Not many Hollywood actors were former world record holders for the shot put, or won an Olympic silver medal in the event. Harold Herman Brix (1906-2007) did. He also spent the first eight years of his acting career performing as Herman Brix, before changing his name in an attempt to widen the range of roles on offer.
Early in his career, Bennett missed out on the chance to play the lead in Tarzan the Ape-Man (1932) when he broke his shoulder making another film. He did play the role later in a rival serial, and was much closer to the character in the novel than fellow-Olympian Johnny Weismuller.
Bennett spent much of the 1930s working on Poverty Row, leading to the name change and a decision to take acting lessons. He signed a contract with Columbia and undertook a range of parts, including many ‘B’ picture leads.
Some of Bennett’s notable parts from a fifty-year career include The More the Merrier (1943), second lead to Humphrey Bogart in Sahara (1943), the protagonist’s husband in Mildred Pierce (1945), with Bogart again in Dark Passage (1947) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Strategic Air Command (1955), and with Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender (1956).
With around 140 credits to his name, Bruce Bennett made just one uncredited appearance in an MGM musical, Student Tour.
