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Elmo Lincoln was an American actor best known for portraying the titular character in the 1918 silent film Tarzan of the Apes. This film was the first screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel about a young orphan raised by apes. Lincoln, though not possessing the muscular physique of later Tarzan actors like Johnny Weissmuller, helped establish Tarzan as a cinematic hero. He was a veteran of many silent films before taking on the role that would make him the first movie ape-man.12

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