Steve Reeves

American physical culturist, a 6' 1" (1.85 m), 215-lb (98 kg) winner of the contests for Mr. America, 1947 and Mr. Universe, 1950. He became a star actor since 1953 in Italian muscle-man spectaculars such as "Goliath and the Barbarians," "The Giant of Marathon" and "The Thief of Baghdad." He was the epitome of "Hercules" in the series of films he made in the '50s and '60s.

Reeves began lifting weights when he was 16. An early sex symbol, he continued his muscular heroics until 1969 when he gratefully left some 20 movies behind to breed horses and raise his own food on his 14-acre organic farm in California. His wife, Aline, died in 1989.

His supplemental exercise was aerobic walking, which he described and promoted in his book "Power Walking."

Reeves died on 1 May 2000 aged 74 of lymphoma complications in Escondido, California.