Encyclopedia
Stephen L. Reeves , was an American
bodybuilder,
actor, and author.
Childhood
Born in
Glasgow, Montana, Steve Reeves moved to
California at the age of 10 with his mother Goldie, after his father Lester Dell Reeves died in a farming accident. Reeves developed an interest in
bodybuilding while in high school and trained at Ed Yarick's gym in
Oakland. By the time he was 17 he had developed a Herculean build, long before the rise in general interest in bodybuilding. After he was graduated from high school, he entered the Army during the latter part of
World War II and served in the Pacific.
Bodybuilding
Reeves won the following bodybuilding titles:
- 1946 - Mr. Pacific Coast
- 1947 - Mr. Western America
- 1947 - Mr. America
- 1948 - Mr. World
- 1950 - Mr. Universe
By his own account, his best cold measurements at the peak of his bodybuilding activity were:
- Height: 6 ft 1 in
- Weight: 216
- Neck: 18 1/2"
- Chest: 52"
- Waist: 29"
- Biceps: 18 1/4"
- Thighs: 26"
- Calves: 18 1/4"
Reeves was known for his "V-taper" and for the great width of his shoulders, which Armand Tanny once measured at 23 1/2" using outside
calipers.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's
Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding states:
By [the 1940s] the distinction between lifting weights purely for strength and training with weights to shape and proportion the body had been clearly made. ... However, bodybuilding still remained an obscure sport. No champion was known to the general public--that is, until Steve Reeves came along. Reeves was the right man in the right place at the right time. He was handsome, personable, and had a magnificent physique. Survivors from the
Muscle Beach era recall how crowds used to follow Reeves when he walked along the beach, and how people who knew nothing about him would simply stop and stare, awestruck.
Acting
After his WWII military service, Reeves decided to try his hand at acting, having been told endlessly that he had the rugged good looks of a
Hollywood star. After some intensive actor training, he came to the attention of film director
Cecil B. De Mille, who considered him for the part of
Samson in
Samson and Delilah . After a dispute over his physique in which De Mille and the studio wanted Reeves to lose 15 pounds of muscle, the part finally went to
Victor Mature.
In 1954 he had a co-starring role in his first major motion picture, the musical
Athena playing Debbie Reynolds' boyfriend. The same year Reeves had a small role as a cop in the
Ed Wood film
Jail Bait. This is one of the few opportunities to hear Reeves' voice as most of his later films were dubbed. Reeves' appearance in
Athena prompted Italian director Pietro Francisci's daughter to suggest him for the role of
Hercules in her father's upcoming movie. In 1957, Reeves went to
Italy and played the title character in Francisci's
Hercules, which was released in Italy in February of 1959 and in the U.S. in July of 1959. Following the U.S. release, the film was an enormous hit and created a new sub-genre of the
sword and sandal film : the 'Hercules' or 'strong man' movie. The film is now in
public domain and can be downloaded from the
Internet Archive.
From 1959 through 1964, Reeves went on to appear in a string of sword and sandal movies, and although he is best known for his portrayal of the Greek hero
Hercules, he played the character only twice - in the 1958 film
Hercules and the sequel
Hercules Unchained, known in the U.S....
. He played a number of other characters on screen, including Sir
Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's Glaucus of Pompeii; Goliath ;
Tatar hero Hadji Murad; Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome ; the famous Olympian and war-time messenger of the Battle of
Marathon, Pheidippides ; pirate and self-proclaimed governor of Jamaica Captain
Henry Morgan; and Karim, the Thief of Bagdad. Twice he played
Aeneas of
Troy and twice he played
Emilio Salgari's Malaysian hero, Sandokan.
Paramount considered Reeves for the title role of their film version of the
Broadway musical Li'l Abner was a comic strip [i] in United States [i] newspaper [i]s, featuring a fictional clan of ...
in 1958, but the part eventually went to Peter Palmer. After the box-office success of
Hercules, Reeves turned down a number of parts that subsequently made the careers of other actors. He was asked to star as '
James Bond' in
Dr. No is the sixth James Bond [i] novel by Ian Fleming [i], originally published in 1958 [i]...
, which he turned down. He also declined the role that finally went to
Clint Eastwood in
A Fistful of Dollars is a 1964 [i] film directed by Sergio Leone [i] and starring Clint Eastwood [i] ...
.
During the filming of
The Last Days of Pompeii was written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton [i] in 1834. ...
, Reeves dislocated his shoulder when his
chariot crashed into a tree. Reeves pulled the joint back into its socket by himself and chose to continue filming and performing his own stunts.
Swimming in a subsequent underwater escape scene he reinjured his shoulder. The injury would be aggravated by his stunt work in each successive film, ultimately leading him to retire early.
In 1968 Reeves appeared in his final film, a
spaghetti western which he also co-wrote, titled
A Long Ride From Hell, fulfilling his wish to make a Western before he retired. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe. His last screen appearance was in 2000 when he appeared as himself in the made-for-television
A&E Biography: Arnold Schwarzenegger - Flex Appeal.
Filmography
- Athena an MGM musical starring Debbie Reynolds, Jane Powell, and Edmund Purdom
- Jail Bait directed by Edward D. Wood Jr.
- Hercules aka The Labors of Hercules
- Hercules Unchained, known in the U.S....
aka Hercules and the Queen of Lydia - The Giant of Marathon aka The Battle of Marathon
- Goliath and the Barbarians aka Terror of the Barbarians
- The Last Days of Pompeii
- The White Warrior directed by Riccardo Freda
- Morgan, the Pirate
- The Thief of Baghdad
- Duel of the Titans aka Romulus and Remus
- The Trojan Horse aka The Trojan War
- The Avenger aka The Last Glory of Troy
- The Slave aka Son of Spartacus
- Sandokan The Great directed by Umberto Lenzi
- Pirates of Malaysia aka Pirates of the Seven Seas
- A Long Ride From Hell spaghetti western
Later life
Later in his life, Reeves promoted drug-free bodybuilding and bred horses. The last two decades of his life were spent in Valley Center , California. He bought a ranch with his savings and lived there with his second wife Aline until her death in 1989. On May 1 2000, Reeves died from complications of
lymphoma.
See also
Reference
- Chapman, David, "On The Cover: Steve Reeves", Hardgainer, November, 1992.
- In the song "Sweet Transvestite" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show Dr. Frank N. Furter suggests "an old Steve Reeves Movie" for something "Visual that's not too abysmal".
External links
- by Roy Frumkes, from The Perfect Vision Magazine Volume 6 Issue #22 July 1994
- --Account of how Reeves trained to prepare for the 1950 Mr. Universe competition at the York Barbell Club gym.
- at Find A Grave*
