Elmo Lincoln (February 6, 1889 – June 27, 1952) was an American film actor.Born Otto Elmo Linkenhelt, the actor is best known in his silent movie role as the first Tarzan in 1918's Tarzan of the Apes as an adult—(Gordon Griffith played him as a child in the same movie). He portrayed the character twice more—in The Romance of Tarzan (also 1918) and in the 1921 serial The Adventures of Tarzan.Following the end of the silent movie era, Elmo left Hollywood and tried his hand at mining. In the late 1930s, he returned to the film industry, most often employed as an extra. He appeared, uncredited, in two Tarzan films in the 1940s—as a circus roustabout in Tarzan's New York Adventure (1942), and as a fisherman repairing his net in Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949).His final work saw him also playing a brief, uncredited role in Carrie, starring Laurence Olivier. According to Tarzan of the Movies, by Gabe Essoe, Lincoln was quite proud of his work in this film, as he was an admirer of Olivier.Lincoln died of a heart attack on June 27, 1952 at age 63. He is interred in a niche at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.For his contribution to the motion picture industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7042 Hollywood Boulevard.In 2001, his daughter Marci'a Lincoln Rudolph told his story in her book, My Father, Elmo Lincoln: The Original Tarzan (ISBN 1-58690-000-5).
It is mistakenly thought that Lincoln's performance as Tarzan in Tarzan of the Apes (1918) was the first time the character ever appeared on screen. Technically, this is wrong. The first actor to play Tarzan in a movie was Gordon Griffith who appears in Tarzan of the Apes (1918), playing the character as a child before Lincoln appears on screen.
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burial: Hollywood Memorial Park
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Three Troubledoers
1946
Short
Nell's Father (uncredited)
The Return of the Durango Kid
1945
Luke Blake (uncredited)
Escape in the Fog
1945
Cop (uncredited)
The Man Who Walked Alone
1945
Turnkey
When the Lights Go on Again
1944
Farmer #2 (uncredited)
Black Arrow
1944
Chief Arano (uncredited)
The Story of Dr. Wassell
1944
uncredited
Frontier Fury
1943
Sam Stewart (uncredited)
Fighting Frontier
1943
Barfly who knocks Ike down (uncredited)
Bandit Ranger
1942
Townsman in Bank (uncredited)
Tarzan's New York Adventure
1942
Circus Roustabout (uncredited)
Reap the Wild Wind
1942
Minor Role (uncredited)
Stage to Chino
1940
Townsman (uncredited)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1939
Minor Role (uncredited)
The Real Glory
1939
U.S. Captain (uncredited)
Colorado Sunset
1939
Dairyman Burns
Timber Stampede
1939
Townsman (uncredited)
Wyoming Outlaw
1939
U.S. Marshal Gregg
Blue Montana Skies
1939
Mack (uncredited)
Union Pacific
1939
Card Player (uncredited)
The King of the Jungle
1927
Whom Shall I Marry
1926
All Around Frying Pan
1925
Foreman Slade
Fashion Row
1923
Kaminoff
The Rendezvous
1923
Godunoff
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1923/I
uncredited
Rupert of Hentzau
1923
Simon (the king's forester)
Quincy Adams Sawyer
1922
Abner Stiles
The Big Ranger
1922
Short
Desperation
1922
Short
Bob Vernon
Fighting Back
1922
Short
Jim Mitchell
The Adventures of Tarzan
1921
Tarzan
Devotion
1920
Robert Trent
The Flaming Disc
1920
Elmo Gray / Jim Gray
Under Crimson Skies
1920
Captain Yank Barstow
Elmo the Fearless
1920
The Stranger
The Fall of Babylon
1919
The Mighty Man of Valour
Elmo, the Mighty
1919
Capt. Elmo Armstrong
The Greatest Thing in Life
1918
The American Soldier
The Road Through the Dark
1918
Pvt. Schultz
The Romance of Tarzan
1918
Tarzan
The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin
1918
Marcas, the Blacksmith
Tarzan of the Apes
1918
Tarzan
Treasure Island
1918
Prologue Player
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp
1917
Magic Genie
Might and the Man
1917
McFadden
Betsy's Burglar
1917
The Bad Boy
1917
Yeggman
The Fatal Glass of Beer
1916
Children of the Feud
1916
Bad Bald Clayton
Gretchen the Greenhorn
1916
Mystery Ship Captain
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
The Mighty Man of Valor (uncredited)
The Half-Breed
1916
The Doctor (uncredited)
Hoodoo Ann
1916
Officer Lambert
Jordan Is a Hard Road
1915
The Root of All Evil
1915
Short
Circus Kelly
Providence and the Twins
1915
Short
The Mystic Jewel
1915
Short
A Bad Man and Others
1915
Short
Sheriff Claude Britton
Pirates Bold
1915
Short
The Fisherman
Her Shattered Idol
1915
Ben - a Blacksmith
The Absentee
1915
The Toiler - in the Prologue (as Elmo Linkenhelt)
The Light in the Window
1915
Short
Roger Blake - the Father (as Otto Lincoln)
The Slave Girl
1915
Short
Bob West (as Otto Lincoln)
The Double Crossing of Slim
1915
Short
Croaky (as Otto Lincoln)
The Birth of a Nation
1915
Blacksmith (uncredited)
Buckshot John
1915
The Sheriff (as Oscar Linkenhelt)
The Primitive Man
1914
Short
In Club (Prologue) / Tribesman (The Old Days)
Judith of Bethulia
1914
John Barleycorn
1914
as Lincoln Helt
The Battle of Elderbush Gulch
1913
Short
Cavalryman
The Suffragette Minstrels
1913
Short
In Audience
The Reformers; or, The Lost Art of Minding One's Business
1913
Short
In Theatre Audience / Bootlegger (uncredited)
Carrie
1952
Minor Role (uncredited)
Iron Man
1951
Minor Role (uncredited)
Hollywood Story
1951
Elmo Lincoln (uncredited)
Tarzan's Magic Fountain
1949
A Fisherman (uncredited)
Tap Roots
1948
Sergeant (uncredited)
A Double Life
1947
Detective (uncredited)
Rolling Home
1946
Racing Official
Badman's Territory
1946
Dick Broadwell (uncredited)
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Tarzan at the Movies, Part 2: The Many Faces of Tarzan