Tarzan from Serbia: The famous Johnny Weissmiller was born in Banat

The famous Johnny Weissmiller, an actor who became famous as Tarzan and a swimmer who won five gold medals at the Olympics and set dozens of world records in swimming, actually comes from Serbia. Johnny, whose real name is Johan, was born in the Banat village of Medja, near the Serbian-Romanian border, and when he was seven months old, he moved to America with his family.

Although one version states that Weissmiller was born in Freidorf, today's suburb of Timisoara, there is numerous evidence that the real birthplace of the famous actor is, in fact, the Banat village of Medja. Parents Peter and Elizabeth gave their son the name Johan, but the boy was entered in the books as Janos due to the violent Hungarianization of the population.

Seven months after Johan's birth, the Weissmiller family boarded a ship in Rotterdam and emigrated to America, and in their immigration documents, Pardanj, today's Međa, is mentioned as the place of Johnny's birth!

After he became seriously ill as a nine-year-old, doctors advised little Johnny to go swimming, and in 1921 he became the champion of America in the disciplines of 45 and 200 meters. In order to obtain an American passport, he falsified his biography and cited the data of his younger brother Peter, who was born in America.

The rest is history - Johnny broke the world record in the 100 meters in 1922, and then won five gold medals at the Olympics in Paris in 1924 and Amsterdam in 1928. It remains to be noted that during his incredible career, Weissmiller set 67 world records and that he retired as a man who did not lose a single race in which he participated!

At the beginning of 1929, he started working as a model, and two years later he signed a contract with the film company MGM. He made his film debut in 1932 in "Tarzan the Monkey Man" and became a big star overnight.

In the first six films in this series, his partner was Maureen O’Sullivan and the famous chimpanzee Chita. Weissmiller starred Tarzan in 12 productions, and appeared in about twenty other films.

Johnny Weissmiller, who married five times (he had three children from those marriages), died on January 20, 1984, and was buried near Acapulco. Johnny's last wish was for Tarzan's famous cry to be heard three times during the funeral.