Born John Eck­hardt, Jr., on August 27, 1911, Eck was an artist, pho­tog­ra­pher, cir­cus per­former, magi­cian, actor, and “King of the Freaks.”

Eck had essen­tially no body below his ribcage, but was oth­er­wise healthy. His twin brother, Robert, and his older sis­ter had no defor­mity. Despite his dis­abil­ity, Johnny taught him­self to walk with his hands before his brother would walk with his feet.

At an early age Eck seemed headed for the min­istry. In 1923, while the boys were attend­ing a church fair, magi­cian John McAslan was aston­ished by the half-boy and con­vinced his par­ents to let him join the car­ni­val. Robert was hired as his man­ager and assis­tant. McAslan allegedly duped Eck’s par­ents by adding a zero to a one-year con­tract after it was signed.

Eck was a solo sideshow act, where he did magic tricks and acro­bat­ics, includ­ing his famous one-armed hand­stand. Along with Robert, the twins were also used by a magi­cian as sub­jects in a “sawn in half” illusion.

Eck is per­haps best known for his role in the 1932 cult clas­sic film Freaks. He also had uncred­ited parts in three Tarzan movies.

In 1938, Eck walked the stairs to the top of the Wash­ing­ton Mon­u­ment on his hands.

After his Hol­ly­wood and car­ni­val career, the twins retired to Bal­ti­more and oper­ated a minia­ture train ride, with Johnny serv­ing as engi­neer. He also had a cus­tom minia­ture car that was street-legal. Eck was also an avid screen painter – a theme reflected in the head­stone mark­ing his grave.

In 1987, the broth­ers were robbed and phys­i­cally assaulted in their home. Embit­tered and hav­ing lost his faith in human­ity, Johnny spent his remain­ing years in total seclu­sion, con­tend­ing that the real freaks were out­side his house.

Eck died in 1991 at age 79, in the Mil­ton Street house in which the twins were born. Robert died four years later.

Here is Eck in a clip from Freaks:

“I met hun­dreds and thou­sands of peo­ple, and none finer than the midgets and the Siamese twins and the cater­pil­lar man and the bearded woman and the human seal with the lit­tle flip­pers for hands. I never asked them any embar­rass­ing ques­tions and they never asked me, and God, it was a great adven­ture.” (Johnny Eck)

MORE INFO:
Johnny Eck Museum
Wikipedia: Johnny Eck

Vis­it­ing Johnny Eck’s Grave

Johnny Eck is buried along with Robert, at Green Mount Ceme­tery, 1505 Green­mount Avenue. They are located in Lot 19 of Sec­tion R.

GPS: N 39° 18.455’, W 076° 36.398’

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