Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Vintage Bodybuilder as Gladiator

He looks like Reg Lewis but I doubt it's him. Can someone confirm or id him?

4 comments:

  1. I believe that's 1960's/70's bodybuilder & sometimes "actor", Dave Draper. He appeared on TV on The Monkees & The Beverly Hillbillies & in films such as "Don't Make Waves", with Tony Curtis & Claudia Cardinale.

    Don't think he ever made a actual peplum film & that this was just a costume for a publicity shot.

    Although, with his blond good looks & 21" arms, Dave would have made an imposing Hercules/Samson. Unfortunately, he wasn't a very good actor.

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  2. I don't think it's Draper because the photo looks more like early 1950s.

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  3. Sir, it is David Draper. The get-up that he is wearing is from a weekend show that took place during the afternoon in the L.A. market which was set up for showing peplum films that were exclusively bodybuilder based. I know this for sure because I religiously watched this program every week for at least a year, it seemed. Dave Draper was the set-up guy, who would give a synopsis of the film we were about to see, and then make brief comments after the commercials were done. However, this is a shot taken from one of the Weider magazines of that era. He never actually flexed during the show itself.

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  4. Thanks Steven. Jim was right. The photo is from a magazine Young Mr America.

    http://www.davedraper.com/mag-cover-mr-america-2.html

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