In 1938, MGM movie Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller picked him out of 300 hopefuls to play his adopted son, Tarzan Jr., renamed Boy, in Tarzan Finds a Son! He kept the role going for eight movies at MGM and RKO.
As the years passed, Boy co-opted Jane's role as Damsel in Distress: in the climactic scene of every movie, he was tied to something and about to be killed or violated while Tarzan rushed to the rescue. Tarzan and Boy became the chief jungle couple, while Jane took to staying home in the Escarpment, or leaving altogether ("visiting America").
Big John and Little John were inseparable off-camera, too. Weissmuller was married to Beryl Scott at the time and having innumerable affairs with men and women, but it was Johnny Sheffield who appeared with him at the Brown Derby and the Trocadero, at movie premieres, on drives up the coast to Malibu. When Johnny was fifteen, Weissmuller bought them a house on the beach near Santa Barbara, where they could get away for weekends of swimming, fishing, and sunbathing, just the two of them.
In the 1940s, no tongues wagged about the "couple." Many people were not aware that LGBT people existed, and those who did thought only of swishy queens. Johnny Weissmuller was 6'4" and all muscle, a "real he-man." No way he could be a "swish."
And, in fact, there was nothing sexual going on: Weissmuller never touched Johnny in that way. Even as a teenager, when he developed a beautifully muscled physique and a dazzling matinee idol smile.
Even when the Tarzan series ended and they separated, Big John to play Jungle Jim (1948-1955) and Johnny to star in his own Bomba the Jungle Boy series (1949-1955), Big John still treated him as a little brother, a son.
Johnny found this odd -- since around his 15th birthday, every single person he met, man or woman, boy or girl, without exception, wanted to peek under his loincloth. And he gave quite a few of them the opportunity: Tommy Cook, his costar in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman; Peggy Ann Garner, his costar in Bomba the Jungle Boy; Cesar Romero, Bobby Driscoll, Jean Simmons. Why was Weissmuller immune to his trademark flirting?
He was especially interested because he had heard from several of Big John's former lovers that he was gifted with the biggest cock in Hollywood, a veritable third leg. Johnny was always a bit self-conscious about his size (barely 5"), and anxious to see what the cock of a Greek god looked like.
One day in the summer of 1953, they went swimming, and Big John, as usual, carefully turned his back to put on his swimsuit. Johnny had had enough. "Why don't you ever show me your manhood?" he asked. "You'll show any stranger on the street. You're more proud of it than your Olympic medals. Aren't I important enough to rate?"
Big John turned around, startled. "Of course you are," he said. "But you know, it's not just a look. When I show them, they always want to touch it, and then they want me to go to bed with them, and I don't want you to end up in my bed. You're my son, my Boy, not some random fairy."Johnny chuckled. "I promise I won't go to bed with you. Lord knows I get enough offers as it is."
Big John still refused, but Johnny persisted, and cajoled, and flashed his trademark flirting smile, and finally he said "You're a little pain in the neck, you know that? One look, fine, but no touching"
They went back to the house, to the master bedroom, and Big John dropped his swimsuit. Johnny stared: his penis hung down about 4", long and thick even when dripping wet from the ocean. His balls hung down even farther. Johnny always thought that the key to a man's erotic power was in the size of his balls, not his dick.
Johnny couldn't help himself -- he reached out and lightly cupped Big John's balls. His own penis started to stir.
Big John had a weird expression on his face, stern like a schoolmaster facing a class of dullards. "On your knees, Boy!" he commanded.
Johnny didn't know if he meant "Boy" the character, but he obediently dropped to his knees and put his hands around the hardening cock. Now it was at least 9"!"No, Boy, with your mouth."
Johnny had gotten head a lot, but he had never given head. That was just for women -- and queers, like Cesar Romero, right? But this was Big John asking -- no, commanding!
He opened his mouth as wide as he could, and Big John's cock became hard as an iron rod, thrusting past his tongue, hitting the back of his throat. Johnny gagged and spit, grabbed Big John's butt cheeks to steady himself, and prepared for the onslaught.
Johnny was too busy trying to do a good job to find it erotic. What was he supposed to do with his teeth? Was he supposed to use his neck and jaw, or wait for Big John to enter him? What would he do with the sperm?
And suddenly the thought hit him with the force of a gigantic penis. Would he and Big John now be...um...boyfriends? A pair of queer lovers? Would Big John leave his wife? How could either of them continue their careers as queers? Billy Haines had to retire...and...
Suddenly Big John spurted down his throat. Johnny ran to the bathroom to spit it out and wash out his mouth.
They didn't become lovers. In fact, Weissmuller was rather cool and distant for the rest of the day. They didn't see each other again until his son's birthday party, nearly a month later, and after that only rarely.
Whatever bond they had was broken.
The next time someone asked for a peek beneath Johnny's loincloth, he told them in no uncertain terms to back off.
As the years and decades passed, requests grew fewer, fans grew older, John himself grew older.
He concentrated on his home in Chula Vista (a suburb of San Diego), on his wife Patricia, on his children -- he helped his sons Patrick and Stewart start a successful construction company -- on his grandchildren. No one recognized him anymore.
On the rare occasions that he saw an old photograph or clip from one of his movies, Boy and Bomba seemed like other people, with no connection at all to John Sheffield of Chula Vista, California.
He never told anyone about that afternoon at the house in Santa Barbara when he and Weissmuller almost became lovers, until one day in July 1989 when his 23-year old son -- the quiet, bookish one, the one who didn't like sports and was shy around girls -- came to him and said "Dad, I've got something to tell you...."
See also: Cesar's Three-Way with Desi Arnaz Jr. and Dean Paul Martin; Tarzan's Boy Johnny Sheffield; Matt Hooks Up withTarzan's Grandson.
