Tarzan’s Son Dies

Johnny Sheffield, who played the character “Boy” in the “Tarzan” movies of the 1930s and ‘40s, has died. He was 79. Sheffield died Friday of a heart attack at his home in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista. His wife said he fell off a ladder while pruning a palm tree. Johnny Sheffield beat out more than 300 other youngsters for the role of “Boy” in the 1939 movie “Tarzan Finds a Son!” and went on to co-star with Johnny Wiessmuller in seven more Tarzan films. He later played another jungle boy, Bomba, in a dozen movies, but quit acting after the last one in 1955.