Trivia Question No. 2

It’s time for the second installment of my old-time, drug-free bodybuilder trivia series. Let’s see now, who to pick? I said I wouldn’t make these first few questions too hard, so… Ah, I’ve got it.

This late old-timer is one of the few athletes who have been able to successfully cross over into a movie career. Born on January 21, 1926, in Glasgow, Montana, he became interested in bodybuilding as a teenager, and, after serving in World War II, he came home to win several bodybuilding titles, including Mr. America in 1947, Mr. World in 1948, and Mr. Universe in 1950. The cult film director Ed Wood cast him in his first movie role as a police officer. (Bonus question: What was the name of this film?) He then managed a small role as a muscleman in the 1954 musical "Athena". He made several other appearances on stage and television, with perhaps his most famous role being that of another legendary -- but, in this case, mythical -- strongman. Many famous actors and bodybuilders, among them Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, credit this man as being an inspiration to them. In addition, he was the favorite movie star of Dr. Frank-n-Furter (from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"). He died on May 1, 2000, at the age of 74. Who was this T-man?

The T-man you are referring to is Steve Reeves and the his first movie would be Jailbait. Great trivia keep 'em coming.

“Do or Do not there is no try” – Yoda

Dustin

I think the name is steve reeves who played tarzan? If not then it was Bill phillips who played cheetah.

Only the greatest ever…Steve Reeves…the true Hercules…and the movei…Jailbait

Steve Reeves. The film was “Jail Bait” in 1954.

Steve Reeves.Some old timers have said
that Steve tried testosterone.
Was he drug free?Anyone with “inside” info?

I’m happy to see that people were able to answer these questions so easily. Good job. As I did with my last profile (John Grimek), and as I intend to do each time, I’m going to add a little supplementary information my original Reeves bio… A little known fact about Steve Reeves is that he’s credited by many for being the first person to fully develop and popularize “power walking”. The genesis of Reeves’ adoption of this exercise form began during the 1959 filming of “The Last Days of Pompeii”, when his chariot brutally slammed into a tree, in the process dislocating his shoulder. Despite the intense pain, Reeves was able to set the shoulder back into its socket by himself. He continued with the movie; however, from then on, each stunt he performed injured the shoulder a bit more, until he was finally forced to end his film career. (Ancillary fact: Reeves returned to the west coast at this point, and, in 1963, he married a Polish countess, Aline Czarzawicz, and the two retired to a ranch in Southern California, where they began to raise horses. His wife later died of a stroke in 1989.) Due to the fact he could no longer work out with heavy weights, Reeves devised other methods of exercise. He became interested in “power walking”, his term for strenuous walking while swinging relatively heavy weights in either hand, and the exercise form became popular for a few years beyond that point. It later lost most of that popularity, only to be revived – in my opinion, in a mostly foo-foo form compared to Reeves’ original intent – during the aerobics craze of the late 70s and 80s. (Dustin: I’m going to try to ask a new trivia question every one or two weeks, but I won’t be posting a new one for a while because I’m going on vacation after today. Richie: I’ve never heard anything about Reeves juicing for bodybuilding purposes (although my not knowing doesn’t really mean much), and I don’t think the old-timers really ever had access to that sort of thing or even thought about it. I suppose it’s possible that he was prescribed test for hormone replacement therapy after going into andropause, but I intend to do the same thing myself some day so I can hardly judge him on that basis. In other words, it’s an interesting question, but I for one don’t know the answer, nor do I see his possible use of test as being necessarily negative even if it’s true.)