Find out who Arnold Schwarzenegger looked up to in bodybuilding as a young athlete. And how it helped him to become a great champion in bodybuilding. Arnold Schwarzenegger is known to every person on the planet. But the fact that he turned out to be only a wannabe of Steve Reeves, a bodybuilding star, is known to very few. It was Steve who first managed to combine bodybuilding and cinema. Unfortunately, this person is rarely remembered today. Now we will fix this situation by talking about Steve Reeves as a bodybuilding star.
Steve Reeves biography
Steve was born in a small town located in the state of Montana - Glasgow. This event took place in the winter of 1926. The father of the future star was a farmer and died in an accident when his son was not yet two years old. As a result, his wife Golden was left alone with a small child and a lack of prospects.
At the age of ten, Golden and Steve move to warm California, Oakland. The guy understands how hard it is for his mother and tries to help her, getting a job as a peddler of newspapers. Since Steve's work was associated with constant cycling, he already took care of his muscles at an early age.
Soon he began to engage in arm wrestling, and he did not have worthy rivals for a long time. But one day a boy appeared who was inferior to Steve in size, but easily defeated him in fights. The guys began to be friends and one day, walking into the backyard of his friend's house, Steve was very surprised that his friend was training with dumbbells. So the first acquaintance of our hero with strength training took place.
This process made a strong impression on the guy and soon they worked together. It was during this period that Steve was about to enter high school and, seeing that his muscles respond well to strength training, he decided to learn more about it.
We can say that Steve was lucky when he met Ed Yarik. This man owned the best gym in the world and also turned out to be an excellent coach. He almost immediately considered the potential inherent in the guy and took up his training in the wisdom of bodybuilding. This acquaintance became a turning point for the future star in his life.
Steve worked in the gym for two years and achieved significant results. However, war intervened in his life. Immediately after school, the guy goes to serve in the army and ends up in the Philippines. After the victorious end of hostilities, Steve returns to bodybuilding in the same hall and under the auspices of Yarik.
He works hard in training and gets back quickly enough in the form of winning the Pacific Coast Championship. This event happened in 1946. Already in the next goal, Steve is waiting for the next and greatest success in sports - a victory in the American Championship. Moreover, he becomes the Absolute Winner. This success did not go unnoticed and soon the famous director of that time Cecil De Mill, who specialized in the production of historical films, came into contact with Reeves. At that moment, he was just looking for a performer for the role of Samson, and Steve was the perfect candidate. The only thing De Mille didn't like was the weight of the athlete. On the proposal to get rid of the extra, according to the director, 20 pounds, Reeves refused, and as a result, Victor Mature starred in the film.
Steve, meanwhile, continued his hard work in the hall, and this work was once again rewarded with the champion titles of Mr. USA, Mr. World and Mr. Universe. This happened in 1948. Two years later, he again becomes Mister Universe.
All these titles made Hollywood turn its eyes to Reeves again. His first role in cinema was small, and this film debut took place in 1954 in the film "Athena". Three years later, Reeves finally gets his first leading role, which was worthy of his talent. True, this happened not in Hollywood, but in Italy, where he was offered to play Hercules in the film of the same name.
Note that Reeves continued training and might have been able to reach great heights in bodybuilding and cinema, if not for the shoulder joint injury received by the star during the shooting of the next film. This happened in 1959 on the set of the film "The Last Days of Pompeii".
However, this had to happen sooner or later, since Steve never used the services of stuntmen and performed all the stunts on his own. He was often injured, but this turned out to be the most serious and his career was over.
In 1963, Reeves returned to California and in 1963 he was married to Alina Kzarzavich, a Polish princess. After that, Steve bought a ranch and started breeding horses.
We have already said that the first successful film with the participation of Steve was the picture "The Feat of Hercules". It should be admitted that athletes have already starred in films before Steve, for example, Johnny Weissmuller, who at one time became the world champion in swimming. But it was Reeves who became the first bodybuilding actor. Steve made an indelible impression on the audience not only with the exploits of the famous mythology character, but also with his body, as well as his stunts. He became the first to bend a huge amount of iron on the screen. By 1959, this film was translated into a large number of languages and proved to be the sole leader of the worldwide distribution.
Then the roles began to pour on Reeves, as if from a cornucopia. Note that all the pictures in which Reeves starred were historical. This led to the fact that all over the world people have aroused interest in the ancient history and mythology of Ancient Rome and Greece. This is eloquently evidenced by the fact that in the United States, T-shirts with the image of Hercules have left Mickey Mouse far behind in terms of the number of sales.
Reeves was an unusually popular person, and he barely managed to step even a step in order not to get an autograph. Surely you will agree with the opinion that Arnie has never been a sex symbol for women, which cannot be said about Reeves. If Arnie personified masculine strength, then in Steve she was harmoniously combined with sexuality and great attractiveness.
In this regard, it must be said that the popularity of Reeves among the beautiful half of humanity was the main reason that prompted many men to start doing bodybuilding. In the United States alone, after the appearance on the screens of paintings with Reeves' participation, about 5 million men began to visit the halls!
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