JOHNNY SHEFFIELD BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Johnny Sheffield was born on April  11th, 1931 in Pasadena, California with the birth name John Matthew Sheffield Cassan.  His father, Reginald Sheffield was an actor and his mother was Louise Van Loon.  He had a brother, Billy who also grew up to be a working actor and he had an older sister, Mary Alice.
 
Born into a show business family, Sheffield got involved in acting quite young.  By the age of seven he appeared on Broadway in, "On Borrowed Time".  When he heard MGM was looking for a child to star in the film, "Tarzan Finds a Son!" (1939), he auditioned and got the part.  

This movie was such a huge success that MGM decided to sign the young Sheffield to a total of six more films.  Some of which were, "Tarzan's Secret Treasure" (1941) and "Tarzan's New York Adventure" (1942).  He completed all these films until the film, "Tarzan and the Mermaids" (1948) since by this time he was now to old to play the part of a child.  Even though active in the Tarzan films, Sheffield also managed to work on another film titled, "Babes in Arms" (1939) alongside Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney whom were classmates of his at his studio school.
 
When MGM decided to end his contract after deciding he was now to old to work on the Tarzan films, Monogram Studio's got word and chose to pick him up right away.  They cast him in a series of films based on the Roy Rockwood Bomba, "The Jungle Boy" (1949).  In total, twelve of these films were produced between 1949 and 1955. 

Sheffield followed his successful film career with an attempt as a television actor.  He had the chance to work on a pilot series, "Bantu the Zebra Boy" which was actually created, produced and directed by his father, sadly a sponsor never helped fund the show and so it was never aired. 
 
Sheffield then chose to retire from acting and return back to school to get a college education in Business Administration.  He lived with his wife and three children for a while in Arizona, before relocating back to California.  He chose to pursue a career in his later years in real estate, farming and construction.   
 
Johnny Sheffield will always be most remembered as the son of Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan in all the Tarzan films.   
 
Sheffield married only once during his lifetime to Patricia from 1956 through his passing which occurred on October 15th, 2010 in Chula Vista, California from a heart attack that was a result from a fall he took from a ladder at the age of seventy nine.  

Filmography

1955 Lord of the Jungle 
1954 Killer Leopard 
1954 The Golden Idol 
1953 Safari Drums 
1952 Bomba and the Jungle Girl 
1952 African Treasure 
1951 Elephant Stampede 
1951 The Lion Hunters  
1950 Bomba and the Hidden City 
1950 The Lost Volcano 
1949 Bomba on Panther Island 
1949 Bomba, the Jungle Boy 
1949 The Sun Comes Up 
1947 Tarzan and the Huntress 
1946 Tarzan and the Leopard Woman 
1945 Tarzan and the Amazons 
1945 Roughly Speaking 
1943 Tarzan's Desert Mystery 
1943 Tarzan Triumphs
1942 Tarzan's New York Adventure 
1941 Tarzan's Secret Treasure 
1941 Million Dollar Baby 
1940 Knute Rockne All American 
1940 Lucky Cisco Kid 
1940 Little Orvie 
1939 Babes in Arms 
1939 Tarzan Finds a Son!
1938 The Man on the Rock