Matinee Classics - Larry 'Buster' Crabbe Biography & Filmography

Larry 'Buster' Crabbe ACTOR

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LARRY 'BUSTER' CRABBE BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Born on February 7, 1908 as Clarence Linden Crabbe II, to Lucy Agnes McNamara and Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe in Oakland, California.

Buster Crabbe was an American athlete and actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930's and 1940's. He excelled as a swimmer and participated in two Olympic games. At the 1932 Olympics he was the only U.S. gold medalist in men’s swimming and after the Games; he was signed by Paramount Studios for a rival to Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan at MGM.

In 1933 he married his college sweetheart Adah Virginia Held, and gave himself one year to either make it as an actor or start law school at USC. Buster and Virginia remained together until Buster's death in 1983. They had two daughters, Sande and Susan, and a son, Cullen.

Crabbe starred in the television series, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion from 1955 to 1957 as Captain Michael Gallant; the adventure series aired on NBC. His real-life son, Cullen Crabbe, appeared in this show as the character Cuffy Sanders. He was featured frequently in archival footage in the children's television program, The Gabby Hayes Show.

Prior to his playing Captain Michael Gallant Crabbe had hosted a local NYC based children's film wraparound television series, The Buster Crabbe Show. The series, which was set against the backdrop of a ranch foreman's bunk house featured Crabbe engaging his viewers in games, stories, craftmaking, hobbies, informational segments and interviews with guest performers and personalities in between reruns of old movie serials, westerns and comedies.

The Buster Crabbe Show was seen weekday evenings on WOR TV Ch.9 in NYC from Monday March 12, 1951 to Friday October 3, 1952. The series returned to the NYC airways on WJZ TV Channel 7 (now WABC) on Monday September 21, 1953 and was retitled Buster's Buddies!. Crabbe made regular television appearances, including one on an episode of the 1979 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, in which he played a retired fighter pilot named Brigadier Gordon in honor of Flash Gordon.

Crabbe's Hollywood career waned somewhat in the 1950's and 1960's. The ever-industrious Crabbe became a stockbroker and businessman during this period.

In the mid-1950's, Crabbe purchased the campus of a small defunct prep school near Onchiota, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains. Renamed Buster Crabbe's Meenahga Lodge.

During this period of his life, Buster joined the swimming pool company Cascade Industries of Talmagde Road, Edison, New Jersey. In his capacity as Vice President of Sales, promoter and spokesman for Cascade - the world's first package pool company. A pool range was named after him, and pools were sold by "Buster Crabbe Dealers" throughout the eastern seaboard and southern states from 1952 until 1990. By the late 1960's Buster Crabbe Cascade pools were available in more than 28 countries worldwide.

Though he followed other pursuits, he never stopped acting. From the 1950's forward he appeared in numerous lower budget films. In fact, he appeared in the 1982 feature film, The Comeback Trail one year before his death.

Crabbe also appeared in television commercials for Hormel Chili, Icy Hot, and the Magic Mold Bodyshirt, an upper body male girdle of sorts, which purportedly helped in weight loss. Through Icy Hot, he was actively involved in arthritis education.

Despite his numerous film and television appearances, he is best remembered today as one of the original action heroes of 1930's and 1940's cinema.

Larry 'Buster' Crabbe died on April 23, 1983, aged 75, from a heart attack.

Filmography:

1982 The Comeback Trail

1980 Alien Dread

1979 Swim Team

1965 Arizona River

1965 The Bounty Killer

1960 Gunfighters of Abolene

1958 Badman’s Country

1957 The Lawless Eighties

1956 The Gun Brothers