Tom Tyler

Tom Tyler (August 9, 1903 – May 1, 1954) was an American actor known for his leading roles in low-budget Western films in the silent and sound eras, and for his portrayal of superhero Captain Marvel in the 1941 serial film The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Tyler also played Kharis in 1940's The Mummy's Hand, a popular Universal Studios monster film. Early years Tyler was born either Vincent Markowski or Vincentas Markauskas (sources differ) in Port Henry, Essex County, New York to Lithuanian-American parents, Helen ( Elena Montvila) and Frank Markowski ( Pranas Markauskas). he had two brothers: Frank Jr. and Joe (who changed his last name to Marko) and two sisters: Katherine (Mrs. Slepski) and Maliane "Molly" (Mrs. Redge). He made his First Communion in a small church in Mineville around 1910. His father and older brother worked in the mines for the Witherbee Sherman Company. In 1913, his family moved to Hamtramck, Michigan, where he attended St. Florian Elementary School and Hamtramck High School. After graduating from high school, he left home and made his way west, finding work as a seaman on a merchant steamer in the U.S. Merchant Marine, a coal miner in Pennsylvania, a lumberjack in the Northwest, and even a prizefighter. Weightlifting Tyler was an amateur weightlifter sponsored by the Los Angeles Athletic Club during the late 1920s. He set a new world's amateur record for the right-hand clean and jerk by lifting . In 1928, he won the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) heavyweight weightlifting championship, lifting —a record that stood for fourteen years.