McFarland & Company (series)

Buster Crabbe

Description by OLDIES.com:

Buster Crabbe's chief claim to fame, aside from his Olympic gold medal (for the 400-meter freestyle event in 1932), rests in the trio of movie serials in which he played the popular science-fiction hero Flash Gordon. Crabbe was the only actor to play the roles of Tarzan (in one movie), Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers, the top three pulp action heroes of the 1930s. Crabbe carved out a career that would also include more than 100 B-movies and program Westerns, a television adventure series, and a successful physical fitness enterprise. All of this and more is detailed in this book, which includes a complete filmography providing cast and crew information for each of his 103 feature films and serials.

Writer Jerry Vermilye is also an actor and lives in New York City. He is the author of Ingmar Bergman (McFarland 2002, reprinted in softcover in 2006).