Steve Reeves

This article is about the actor. For the computer scientist, see Steve Reeves (computer scientist).

Steve Reeves
Steve Reeves with bodybuilder Melissa Palmer
Born	January 21, 1926(1926-01-21) Glasgow, Montana, USA
Died	May 1, 2000(2000-05-01) (aged 74) Escondido, California, USA
Occupation	Athlete, Actor, Philanthropist. Bodybuilder Legend.
Spouse	Sandra Smith (1955–1956) Aline Czartjarwicz (1963–1989) (her death)

Stephen L. Reeves (January 21, 1926 – May 1, 2000) was an American bodybuilder and actor. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe.

Biography

Childhood

Born in Glasgow, Montana, Steve Reeves moved to California at age 10 with his mother Goldie Reeves, after his father Lester Dell Reeves died in a farming accident. Reeves developed an interest in bodybuilding in high school and trained at Ed Yarick's gym in Oakland. By the time he was 17, he had developed a Herculean physique, long before the general interest in bodybuilding. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Army during World War II, and served in the Pacific.

Acting

After his military service, Reeves invested in an acting career. In 1954 he had a small role in his first major motion picture, the musical Athena playing the boyfriend of Jane Powell's character. The same year Reeves had a small role as a cop in the Ed Wood film Jail Bait. These two films are the only ones Reeves made where his own voice was used — for the remainder of his career, Reeves acted in Italian-made films where all dialogue and sound effects were added in post-production.

On December 17, 1954, Reeves guest starred in the ABC sitcom with a variety show theme, The Ray Bolger Show. Ray Bolger portrayed Raymond Wallace, a song-and-dance man repeatedly barely on time for his performances. Reeves played a well-built office employee whom Wallace sees in the company of Wallace's girlfriend, Susan, played by Marjie Millar. Others on the series were Richard Erdman, Allyn Joslyn, Betty Lynn, Sylvia Lewis, Gloria Winters, and Verna Felton.

In 1957, Reeves went to Italy and played the lead character in Pietro Francisci's Hercules, a very low-budget epic based loosely on the tales of Jason and the Argonauts, though inserting Hercules into the lead role. The film was a major box-office success, grossing $5m in the United States alone.

From 1959 through 1964, Reeves went on to appear in a string of sword and sandal movies shot on relatively small budgets, and although he is best known for his portrayal of the Greek hero Hercules, he played the character only twice: in the 1957 film and its 1959 sequel Hercules Unchained (released in the US in 1960). He played a number of other characters on screen, including Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Glaucus of Pompeii; Goliath (also called Emiliano); Tatar hero Hadji Murad; Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome (opposite Gordon Scott as his twin brother Remus); the famous war-time messenger of the Battle of Marathon, Pheidippides (The Giant of Marathon); pirate and self-proclaimed governor of Jamaica, Captain Henry Morgan; and Karim, the Thief of Baghdad. Twice he played Aeneas of Troy and twice he played Emilio Salgari's Malaysian hero, Sandokan.

After the box office success of Hercules, Reeves turned down the role that finally went to Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) because he could not believe that "Italians could make a western". He also claimed to have turned down James Bond's role in Dr. No (1962).

During the filming of The Last Days of Pompeii, Reeves dislocated his shoulder when his chariot slammed into a tree. Swimming in a subsequent underwater escape scene, he re-injured his shoulder. The injury would be aggravated by his stunt work in each successive film, ultimately leading to his retirement from filmmaking and weightlifting.

In 1968 Reeves appeared in his final film, a spaghetti western that imitated the Sergio Leone epics, which he also co-wrote, titled A Long Ride From Hell. His last screen appearance was in 2000 when he appeared as himself in the made-for-television A&E Biography: Arnold Schwarzenegger - Flex Appeal.

In July 1997, Steve was interviewed by freelance writer, Rod Labbe. Entitled "Demi-god on Horseback," it ran as the cover story in Films of the Golden Age magazine #65, dated summer 2011.

Death

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, near Escondido. 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.

Filmography in chronological order

U.S. release title is followed by the English translation of the original Italian title in parentheses

• Jail Bait (1954) directed by Ed Wood
• Athena (1954) directed by Richard Thorpe
• Hercules (1958) (The Labors of Hercules)
• Hercules Unchained (1959) (Hercules and the Queen of Lydia)
• Goliath and the Barbarians (1959) (Terror of the Barbarians)
• The Giant of Marathon (1959) (The Battle of Marathon)
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) (The Last Days of Pompeii)
• The White Warrior (1959) (Hadji Murad, The White Devil) directed by Riccardo Freda
• Morgan, the Pirate (1960) (Morgan, the Pirate)
• The Thief of Baghdad (1961) (The Thief of Baghdad)
• The Trojan Horse (1961) (The Trojan War)
• Duel of the Titans (1961) (Romulus And Remus)
• The Avenger (1962) (The Legend Of Aeneas) released in England as The Last Glory of Troy
• The Slave (1962) (Son of Spartacus)
• Sandokan the Great (1963) (Sandokan, the Tiger of Mompracem) directed by Umberto Lenzi
• The Pirates of Malaysia (1964) (The Pirates of Malaysia, also known as Pirates of the Seven Seas) directed by Umberto Lenzi (sequel to the previous title, with Reeves again playing Sandokan)
• A Long Ride from Hell (1967) (I Live for Your Death) directed by Camillo Brazzoni

Reference in other Films

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Lyrics to "Sweet Transvestite" performed by Tim Curry.

See also

• List of male professional bodybuilders

References

• Chapman, David. "On The Cover: Steve Reeves", Hardgainer, November 1992.

External links

• An Interview with Steve Reeves by Roy Frumkes, from The Perfect Vision Magazine, Volume 6, Issue #22, July 1994
• How Steve Reeves Trained by John Grimek, Muscular Development November 1964, account of how Reeves trained to prepare for the 1950 Mr. Universe competition at the York Barbell Club gym
• Steve Reeves at the Internet Movie Database
• Steve Reeves at the Internet Broadway Database
• Steve Reeves at Find a Grave
• Feature Films: Hercules
• Feature Films: Hercules Unchained
• Steve Reeves Gallery