Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe II (February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983) was an American Olympic swimmer, and a movie and television actor. He won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 1932 Summer Olympics and for playing science fiction hero Flash Gordon in three movie serials. He is the only actor to have played the three most popular pulp fiction heroes of the 1930s — Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Tarzan.
Crabbe started swimming as a boy. He went to the University of Southern California, and was a member of its first swim team. He trained as an Olympics swimmer, and won a bronze medal in the 1928 Summer Olympics and a gold medal in the 1932 Summer Olympics. He won 16 world and 35 national records during his swimming career.
After the 1932 Olympics, he went to Hollywood. He played the heroes in 103 feature length jungle, crime, drama, and western B-movies as well as the heroes in nine movie serials. In the late 1940s, Crabbe left movies to put together his own water show. He got into debt and looked for ways to make money. He turned to television.
He was the host a children's series in New York City and starred in an NBC adventure series called Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion. His debts were paid, but his acting skills grew less in demand. He developed several business interests including Buster Crabbe Swim Pools. He retired to Scottsdale, Arizona, and died there of a heart attack in 1983.
Birth
Crabbe was born on February 7, 1908 in Oakland, California to Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe and Lucy Agnes McNamara Crabbe. His father was a real estate broker. He was named Clarence Linden Crabbe after his grandfather. Clarence had a brother named Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe II who was a year younger. He was named for their father. Clarence was nicknamed "Buster" and Edward II was nicknamed "Buddy". Both boys kept these nicknames for the rest of their lives.
Ancestors
Buster's ancestors include Captain John Meek, a Massachusetts man who chose a life on the sea. Meek married an Hawaiian girl in 1820, and lived in the Hawaiian Islands. Their daughter Elizabeth married an American sailor named Horace Gates Crabb. Horace added an "e" to his last name. Elizabeth and Horace had a son in 1861 they named Charles Linden Crabbe. He went to the United States at the age of 20 to work on the railroads. He lived in Nevada, and married Emma Rich in 1881. In 1882, Charles and Emma became the parents of Edward Clinton Simmons Crabbe, Buster's father.
After four years in Nevada, Charles moved his family to Hawaii. He later went into the Hawaii State Senate. His son Edward went to school in Hawaii and then to college at the University of California, Berkeley. He dropped out of college to sell real estate in the San Francisco area. Edward Crabbe married Agnes McNamara in 1907. A business partner stole Crabbe's money in 1913, leaving him broke. He had no choice but to move his wife and sons to Oahu. They lived in the house of his parents. In later life, Buster said he always thought of the Islands his true home.
Boyhood
Buster Crabbe grew up in Hawaii. He started swimming on the beach at Waikīkī as a young boy. When his father became the manager of a pineapple plantation on Oahu, the whole family moved away from the beach. Buster and his brother had to stop swimming. A year after the move, Mr. Crabbe got a real estate job in Hilo, Hawaii. The family moved to Hilo, and the boys started swimming again when their father joined a yacht club. With all the moving about, it was not easy for the Crabbe boys to go to school. Buster was eight and a half years old when he joined the first grade in Hilo Union School.
When World War I started in 1918, Buster's father joined the Army. He graduated from Officer Candidate School, and moved his family to the Schofield Barracks in the center of Oahu. Once again, the boys were too far from the beach to go swimming. They rode horses instead, and went to the Honolulu Military Academy. When Buster's father was discharged from the Army in 1920, he moved his family to Honolulu. Mr. and Mrs. Crabbe were divorced about 1920. The two boys were placed in the custody of their father. They lived with their grandparents in Honolulu.