Erik Weisz, more commonly known as Harry Houdini, was a Hungarian-American escape artist who lived from 1874 to 1926.
The vaudeville performer grew to international acclaim, performing seemingly impossible stunts around the world, and speaking out against fake "spiritualists" along the way. It is thought that those spiritualists might have been involved in his untimely death.
But before that, he was the invincible man who could not be killed. Here are 22 pics of that Harry Houdini, in his prime.
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Harry Houdini, 1913, was a handsome and fashionable entertainer, master of escape, magician, pilot, actor, director, writer, teacher, athlete, boxer and spy -working undercover for the American and British governments, his talents making him the perfect candidate for espionage.
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Harry Houdini preparing to be submerged in a box in the East River, New York City, 1912.
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Harry Houdini in Detroit, 1906.
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Harry Houdini showing how to escape handcuffs, 1918.
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Harry Houdini performs the great milk can escape, 1908.
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Pioneer aviator, Harry Houdini, piloting his Voisin Biplane in Australia, 1910.
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Harry Houdini about to take a 30 foot plunge off the Harvard Bridge into the Charles River in Boston, 1908.
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Preparing for a stunt, 1914.
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Harry Houdini with his mother Cecília and his wife Bess, 1907. An ardent mama's boy, Houdini was, as stipulated in his will, buried with his head resting on a pillow full of letters from Cecília.
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Jack Dempsey and Harry Houdini.
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Harry and Bess Houdini, 1910s.
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Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini. The inventor of Sherlock Holmes and the escape artist became friends in 1920. A rift developed between them because the credulous Doyle believed in supernatural phenomena that Houdini knew to be clever trickery.
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini in 1920.
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Harry Houdini, then Ehrich Weiss, wearing track team medals, New York, 1890.
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Houdini exposes spirit trickery to New York clergymen, 1925.
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Harry Houdini with his mother Cecilia Steiner Weiss, Rochester, New York, 1908.
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Harry Houdini with his wife and stage assistant, Bess Houdini, circa 1922.
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Harry Houdini in a straitjacket, 1910.
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Harry Houdini demonstrates photo manipulation by taking a “spirit photograph” with Abraham Lincoln, 1920s.
