Hail ‘King of Wonga’ Rex - Wales prop who was almost Tarzan
Cross Keys forward Rex Richards had just broken into the Wales team in 1956 when he quit rugby to become try his luck in Hollywood, a career which famously included a ‘starring’ role in The Wild Women Of Wonga and finishing runner-up – out of a 1000 applicants – in the search for the new Tarzan as the series of films moved from black and white to colour. Former lifeguard Gordon Scott got the role ahead of Richards and went on to make his fame and fortune with five films in the long-running series.
Wild Women Of Wonga used to regularly feature in lists of the ten worst films in Hollywood history, so much so that it has become a cult movie. The spectacularly non-PC storyline revolves around the ‘drop dead’ women of Wonga – where all men are ugly and brutish – finally discovering the beautiful menfolk of nearby island Goona where all the women are described as repulsive.
Everybody starts pairing up, a sort of prototype Love Island, and you do wonder how some of the double entendre and suggestive looks got past the Fifties censors.
The main attraction appears to be parading every recent Playboy centre-fold in a bikinis and showing off the bronzed muscles of every new beefcake in Hollywood. Richards is right up there when it comes to biceps and pecs and, notwithstanding his strong Gwent accent, plays the King of Wonga. For some reason which has never been explained his hair seems to be dyed blue rather than beach boy blond.
Richards was a ripe character and probably worthy of a film himself. Born and educated in Newport he was a phenomenal athlete for a big man. It was at the old Maindee swimming baths he first excelled, quickly learning how to dive off the high board. It was that skill which saw him perform with travelling troupes of divers that toured the country before he finally took to rugby when he served with the South Wales Borderers stationed in Crickhowell.
Boxing was another interest in the Army – he reputedly defeated future European heavyweight champion Dick Richardson – but rugby quickly became his main interest and a Cross Keys member Jack Woods, something of a talent scout, spotted him playing in a regimental match and invited the burly young Richards down to Pandy Park.
Briefly, rugby became the main interest in his rollercoaster life and after finishing National Service and completing his first full season at Cross Keys – mainly at lock – he was selected for Wales, at 23, to play France. At loosehead prop.
Despite his inexperience in such a key position Richards did well as the dominant Wales pack ground out a 5-3 win over France, a victory that ensured they took the title. Richards, however, was not overly impressed with international rugby and his inability to earn money from his growing prowess. It didn’t pay the bills and, in any case, he had wanderlust. He was a hard cat to keep on the porch.
He headed for North America to perform in another diving troupe and also appeared in cliff diving competitions in Mexico. Rugby was right on the backburner although the touring Barbarians team in 1957 were surprised to find him lining up for Ottawa against them when he was appearing in a diving gala in Canada. The connection between diving troupes and show business was close and when a new Tarzan was required in 1957 to celebrate the switch to full colour, the Hollywood agents contacted them requesting suitable candidates to audition for Tarzan And The Lost Safari. Richards, never slow in coming forwards, made it all the way through to the final short list of two before losing out to Scott but although disappointed he had been ‘clocked’ and his role in Wild Women Of Wonga came as a welcome consolation prize After the film ‘bombed’ he settled near Miami for a life of women and song – he never drank alcohol – and kept in formidable shape despite suffering from diabetes. In his later years he worked as an entertainments director on the cruise liners from Florida to the Bahamas, performing as well as hiring. Indeed I recently came across two LPs he produced from live recordings of his show with his band The Five Amigos – Rex Looks East and Hi Ya. On both album sleeves he looks not unlike Englebert Humperdinck. He looked the picture of middle aged good health but Richards died young, at the age of 55 in 1989, reportedly of a heart attack while having a shower.