Harry Houdini
Hungarian-born American illusionist, escapologist, and stunt performer (1874–1926)
Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( hoo-DEE-nee), was an American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts.
Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in the United States and then as Harry "Handcuff" Houdini on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it.
In 1904, thousands watched as Houdini tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists, pursuing a personal crusade to expose their fraudulent methods. As president of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts.
Houdini made several movies but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator and became the first man to fly a powered aircraft in Australia.
“Harry Houdini” enters the record as hungarian-born American illusionist, escapologist, and stunt performer (1874–1926). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Harry, Houdini and Hungarian-born can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131545. VIAF identifies the subject as 34465218. The Library of Congress control number is n79096862. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1874, 1926 and 1904.
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This entry incorporates text from “Harry Houdini” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.