Rex Allen

Cremated, his ashes were scattered near the Rex Allen Museum in Wilcox, Arizona where most of his memorabilia is on display. 1996, CD, Bear Family Records BCD 15 984 AH (http://www.bear-family.de/mailorder/showoneproduct.html?lang=&p=BCD+15984)
(contains both single tracks and the singing-merits of Pierre Brice as well). Rex Allen died in 1999 in Tucson, Arizona from injuries received when his caretaker accidentally ran over him in the driveway of his home. 1965, Single, Decca D 19 725. In 1989 his life story was told in the book Rex Allen: "My Life" Sunrise to Sunset - The Arizona Cowboy written by Paula Simpson-Witt and Snuff Garrett. His son Christopher Barker also became an actor. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Rex Allen was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6821 Hollywood Blvd. He died three days after his 54th birthday of a heart attack in New York City.

Allen was gifted with a rich, pleasant voice, ideally suited for narration and was able to find considerable work as a narrator in a variety of films especially for Walt Disney Pictures wildlife films and TV shows. Barker continued to work in films until his last appearance in 1967's Woman Times Seven. As other cowboy stars made the transition to television, Allen tried too, cast as Dr. Bill Baxter for a half-hour weekly series called Frontier Doctor. He was engaged at the time of his death to actress Karen Kondazian. He has the distinction of making the last singing western in 1954. He married five times:. Late in coming to the industry, his film career was relatively short as the popularity of westerns faded by the mid 1950s. In 1966 Barker was awarded with the "Bambi Award" as "Best Foreign Actor" in Germany.

Over his career, Rex Allen wrote and recorded many songs, a number of which were featured in his own films. (The co-star in some of Barker's Karl-May-movies, French actor Pierre Brice, also recorded in German language and even managed to get some CDs of his own.). Allen's comic relief sidekick in first few pictures was Buddy Ebsen and then character actor, Slim Pickens. The tracks are named " Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir" (I'll be on the way to you tomorrow) and "Mädchen in Samt und Seide" (Girls in Velvet and Silk), the last one is said to have been very much liked by elderly ladies at that time. One of the top-ten box office draws of the day, whose character was soon depicted in comic books, on screen Allen personified the clean cut, God-fearing American hero of the wild west who wore a white Stetson, loved his faithful horse named "Koko" and had a loyal buddy who shared his adventures. He even recorded a single with the composer of some of the Karl-May-movie-soundtracks, Martin Boettcher, in German language. Beginning in 1950, Allen starred as himself in nineteen of Hollywood's western movies. There he was playing the characters of Old Shatterhand, Kara Ben Nemsi and Dr. Sternau.

When singing cowboys such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were very much in vogue in American film, in 1949 Republic Pictures in Hollywood gave him a screen test and put him under contract. There he also starred in two movies based on the Doctor Mabuse-stories (formerly filmed by Fritz Lang) and in 13 movies based on novels by German author Karl May (1842-1912). " In 1948 he signed with Mercury Records where he recorded a number of successful country music albums until 1952 when he switched to the Decca label where he would continue making records into the 1970s. In 1957, as he found it harder and harder to find work in American films, Lex moved to Europe and found popularity and starred in over forty European films, especially in Germany. He got his start in show business on the East Coast as a vaudeville singer then found work in Chicago as a performer on the WLS Radio program, "National Barn Dance. During this time he enlisted to fight in World War II and eventually rose to the rank of Major. Born Rex Elvie Allen on a ranch in Mud Springs Canyon, forty miles from Wilcox, Arizona, Rex Allen would grow up to become a popular entertainer known as the "The Arizona Cowboy." As a boy he played guitar and sang at local functions with his fiddle-playing father until high school graduation when he toured the southwest as a rodeo rider. He is best known as the tenth actor to play Tarzan in the movies, and starred in nearly thirty movies in the 1940s and 1950s.

Rex Allen, born December 31, 1920 - died December 17, 1999, was an American actor, singer, and songwriter. Lex Barker (May 8, 1919 - May 11, 1973) was born Alexander Crichlow Barker, Jr. in Rye, New York. Manfred Christ: Von Tarzan bis Old Shatterhand - Lex Barker und seine Filme, Günter Albert Ulmer Verlag, Tuningen, Germany, 1994, 288 pages - ISBN 3924191816. ISBN 3-896-024-442. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, Germany, 2003, 480 pages.

Reiner Boller, Christina Böhme: Lex Barker - Die Biografie. Winnetou du warst mein Freund
. Ich bin morgen auf dem Weg zu dir / Mädchen wie Samt und Seide
. Maria del Carmen Cervera (1965 - 1972) (divorce not valid, marriage ended with his death), who later became the fifth wife of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Irene Labhardt (1957 - 1962) (marriage ended at her death). Lana Turner (8 September 1953 - 22 July 1957) (divorced). Arlene Dahl (1951 - 1952) (divorced). Constanze Thurlow (1942 - 1950) (divorced).