Appearances

Title	Role	Year	Approx. Age
Huckleberry Finn 1920	Tom Sawyer	1920	13
Tarzan of the Apes (1918) / Son of tarzan (1920)	young Tarzan / Jack. Son of Tarzan as a Boy	1918	11

Who was the first screen Tarzan? The standard answer is Elmo Lincoln star of the first Tarzan movie (1918). But the first third of that movie shows Tarzan as a boy, frolicking in the nude with with real chimps (unlike the grown-up Lincoln who cavorted clothed with athletes wearing monkey suits). The earliest movie Tarzan was actually Gordon Griffith, a child star who began his career four years earlier in five Charles Chaplin one-reelers.

Actually as a child actor, Gordon Griffith had the unique distinction of being the movies' first Tarzan (Tarzan of the Apes 1918), the first Tom Sawyer (Huckleberry Finn 1920), and the first Penrod (Penrod 1922). Gordon would reprise his Tarzan as a boy role in The Romance of Tarzan 1918 -- a film lost and never recovered. Another distinction for Gordon is that he was the first actor to play the role of "boy" (Tarzan's Son - anticipating John Sheffield's "boy" roles by 19 years) in Son of Tarzan 1921.

Gordon also had a small role in Elmo Lincoln's The Adventures of Tarzan 1921. Another milestone for Gordon is that he played Little Lord Fauntleroy in the first film production of the book also in 1921.

As an adult he joined Monogram as an assistant director and was affiliated with both Robert Sherwood Productions and Gregory Ratoff Productions as a director and associate producer. In 1941 he became production manager of Columbia Pictures. He also served as associate producer on RKO's "Never Wave at a Wac" and UA's "Monsoon".

Born in 1907, son of film actors Harry & Katherine Griffith, Gordon passed in 1958 of a heart attack in Hollywood California.