Oregon and attended the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, for one semester.
Upon leaving school, he was drafted into the United States Army in 1944. He served as a drill sergeant and military policeman until he was honorably discharged in 1947. He then worked at a variety of jobs until 1953, when he was spotted by a talent agent while working as a lifeguard at the Sahara Hotel and Casino, located on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada.
Career
"Due in part to his muscular frame and 6 ft height, he was quickly signed to replace Lex Barker as Tarzan" by producer Sol Lesser. Lesser had Gordon change his name because "Werschkul" sounded too much like "Weismueller".
Scott's Tarzan movies ranged from rather cheap re-edited television pilots to large-scale action films with high production values shot on location in Africa. In his early Tarzan films, he played the character as unworldly and inarticulate, in the mold of Johnny Weissmuller, an earlier Tarzan portrayer. In Scott's later films, after a change in producers, he played a Tarzan who was educated and spoke perfect English, as in the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. Scott was the only actor to play Tarzan in both styles.
Fearing he would become typecast as Tarzan, Scott moved to Italy and became a popular star in epics of the péplum genre (known in the United States as sword-and-sandal), featuring handsome bodybuilders as various characters from Greek and Roman myth. Scott was a friend of Steve Reeves, and collaborated with him as Remus to Reeves's Romulus in Duel of the Titans (1961). Scott also played Hercules in a couple of international co-productions during the mid-1960s. As the péplum genre faded, Scott starred in spaghetti Westerns and Eurospy films. His final film appearance was in The Tramplers (filmed in 1966; released in the United States in 1968).
Personal life
Scott was married twice. His first marriage was to Janice Mae Wynkoop of Oakland, California. They met when he was a lifeguard at Lake Temescal, located in Oakland. The couple married in Reno, Nevada, in 1948, and had one child, Karen Judith Werschkul (born August 26, 1948), before divorcing in 1949. He was married to actress Vera Miles, his Tarzan co-star, from 1956 to 1960. He had one son with Miles – Michael, born 1957 – and possibly several other children.
For the last two decades of his life, Scott was a popular guest at film conventions and autograph shows.
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Gordon_Scott_with_a_fan_in_1995.jpg" caption="Gordon Scott with a fan in 1995"] ::
Death
Scott died, aged 80, in Baltimore, Maryland of lingering complications from multiple heart surgeries earlier in the year. He is buried in the Kensico Cemetery, located in Valhalla, New York.
Filmography
Tarzan films
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Roles | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Tarzan's Hidden Jungle | Tarzan | Scott married co-star Vera Miles |
| 1957 | Tarzan and the Lost Safari | the first Tarzan film successfully shot and released in color | |
| 1958 | Tarzan's Fight for Life | Scott's only Tarzan film to include the character Jane | |
| 1959 | Tarzan's Greatest Adventure | Sean Connery co-starred as a villain | |
| 1960 | Tarzan and the Trappers | failed television pilot; not aired until 1966 | |
| Tarzan the Magnificent | Scott's successor in the Tarzan role, Jock Mahoney, played the villain | ||
| :: |
Other roles
::data[format=table]
References
References
- "Gordon Scott". ERBzine.
- Joi. "Tarzan Star Gordon Scott Dies".
- 1930 U.S. Census, Concord, Oregon.
- (July 18, 2014). "gordon scott (1926-2007)". Brian's Drive-In Theater.
- "Gordon Scott".
- Vagg, Stephen. (17 November 2020). "John Guillermin: Action Man".
- Bernstein, Adam. (May 4, 2007). "Gordon Scott; Him Tarzan In '50s, Only Better". [[The Washington Post]].
- (8 June 2007). "Gordon Scott". The Guardian.
- "Jungle Drums". Tarzan.CC.
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