Current Biography Excerpts: Bodybuilding

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LALANNE, JACKLALANNE, JACK
(luh-LAYN)
Sep. 26, 1914- Fitness expert; entrepreneur; television personality.

"I can't die. It would ruin my image," the octogenarian fitness enthusiast Jack LaLanne has said. Known to many as the host of television's longest-running exercise show, LaLanne, who turned eighty in September 1994, opened the nation's first health club in 1936. In 1974 there were eighty-five clubs bearing his name; by 1982 that number had grown to more than two hundred. Today, Jack LaLanne Holding Corporation's parent company, Bally Manufacturing Corporation, owns thirty-six subsidiaries. "I believe in moderation in everything that I do, except when it comes to exercise...," LaLanne told Gerald Secor Couzens for New York Newsday (March 26, 1988). "I never think about dying. Any dummy can die. That's easy. It takes guts to live. Life is a battle zone and only the fittest survive. If you can't find the time to take care of your most priceless possession, namely yourself, then you must really be sick. You have 640 different muscles in your body and they all need daily work."

The complete article can be found on the Current Biography CD-ROM and in the 1994 Current Biography Yearbook.

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SCHWARZENEGGER, ARNOLDSCHWARZENEGGER, ARNOLD
July 30, 1947- Actor; bodybuilder; entrepreneur; writer.

The world's most popular movie star is an Austrian-born ex-bodybuilder with the improbable name of Arnold Schwarzenegger. His unflagging toil, unquenchable self-confidence, and engaging, media-savvy personality have enabled him to emerge from an obscure Alpine village to become the most famous of all musclemen (he appeared on no fewer than five magazine covers in June 1990 alone). The first bodybuilder to parlay his vein-popping biceps into a viable film career, Schwarzenegger made ten films during the 1980s--including Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, Commando, and Predator--that took in a combined total of more than $1 billion worldwide at the box office. More recently, Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgment Day have proved that the Schwarzenegger appeal is as formidable as ever. An astute businessman who has invested his earnings in real estate, he has amassed a fortune estimated at $50 million and is one of the ten wealthiest entertainers in the United States.

"Sure, I make plenty of money," Schwarzenegger told David Friedman in an interview for New York News day (June 30, 1991), "but that's because, in this business, I'm like a stamp. I have a certain value, and it has to be respected. I certainly don't need the money anymore. It's like a game. It's not reality." Although Schwarzenegger is loath to analyze his success, others are not so reluctant. John Milius, who directed Conan the Barbarian, described him to Bill Zehme of Rolling Stone (August 22, 1991) as embodying "the Superior Man. Arnold is the Nietzschean man. There's something wonderfully primeval about him, harking back to the real basic foundational stuff: steel and strength and will." James Cameron, the director of the two Terminator movies, holds Schwarzenegger in equally high regard, as he told David Friedman: "Arnold has great presence, timing, and self-knowledge. For a lot of actors, acting is a very convoluted process. They don't know how to get from here to there, because they don't know where there' is. Arnold does. He's very intuitive. There's obviously a great synergy at work there--an amazing combination of physicality, warmth, menace, humor, and intelligence."

The complete article can be found on the Current Biography CD-ROM and in the 1991 Current Biography Yearbook.

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