‘Tarzan’ actress Brenda Joyce dies

Brenda Joyce

Brenda Joyce, who played Jane in five Tarzan movies, died of pneumonia on July 4 in a Santa Monica, Calif., nursing home at the age of 92, the AP reports. She had been suffering from dementia for a decade, according to a family friend.

Born Betty Leabo, Joyce made her big-screen debut in 1939’s The Rains Came. After appearing in films like Little Old New York and The Postman Didn’t Ring, she succeeded Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane, starring opposite Johnny Weissmuller in 1945’s Tarzan and the Amazons. Joyce reprised the role in four more films, the last of which was 1949’s Tarzan’s Magic Fountain, which featured Lex Barker as Tarzan.

After leaving Hollywood, she moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the immigration department.