Author, Actor. He was an early 20th century American author, actor, film maker as well as a professional animal hunter and collector. He spent 30 years of his life handling animals from birds to snakes to elephants. When he was five, his family moved to Dallas, Texas. After leaving formal schooling in the seventh grade, he took a job at age 18, handling a trainload of cattle that were being sent to Chicago stock yards in the meat packing district. In 1911 he made his first expedition to South America. He eventually also traveled to Malaya, India, Borneo, New Guinea, and Africa. From these and other expeditions, he brought back to the United States at least 100,000 live specimen of exotic species, which he sold to zoos and circuses, and he ultimately acquired the nickname "Bring 'Em Back Alive." In this era there were no tranquilizer darts, thus he learned how to build traps and snares in ways that prevented injury to the animals he caught. He always accompanied his animals aboard ship to make certain they were well treated, and he refused to sell to anyone who did not have an impeccable reputation for animal care. He co-authored seven books chronicling or based on his expeditions, beginning in 1930 with "Bring 'Em Back Alive," which became a bestseller. He wrote other books including: "Wild Cargo", "Fang and Claw", "Jim Thompson in The Jungles", "On Jungle Trails", "Animals Are Like That" and his 1941 co-autobiography, "All in a Lifetime." Many of his books are still in print in the 21st century. He was a contributor to the magazines "Saturday Evening Post" and "Collier's." For some time, he had a radio program, appeared with "Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus", and was a popular subject of comic books. He was president of Frank Buck Enterprises, Incorporated, and Jungleland, Incorporated, which had three million visitors between 1939 and 1940. Between 1932 and 1943 he starred in seven adventure films based on his exploits, most of which featured staged "fights to the death" with various wild beasts. He produced several motion pictures, including "Bring 'Em Back Alive" in 1932; "Wild Cargo" in 1934; "Fang and Claw", which was adapted from his book in 1935; and "Jungle Menace" and "Jungle Cavalcade" in 1941;"Jacaré" in 1942 aka "Jacaré, Killer of the Amazon"; "Tiger Fangs" in 1943 and "Africa Screams" in 1949 aka "Abbott and Costello in Africa". His 1937 sixth-grade textbook "On Jungle Trail," which was a combination adventure story and geography primer, was used in Texas' public schools. Although in today's world, his actions with animals would be considered abusive, he became famous for his capturing of wild animals around the world and documenting the adventure with pen and film.